It's All About Empathy

After reading chapters 11 and 12 in The Absolute Value of Mike over the weekend, we used Mike's plan to raise $40,000 to adopt Misha from Romania as a topic for discussion and empathy. How might it feel to be vastly out of your reach to do something you love?

How do people like Poppy and Moo make ends meet?

Connecting to our recent field trip to Overlook Farm at Heifer International's MA site, today we explored how people struggle to make ends meet, and we brainstormed what we might do if we were in their shoes.

First, we used two-column notes to explore what Mike is doing to try and help raise the $40,000 to bring Misha from Romania to Karen, in Pennsylvania.

Then, I shared a personal story about my time in England with family and the difficulty of making ends meet.

Subsequently, we transitioned from literature to life. How would you fare if you were in Mike's shoes? What ideas would you craft to try to make ends meet and raise the $40,000?

Below are two examples from two classes on the ideas you generated for both Mike and for yourself:

I admire the ways in which you tried to empathize with the characters, and how you tried to see life from their perspective!

For homework tonight, we are reading Chapters 13 and 14 in The Absolute Value of Mike (pp. 107 - 122). 

Our word of the day today is SEGUE, which is a verb that means: to transition smoothly. Here is an example of the word in a sentence: A great writer knows how to segue from one idea to another.

Have an awesome rest of your day!

Peace,

Mr. R

Ideal? Or Real?

Today, we explored the parents we see populating the pages of The Absolute Value of Mike. We explored and discussed Poppy, Moo, Mike's Dad (James), Mike's Mom, Karen, and Gladys's parents. With each parent, we tried to think about the iceberg, and what might be going on beneath the surface and why these parents act the way they do.

I really appreciated all your insightful comments--and how you used the text to support your ideas and inferences!

We also did a Quick Write from the prompt, The best parent would... You wrote for six minutes without picking your pens up off the page, and we encouraged tangents and let our gooey, mushy brains take our hands wherever they wanted to go!

Towards the end of class, in pairs, you each created a list of seven attributes you believed an ideal parent would possess. Then, we discussed how those apply (or do not apply) to the parents in Mike. Finally, we wondered as a class whether the ideal was even possible--or whether we all deal with the real, while we constantly grow and yearn for the ideal.

Our word for the day was SEGUE, which means to make a smooth transition from one topic to another (verb). An example of the word in a line would be: Harold began by talking about honey and then segued into a discussion of why he loves bees.

Have a great night, and remember that Draft # 2 of your short stories are due tomorrow. Be sure to staple the first draft on the back, and include the cover page (here's the link to how to do your cover page, in case you need a refresher). 

Rock on!