back to back to back

My planning is almost over and the day will jump into full swing. I have lunch duty today and am just finishing monitoring a standardized test during my planning. Add to that a full teaching day, with me teaching bell to bell, back to back lessons for the remainder of the day and you can share in my joy.

I'm starting the kids on an autobiographical, reflective essay today. I think I've planned the assignment in the best way I possibly can, but who knows? I thought I'd done a good job explaining and practicing adjectives and adverbs with them, but at least 50% failed the quiz yesterday. I'm still mulling over how to handle the situation. I can't just leave it at failure--they have to know this stuff and this is the last time anyone will really spend time on it with them. With the changes in the SAT and college entrance exams, grammar knowledge is no longer optional. It's not enough for them to be able to write correctly (not to say that they do that either, but still). I just haven't come up with a good plan that will help them to really absorb the information.

On a more positive note, I've found a great online journal dedicated to short, creative nonfiction. It's called Brevity and it has loads of really wonderful, and of course, short, nonfiction. I found an essay there that perfectly modeled the structure and development I want the kids to implement. Plus, the works there are just good writing and enjoyable reading.