8.7

Usually it works out that I can just tweak and tune my upper level reading class so that the fifth and the eighth graders are working on their individual standards while reading the same book. Often the standards align and overlap each other very well, but 8.7 gave me a snag. 5.7 (for fifth grade) and 8.7 are very different and called for different performance tasks, so I had to separate the skills for a few days. For eighth grade, they have to basically compare and contrast the visual (play or movie) version of a book to the text. I was under the impression that The Hunger Games was coming out so they could watch that after they read the book, but it's not coming out until next year. I didn't want them to have to read a huge novel just for that one standard, so I gave Dylan the classic Velveteen Rabbit which he could read in class easily. Then it was on to the movie version. Well, Seth works downstairs with us and we were reading and writing simple sentences with the short 'o' sound. Hmmmm. I kept noticing that Seth could not tear his eyes off my iPad screen. At one point he put his hands up to shield his eyes from looking. "But Ms. Finn...it's so distracting!"

After about ten minutes, I threw in the towel.

Luckily I had a splitter!