Today's lesson is designed for a 45 minute duration as opposed to the usual 70 minute duration. This week is student-led conference week, which means we are on our minimum day schedule.
We return to vocabulary today, after taking a few weeks off as we closed out first trimester ("Disaggregate Pedagogy"?). This week's words have been gathered from the new focus of trimester two (memoir, rhetoric), chapters 1-9 of Bad Boy (rural, rote, integrate, orthodox, bevy, incursion), as well as the two types of poetry we focused on this week (sonnet, ode).
My students copy down the words and definitions, and have the option of copying down the sentences I have provided for them, most taken from Bad Boy, or of creating and sharing an original sentence with the whole class. I have not developed a vocabulary homework activity for this set of words, as most of these words have been on the board and discussed for the last two weeks, and my students already have a few assignments due for upcoming class sessions. By building in an activity in class (sentence development), my students are still given the opportunity to interact with the words beyond just copying down the definitions.
Whatever minutes are remaining in this, our last minimum day session, are devoted to homework deadline reviews (time remaining will vary from class to class, as some classes are more enthusiastic about developing and sharing original vocabulary sentences). The following activities will need attention over the weekend from my students:
Class closes with my addressing any questions or concerns about upcoming assignments and deadlines.