Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu~ (that's a long breath let out)

Today I decided to shake things up a bit. It's normally funday Friday, but it has been so long since we've been here on a Friday that I needed to have them work a little first.

I had my students write in their journals about "If you could read whatever book you wanted to, what kind of book would that be? Why?"

Anthony answered that "If I couldn't read a book about relaconsips (relationships)." He told me he wanted to read one about girls, mostly.

Emina wrote, "If I could reade whatever it would be about prombis." I think she meant problems.

Ensia wrote, "I would read about Ms. Franklin. because I would Love to no what u Love." She wrote me a note earlier this week that says,

"Dear Ms. Franklin.
Did u no that i Love u so much and that ur my hero. But me and u are like best friends. And I <3 that! I <3 u alot.

by: Enisa"

I was really touched by that note, and really humbled. I've never been anyone's hero before!

Adrijana wrote, "the book would be about Brenda future. Be cause I want to know how is it goin to be in the future of Brenda's life." Brenda wrote similarly about Adrijana. I thought that was clever, but it shows me no insight as to what she likes to read about!

Joseph wrote, "I would read king of the hill. I like it because it was so cool. I always because it is cool." That's one of our Read180 books, so I guess he'd like more stories about King of the Hill.

Seth explained that he "would read a book about skateboarding and Biking because those are my favorite things to do."

And Azra... "I would read about a girl that lost her family. and how she lost her family in the forest. because it would be fun to read." That seems so morbid and then funny that I didn't even know what to make of it!

Hatija told me that she doesn't really like to read at all because it comes so hard for her. So she doesn't know what kinds of books she's want to read. She threw something down on the paper: "I would read about love stiries." Hatija does like hearing about romance.

So, I read out a chapter of Bruce Coville's book, Oddly Enough. The chapter I read aloud was entitled "The Box," and it's about a boy named Michael who is given a box by an angel and is charged with keeping it safe for almost his whole life. I wanted them to inference and guess as to what is in the box because ultimately we never find out what's in it. Each class was absolutely enraptured with the story! It has suspense, and they are just dying to find out what on earth is inside of the box! On top of that, I got to do a couple of scary voices of those who are trying to steal the box from Michael, and the kids thought it was hilarious. The more I got into it, the more they got into it.

Second hour was convinced, in part of Terry, that it was most definitely a fairy or a baby angel. Haris D. asked me what page we stopped on so that he could read the book later. "I have to find out more!" he exclaimed, pacing until he decided to get onto a computer.

Third hour was convinced that it was THE angel in the box, or maybe even just some other angel. Ibrahim stated, "Maybe it's another life with his woman!"

Sixth hour was bored with the story, and only Fahrudin tried to guess. He thought it was an angel, and Saladin and Hatija went along with him. Angeles had no opinion. Fahrudin got so into the book that he and I ended up reading another chapter. He loved that book. I'm really glad that he did too, because it gave us something in common to talk about that is literary related.

Seventh hour was so into it that Adrijana asked me if I could read to them like I did today on Monday (the class emphatically agreed). Seth thought that it was a bright light. Erik thought it might be the stairway to get to heaven. Joseph thinks that it might be Michael's next life, and then Emina stated that it might be Michael's life started all over again.

It was really interesting to hear their ideas, because really, no one was wrong! We never find out what's in the box. : )