On Students Teaching....

For this year's grammar unit, I decided to do something different and borrowed a unit from a friend who teaches in Virginia: have the students teach each other about a particular grammar topic! What an awesome and revolutionary idea. Here's what happened today....

Dixie: "Okay, Jack and Jamie come to the board. Write 2 sentences using pronouns. One has to be nominative and one has to be objective. Underline the pronoun in your sentences."

Jamie: (writes on board) Justin Bieber loves Jamie.

Dixie: "There's no pronoun in that sentence."

Jamie: (erases "Jamie") Justin Bieber loves her.

Dixie: "Okay."

Jack: (writes on board) Justin Bieber loves him.

Me: "Guys, you wrote two sentences that look identical, so is it possible for one of those pronouns to be nominative and one to be objective?"

Jack: "Um, no."

Dixie: "You have to erase one of them."

Jamie: "Well, that's awkward."

Jack: (erases the second sentence. begins again.) Ryan Gosling li--

Me: "Nooope."

Jack: "But you didn't even know what I was going to say!"

Dixie: "The nominative has to be the subject, so if you start with 'Ryan Gosling,' then it's obviously not going to be the subject."

Jack: "Okay."

Kyle: (from the other side of the room) "Can I throw this away?" (holds up candy wrapper from prize he won five minutes ago)

Dixie: "Yeah, sure, throw it away!"

Zach: "Hey, Ms. Dixie? He's distracting me."

Dixie: "Oh my god. You guys. Pay attention."

Me: "Not so easy being the teacher, right?"

Dixie: "Ms. Sefcik--you have NO IDEA!"

(meanwhile, on the board)

Kevin: He likes to yell at his golden llama "Onwar Oishima!"

Dixie: "Okay, the game is over."

Kevin: "No, wait!"

Me: "Thank you, Kevin."

Dixie: "It's OVER!"

Jack: "I only got one piece of candy. Can I get some more?"

Dixie: "Animals. I give up."

Me: "ha. ha. ha."