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This post is a continuation of The Poet X-Part 1.
The Poet X Part 2
(Virtual Instruction)
For the second part of The Poet X, I wanted kids to read more of the story on their own. This only worked a little bit, but I was ambitious at the beginning of the part and had them read a bit on their own. Mostly, we ended up listening to it together, stopping to do some small activities along the way. I was really pushing to cover some ground/pages during this part of the story since we moved very slowly with Part 1 (and I could have (should have) moved even slower!)
Day 1
"Smoke Parks" - "What I Didn't Say to Caridad in Confirmation Class"
After doing a review Kahoot of Part 1, I asked the kids to read "Smoke Park" - "What I did not tell Caridad in confirmation class" by themselves, and then complete this small double entry journal:
Day 2
The next day, I warmed up the class by having everyone share out their favorite corny joke. I honestly thought this was an awesome idea, but asking my students to speak out loud is like asking me to stop wearing gold glitter on my nails since I am well past the age of 14 (NOPE). Even though all they had to do was look up a corny joke and recite it, it still took forever. I never let them off the hook, though, because I am a stubborn and literally no one can out-stubborn me, not even a sullen 14-year-old.
After the warm up, we went over some of the vocabulary that would come up in the next section. I put the Poet X Part 2 vocab words in a Nearpod and had the kids draw each word. This activity was hilarious and a much needed salve after the stupid corny joke warm up that only I found fun (but mostly frustrating).
-Vocabulary/term drawings
Eve's Apple
genesis
parable
temptation
obligated
confidentiality
solace
After previewing the vocabulary, we listed to listen to next section of The Poet X: "Lectures"-"Answers."
Afterwards I had students summarize the section and use at least 5 of our vocabulary words from today in the summary.
Day 3
For day three, I should have reviewed the previous day’s passage, but I didn’t. (Note to self for next year.)
Instead, I just jumped right in and asked the kids a few questions about biographies, since the section we were going to listen to were about Xiomara’s biography. I asked the kids the following and had one enthusiastic kid (maybe two, if I was lucky) answer:
What is a biography?
What are the features of a biography?
How do you know when something is a biography?
What biographies have you read?
We then listened to: "Rough Draft Assignment 2-Last Paragraphs of My Biography" (pages 126 & 127 of book), where Xiomara describes the biography she submitted to her teacher, and then the one she would have really liked to write.
Lastly, in the ultimate act of torture, I asked students to write their biography in five years, either in poetry or prose. Here was the prompt that I posted on Canvas with the requirements:
Prompt: Write the last 4 stanzas of the last two paragraphs of your biography in five years. In other words, think about where you will be in 5 years, and then write about it as if someone else was writing about you.
Requirements:
It needs to sound like a biography, like someone else wrote it, so you must use 3rd person.
You must write 4 stanzas or two developed paragraphs.
Check your capital letters and your periods. Have a teacher check your writing before submitting.
Day 4
I started Day 4 by asking the kids to share out, out loud or in the chat, what they did over break. We had just returned from Thanksgiving break so I wanted to check in. After about two minutes of complete silence only rivaled by Yellowstone in winter, I went through the roster and made the children share out something they did. They mostly slept, ate stuff, and “I don’t know.” Whatever that is.
After the amazing classroom bonding of the warm up, I summarized where we left off in the story since it had been awhile.
My speech: “We left off with Xiomara starting a relationship with Aman, a boy in her science class, and also questioning what she was learning in religion class. Part 2 of the book is all about her relationship with Aman, so before we read anymore, we are going to first learn about the characteristics of a healthy relationship so that we can talk about Aman and Xiomara's relationship.”
After the speech, I asked students to get a sheet of looseleaf so that they could take notes. I had to explain that looseleaf was actual line paper and NOTES were things that you wrote down on the paper. I asked students to do the following:
Task: Read this website and on your looseleaf, write down the "7 C's" of a healthy relationship. Write down a few words explaining each. You will either submit your notes on Canvas by taking a picture of them and uploading them or sharing your screen and showing them to us.
