The Games They Play

Between now and March, Thursdays after school are devoted to preparing students for the writing assessment with "boot camp." We're working on all of the steps of the writing process and preparing for multiple choice questions about writing too. I choose to have small boot camps with only five students so we can really get focused to make improvements.

Here's some of the practicing we did last Thursday.


Okay. They are clearly off task. I try really hard to keep them in line but sometimes the after school silliness wins out, and we get off task. These two boys are taking turns flicking the top of the pop can until it falls off. Try it. It hurts.

Eventually we refocused (I had to take a couple pictures first). Then we brainstormed about expository and persuasive texts. Eventually we even outlined essays. The hardest part is convincing them that they have enough information stored in their brains to create five paragraphs.

Because they clearly have enough creative energy to come up with games like the one pictured above. It's all about harnessing their genius for good and not, well, stupidity.