It amazes me how much solid work you can get out of a sixth grade boy when he meets you in the Library for after school Study Hall versus what he gets done in a class of 24 students, many of whom are his friends.
The student in question is a Level 3 EL student, and does not currently receive Special Education services. It is very possible that he has undiagnosed ADHD because of the lack of focus and concentration he exhibits when he sits in the middle of a large group of students, right before lunch. Yet, here in the quiet of the Library after school, he is ready and willing to work.
First he got out the Figurative Language Study Guide for tomorrow’s summative test. He blew through that, with me reading the poems out loud so he could hear the Alliteration, and the Rhyme. But he correctly identified all of the figurative language phrases that he (and sometimes I) picked out of the poems. He knows the difference between Personification, Onomatopoeia, Imagery, Metaphor, and Simile,
Now he is compiling three of his Hundred Day Challenge writings to submit for that summative, along with a 50-word explanation of why he chose each one. (We won’t mention that there WERE only three pieces to choose from, one of which he just sat and composed today!)
Two out of three summatives are all but done, and the third outstanding one, a historical children’s story with illustration, is now made more concrete by my having shown him examples that his peers came up with. We sometimes forget how much help a few visual examples can be to some students. By the time he packed up his binder, after enjoying a few fun stories, I could see the gears of his thinking machine turning.
Here’s hoping he offloads a third summative assignment by the start of Spring Break!
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