Using Classroom Strategies

This past week I have been using "Perspectives on Characters," a classroom strategy that I completed for my second mini lesson.  My students didn't really catch on at first, but after many model sessions and five chapters of the novel we're reading, Farewell to Manzanar, they finally caught on and began to think for themselves and empathize with their character.  Our story is about a Japanese family in an internment camp close to Death Valley.  I felt like we as a student/teacher team were penguins in that desert, but when we finally caught on, we found our way back home.  It was a nice metaphorical feeling.  We finished the graphic organizers up today, so it was on my mind.  One of my students danced around the classroom when I told them we were finished.  I called him, "Happy Feet."  It was rather funny.