Class Number Three

Tonight's class was a busy one.  We had some great full-class discussions about our readings, although I do enjoy the small group discussions as well.  I'm happy with a mix, I guess.  The best idea I got from the discussion was pairing Delirium with Romeo and Juliet. As a ninth grade English teacher, I think that is a great idea.  I believe the discussions the book would open up would be amazing.  I will have to talk to my media specialist about getting some copies of the book so I can give it a try. Anyway, we also had a great presentation from the fantasy group which confirmed some of the issues I had with choosing a book for that section--there's just so much overlap.  What's supernatural? What's fantasy? What's horror?  Some books are all three.  The lines are just gray, and I thought the triple Venn activity was a great way to show that.  We also had our poetry slam, which was a lot of fun.  Food makes any activity better, of course, but it was fun guessing who wrote each poem.  It was also interesting which poems we could identify right away and which ones took a few more guesses.  I liked, too, having everyone share an additional poem.  As an English teacher, it's always good to hear new poems that I could share with my students.  At my former school, we had a poetry festival every April that ended with a poetry slam.  It was a huge success every year, and I hope to do something similar when I'm in my own library.  Perhaps I can even work something out at my own school this year.  Sharing the comic strips was great, too.  That's a teaching tool that I rarely use, and it was a good reminder that I should pull some out occasionally, even if it's just for fun.