Learning Through Liverwurst

The kids don’t know it yet, but today they will be treated to a sample of liverwurst as part of a lesson on making and confirming predictions. They will discuss and write about what they think of the whole experience in a lovely combination of science and literacy standards. “Why liverwurst?” you ask.  Good question. And no, it’s not because I have some strange idea about what nine year olds really like.

The kids can blame, or thank (depending on their reaction) Tucker Mouse, the creation of George Selden, from the beloved kids’ book The Cricket in Times Square. They have been reading an excerpt from it this week, and most of them have no experience with the delicacy that Tucker describes. My teammate has used this lesson for years, and it makes a big impact on kids, whether they enjoy it or not. It’s also a great reminder for them that we each have our own tastes and preferences, and we need to be respectful of one another regardless of these preferences.

I’m looking forward to the lesson and the looks on the kids’ faces as they experience something new today. And this, my friends, will certainly not be on the test.

 

We Survived the Assessment!

I was really proud of the students as I walked around during their writing assessment this week. As you will recall, I was a little nervous about the whole thing, but I think that most of the kids accepted the challenge head on and wrote their little hearts out.

I can’t share their prompt with you, but it was one that I’m sure they all understood and felt comfortable writing about. It was an opinion piece, which, in my opinion, was a good thing. They tend to be pretty good at those.

We don’t score our own students on these, so I haven’t actually read them yet. I do have their rough drafts, though, and I intend to spend some time with those, studying what it is that they need the most instruction in and practice on.

For now I’m satisfied that they followed the steps they learned to organize and construct their responses. They are learning, and I couldn’t be more proud of them.