I gave the kids 15 minutes to complete the task, but it took the whole period because, in reality, I was like “Okay! You have 15 minutes to complete the task. Do you have any questions? Ask me questions!! What questions do you have?” *No questions* and then after the 15 minutes, I was like “Okay! Submit those notes!”...and then that’s what the kids turned on their mic to be like “Wait what are we doing....?” So basically after banging my head on my keyboard for 40 minutes, we (my co teacher and I), got all the kids sorted away and notes submitted.
Day 5
"Talking Church"-"At My Train Stop"
Today we began class by reviewing the “7 C’s of a Healthy Relationship” by completing a matching activity in a Nearpod, and I explained the assignment that they would have to do after reading/listening to the next section.
We then listened to " "Talking Church"-"At My Train Stop" with the Audible version of The Poet X.
For the closing activity, I asked students to fill in this chart:
Day 6
Before today’s reading, I said the following to the kids: "The author has been dropping a lot of hints about Twin and stuff that is going on with him at school. Listen for clues about Twin and after today's reading I will ask you why you think Twin has a black eye.”
We then listened to the next chunk of pages, "What I Don't Tell Aman" through "Braiding."
To close, I had the kids fill in a Google form with their guess about what was going on with Twin at school. I cannot find my original form, but basically I made a Google form and asked the students for their name and for a prediction about what was going on in Twin's life.
Day 7
Today I opened the lesson by having everyone share out guesses about Twin. Even though it is usually hard for me to get to kids to talk, they were pretty good about jumping in for this question. They had a few different ideas so it was a fun way to build anticipation for today’s reading.
Next. we listed to just enough pages to figure out what was going on with Twin at school and how Xiomara felt about it ("Fights"-"Feeling Off When Twin is Mad")
I then showed the students the GLADD website and looked through it with them. We specifically looks at some of the resources on how to be an ally, and I told them to use that advice to give Xiomara advice on how to handle what she just learned about Twin. The assignment sheet is here:
Day 8
My notes from this day say “I was not exactly sure what to do with this section,” so I ended up just having the kids listen to a big chunk of the book, make a prediction, and they played enough for the kids to see if their predictions came true. It is actually a confusing section because Xiomara is getting punished but it’s written in a way that is hard for kids to follow right off the bat. Next year I will probably focus this lesson on helping kids to comprehend what’s going on in the passage.
This year, I played the audiobook from "Rough Draft of Assignment 3" - "This Body on Fire."
Then I stopped the audiobook and on a Google form, which I linked in the chat, I asked the students to “predict how Mami will react when she finds out about Aman.”
I tried to stop the lesson there but the kids didn’t want to leave on a cliffhanger (music to MY ears!), so we kept going and listened for a while...basically through to the end of Xiomara’s punishment. ("The Shit & The Fan" - "The Last Thing You Think..."
Day 9
Finish Part 2 of The Poet X
We began this day by reviewing the 7C's of a healthy relationship. To do this, I asked kids to use Google draw or another comic tool, and draw a comic that showed their understanding of their assigned 7C. They then had to put it on a class Google Presentation with their name.
For me, this particular lesson was on the last day before Christmas break, so I wanted to wrap up Part 2 before everyone went home for two weeks.
I had the students finish listening to Part 2 of The Poet X, and then I had them Respond to one question on our class discussion board (on Canvas) in 3-4 sentences.
Discussion Board Questions & Directions:
1. Why did Xiomara get mad at Aman and Was it right for Xiomara to get mad at Aman? Explain your answer.
2. Which of the 7C's is missing from Xiomara and Aman's relationship, Xiomara & Twin's relationship, or Xiomara and Caridad's relationship right now? Explain your answer.
3. How did you feel about Mami's response to catching Xiomara kissing Aman? Is her punishment fair? How do you think Mami should have reacted instead?
After posting their initial answer, they had to respond to 1 peer by developing their idea with another example or detail from the story.
No: I agree
YES: I agree because early in the story, Xiomara said that...blah blah blah.
This was a fun way to wrap everything before break and gave us a starting point for when we returned.
I hope you have enjoyed this free unit for The Poet X. The last part of the unit is continued here:
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