LET'S EAT GRANDMA!

This year I am teaching Langugage Arts to 3rd Grade students. Ideally, this would be my dream job since I love writing, I love teaching and I especially love not being responsible for a TAKS (now STAAR) test.

It has been an educational eye opener to teach language. With math, the information is so concrete - you either get it or you don't... and if you don't, perhaps you will understand this method, which brings you to the same answer anyhow. With Language Arts, it's much more strict. Commas go where they are supposed to, and ending punctuation is very important.

Recently on Pinterest I saw an image that said LET'S EAT GRANDMA! Then directly underneath this, it said LET'S EAT, GRANDMA! Boy, what a difference one comma can make :) Sharing a meal with Grandma versus sharing Grandma as a meal.

As I have not been the most diligent blogger, mainly because I am not ever sure what I want to talk about... I decided I can at least entertain the masses with some of the hysterics that happen in 3rd Grade, Room 8.

Last week we were working on an assignment involving characterization. I did this with my high school sophomores during student teaching, but I decided I would adapt it to fit the needs of 3rd Grade writing. Anyhow, the assignment specifically stated that students needed to write out a plot that included a climax and and ending involving a fictional character.

One of my precious 3rd Graders brings her paper to me. This particular student is an excellent writer over all, but occasionally she gets in a hurry. She had completed the assignment with success, but when I read the ending, I was a bit alarmed... It said: "So the boy's step-dad died in a car wreck and his mom got a disease and also died. The boy had to go live with his Grandma and they got married."

I asked her, "Wait a second, he married his GRANDMA?"

Instantly, I thought of LET'S EAT GRANDMA!! I nearly laughed hysterically, because I just happened to know this student's Grandma, and I knew that she must've been thinking of someone else and just wrote it down. Definitely a lesson in proofreading learned there.

The Joys of 3rd Grade :)