Good-bye to Medieval days and Hello to Wanted Boy Writers

February 9 was the last day for the boys to finish their Medieval board games. Mr. Tilley gave them modeling clay to create pieces for their games, this way people can actually play them. Not all of the boys were able to finish their games, and make pieces. Jacob was one of the few that actually got to play his game. He and I almost finished the game, but time was up. Jacob was about to beat me anyway. I did notice that some of the boys did not want to play with others. Made me wonder if there are certain groups within the Boy Writer's Club? I wonder if this is the case, why that it has come about? This is something that I will continue to watch for. Other than noticing some of the kids not wanting to play with others, they all had a great time.
February 16 was the start of Derrick and Dustin's Wanted posters. The premise is to have the boys make wanted posters of themselves, as if they were from the old west. I think this is such a great idea, and a good way to use their creativity.
To introduce them to the new unit, Dustin lead a VTS session. They were all very excited to describe what was going on in the image. They made the connection that a crime took place, or that the man on the poster committed crimes. This is where the pick came in. Some thought it was an ax used to murder someone, but was finally established that it was a pick not used for murder. Some thought that there was a pack of cigarettes in the image, but some disputed this thought and concluded that it was a book because there was a name at the bottom, where an author's name would be found. Another thought that there were rocks, being cast upon the sun which turned them into gold. The finally conclusion was that the sun cannot turn rocks into gold, so the rocks were in fact gold. One student noticed that the poster was ripped, and crumpled like it had been taken from somewhere and thrown on the grown. No one put the pieces together to make a connection between the wanted poster, and the gold.
After the VTS, Mr. Tilley gave an example of what his wanted poster looked like, and gave the expectations of the boys while they were in the computer lab. The boys were really excited, and I'm not sure that they were completely focused on what Mr. Tilley was saying.
To make these posters, Mr. Tilley had everyone go to the computer lab where a template was made with each of the boys' pictures ready. Once everyone was logged on, they went through and filled out the information for the poster. They needed to come up with two nicknames, a birthdate, where they were from, and identifying features. I worked with a few of the boys in the lab, they were too excited about the idea of a wanted poster that it was hard for them to focus. They needed a lot of help with spelling, and I did my best to help them sound out the words. I did notice that most of them helped each other, which makes me think about my previous observation about the board games and how maybe it was just that day? But the boys seemed to get along and enjoyed thinking of fun names and descriptions of themselves. It was hard not to laugh with them! Chance wanted to be known as "Killer of the Killers" which sparked some copying from a few others. I told him that he should take it as a compliment, that cheered him up.
We did not get to finishing up the posters, and some still needed to finish their descriptions. Thursday will be a full day, but exciting and eventful nonetheless.