Day 31

So some squirrely little jerk got into my desk drawer and stole some Reesee's Peanut Cups I use for rewards. I had a pretty good idea who it was, as I'd seen him lurking around my desk at one point last week. Friday we were beginning a unit on literary analysis, and the first skill was character traits.

Here was my warm-up question. It was on the overhead projector when the kids came into class:

Answer ONE of the following:

What kind of person would go into Mr. G's desk and steal his Reesee's Cups?

OR

What kind of person would stay after school and help Mr. G clean up his room?

The responses were hilarious. Before I even started the class, the kid who'd done the deed was asking if he could stay after school and help me clean my room. When I sat down to read the answers I was thinking I'd get adjectives/character traits--that was my goal all along. We'll be analyzing characters in stories based in part on their actions, and I wanted the kids to warm-up with a real-life example. I figured I'd get words like "petty, thievin', trifflin', mean, cowardly,"* etc. But about 90% of the responses were "A kid named Gordan. A boy named Gordon. Gordon A. A stupid boy AKA Gordan. A jerk named Gordan." No one answered the second question.

I knew it was him all along. Apparently the "snitches get stitches" code in B'more has not trickled down to sixth graders at the Book.

*one kid wrote "diabetic."