My first vocabulary collection assignment

It is very frustrating to get excited about a lesson that does not turn out as planned. I spent two days explicitly teaching the vocabulary collection assignment. We went over step-by-step instructions. I provided examples of my own, and we went through a gradual release of responsibility set of examples together. 

For starters, only about half of my students turned the first student assignment in. I understand that this is because I gave it as homework, and homework is a disaster in today's classroom. Secondly, out of those who did turn the work in, most did not follow the instructions. Labels were missing. Similes were analogies. Haiku had too many syllables. Rhyming poems did not. Thirdly, some work was so sloppy (meaning it was done the class period before) I could not even read it. And this is with two days, tutoring time, and instant messenger access to me. 

I do have some gems like the following, but these are few and far between:

So what to do? I am not ready to give up on this assignment, but there are clearly issues with understanding. And using it for homework is not going to work.

We are missing today due to weather, and Tuesday and Wednesday, we are in district testing shutdowns. That means I will not even see my students for class until Thursday and Friday, and then we go on spring break. Doing the assignment this week will not work. 

After spring break, I am out of my class for three days for state ESL testing. I will only be in the classroom on Monday and Friday, leaving me with these thoughts: Every Friday, we have enrichment day. That means shortened classes to add an extra period to the day. After spring break, I am going to try this assignment on Fridays in class where I can monitor the work and students can ask questions. We are very close to testing season, and once exams start passing by, kids think school is over. I want to continue focusing on academic vocabulary to help them understand we are still doing academic work. 

Right now, I need to grade what is left without feeling beat down (sigh). 

Vocabulary Collectors: Day 2 - Moving beyond definitions

Last week, as we continued through our practice round of vocabulary collecting, I moved beyond definitions and brief products to synthesis. And boy, did my kids groan. In my world, groaning equals "I ROCK!"

Each class group was working together to decide which class and which term they wanted to use (and this backfired on them in the end). We went through the vocabulary collection process in I do/We do/You do fashion. They insisted they had the hang of it after three words. 

That's when I slammed them with this: Ok, if you have it, show it. I want you to write a five sentence story using the three words your class came up with. 

They were not happy with me, but they did it, and they did it well. Not every paragraph made the most sense, but is was a bit difficult to make some of the words work together. 

The samples below are from different classes, so you will see different words used. 

This week, the kids are on their own. I am keeping my fingers crossed.