"...And Now I'm in 7th Grade!"

When I picked “The Cat Ate My Gymsuit” to teach, I didn’t realize that would be so full of lessons that I could lift off the page and bring into real life! I must be a genius. Or maybe Paula Danziger is. The point is that since Ms. Finney (from the book) is the new English teacher with wacky ideas and teaching methods, this means that I can almost take advice from Ms. Finney in my own classroom!

Chapters 3 and 4 of “The Cat Ate My Gymsuit” address Ms. Finney’s first classroom discussion- communication. “Ms. Finney said that to communicate is to begin to understand ourselves and others”, Marcy explains at the beginning of Chapter 3. Once I read that, I knew I could do something with it- especially for my shy students.  Here’s the plan:

OBJECTIVE: To build a sense of “community” in the classroom, so students feel more comfortable with the idea of “communication”

MATERIALS: Pen and paper

ACTIVITY: “And now I’m in 7^th grade”

Ask the students to arrange themselves in a line by birthdays. Once in the line, have them turn to the person on their left or right- this is their new partner. This also breaks up cliques.

With one minute each, have the pairs take turns talking about their lives up to this point. The only rule is that the last sentence must be “…and now I’m in 7^th grade.” Once each student has shared their story, have the group reconvene and give them the next instruction.

Using what they know about their partner, give them one of 3 options: they can write a haiku poem, a facebook status, or draw a picture of the story of their partner. I’m trying to appeal to multiple intelligences here, so I hope that offering more than one option will satisfy the majority of the students. Allow 5 minutes for this activity, then share the poems, statuses, or pictures.

Close with a discussion- how it feel to have your story read out loud by another person? Do you feel like you know something now about someone else that you didn’t before? Segue the discussion into Ms. Finney’s philosophy on “communication”, and assign chapter 3 and 4 for homework.

            Ok, lesson plan number 2 is finished! I'm really hoping that since my students will have already seen me act like "Marcy Lewis" in the previous class, they'll feel more comfortable around me, and in turn, more comfortable engaging in my activities. Something that's always worked for me is showing students my silly/awkward side. It's usually worked in the past to put people at ease. Enjoy, everyone, and as always- comments/concerns/questions/suggestions are appreciated! Thanks!