We continued reading Memory Boy this week. The kids have adjusted, finally, to the Lit Circle discussion formats. The students have adjusted to our new routine: each day they talk for 5-10 minutes with their Lit Circles about the previous day's reading, they get a new worksheet from me, they complete the worksheet while reading the day's assignment, and then they prepare for discussions the next day. I've also prepared study guides for the students to complete which they are allowed to use on our upcoming test. These study guides and reading worksheets have once again reminded me of the achievement gap which exist among my students. I find myself struggling between assigning additional work in order to remedy the non stop chatter of students who get through their reading assignments and worksheets quickly- these are my high achieving students and I want to present each of them with a challenge. But on the other hand I have plenty of students who are doing their best to just barely keep their head above water. Ms. Luby suggests offering more assignments to fix this problem, but what do I do about the students who can't keep up?
Another new lesson which I was introduced to this week was in regard to Knowledge Bowl. I volunteered and judged at this Thursday's Knowledge Bowl, which Bemidji hosted. I haven't found myself extremely interested in the activity throughout the last few months, it's fun but not necessarily an activity I'm passionate about, but watching a meet in action helped to light a spark for me. I enjoyed watching the kids compete, challenge themselves, and often unveil unknown strengths as they advanced from round to round. It was definitely a worthwhile evening.
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