So Close...

I recently had my students complete a large project.  It had many parts, all revolving around a list of books, from which they had to choose one and read it.  Then, they had to do a list of different activities.  They culmination was a book report, in which they were supposed to give me a short summary of the book, and then spend the rest of their time telling me about why they liked the book, or why they didn’t like the book.

Generally, grading 6^th grade essays are an exercise in frustration, since they don’t really write very well yet, for the most part.  They haven’t gotten to the point where they have an essay every other week or so, like they start to do in 7^th and 8^th, and up until now, almost all of their writing is focused around narrative writing.  Getting them to write a non-fiction work is like pulling teeth… teeth that aren’t ready to be pulled!

 

For the most part, I work throughout the year on sneaking in the expository writing, by having them respond to quotes or writing prompts on a daily basis as bellwork, instead of saying, “Okay, students, today you’re going to be writing an essay!”  Avoiding the word helps to avoid the negative attitudes that go hand-in-hand with writing essays… at least until they get wise to my tricks, which generally lasts me until well after Christmas. 

Many of the students turn in something that looks gorgeous, since it’s required that their essay is typed, size 12 font, and double-spaced.  I love getting a pristine stack of essays from the children; looking for the ones who put it in a pretty little binder thing, or which kid used a pretty font or fun paper.  

Then I start to dive into their words, and the prettiness goes away. 

Some gems I have come across in this set:

 

• “the baby sister likes to use the bathroom in her dipper.”  - I can only assume she means diaper.  Yet, I wonder what caused the student to come to the conclusion that the baby likes going to the bathroom in her ‘dipper.’ I didn’t think babies had much choice, myself.
• “My opinion of the book is that the book is a good book and keeps your mind wanting more and more.” – So generic.  They didn’t even mention the characters once.
• “She goes to the wedding and instead of saying the valves and stuff you sing everything.”  - Valves of your heart?  I guess marriage is a joining of the heart.  Sort of.
• “Billy begs his parents for puppies, but they can’t afford it because this was during the great expression.”  - I wonder what they were expressing?  Discontent, surely, since it was set during the Great Depression, but they didn’t specify.
• “A Third is a child who is a third child in a family and third children aren’t allowed so to be a Third (the third child born in a family) is dangerous.” – I think that they just liked the word “third.”

 

Thank goodness there’s not that much school left this year!  I am sure that I can’t survive one more essay.

 But the thought that gets me the most is that the kids are writing astronomically better than when they arrived in 6^th at the beginning of the year.  So next year, I’ll start all over.

 Sometimes I am so excited about that thought.  Sometimes, not so much.

 Oh, well.  I am glad I’m still going to be with 6^th grade next year.  As terribly as they write and as often as they cry, I do love them the best.

Now, if I can just survive the last half of the last 9 weeks, we’ll be getting somewhere.