So this Rarely Happens...

Rarely do my 7th hour, 5th grade group come into the library ready to work.  It's the end of the day and they are finished, finished, finished.  This hour is given to them to help them make the transition to middle school.  It's an hour where they can have a homeroom type atmosphere and I can help them get organized with homework, they can get anything they may have left in their lockers, or have free reading time.  Usually, when they enter the library, I here all kinds of things like, "What are we going to do?"  Or,  "Can we have free time?"  But today, oddly, when they came in I said, "You have two options:  Poetry notebook or Book report."  They went right to work. Crazy, I know. 

When I said those two things, they knew immediately that I had been chatting with the middle school ELA teacher and that there were deadlines looming ahead.  Throughout the year I have battled them over deadlines and becoming responsible and really just using this time to work thoughtfully.  Are they listening, finally?  

We have been working on poetry all week.  I have been showing them examples of Poetry Slams and kids writing poems.  We have investigated all the poetry books in the library (I need more, by the way!)   I always try to connect what they are doing in class to something in the library and I'm taking this opportunity to teach them a little about free verse and how they too can put together a poem without a formula.  

I am very proud of the progress we have made this year.  Personally, I think 5th grade is really too young for middle school and switching classes every hour.  But, I get it.  In order to make our staffing ratio's work out we have gone to a 5-8 middle school.  They adapt ok. However, this is the time of the year when I see them truly get the concept of middle school.  They grow up.