Chronic Enema and the Potent Taco
I never would have thunk it, but my students LOVE learning new vocabulary. (And yes, I introduced the vocabulary unit using the word "gonna.") On the last vocabaulary list, the students requested that we do more words than I had initially intended to assign for them to learn. They also asked that I put Pig Latin on their vocabulary quiz. Today, vocabulary took a whole new twist. How I have it structured is as follows: I come up with 8 words that are in To Kill a Mockingbird that are also on the list of SAT words that most commonly appear on the SAT. Those words are guaranteed to appear on their vocabulary list. Then, each student finds two words that they are not familiar with or don't feel comfortable using in a sentence and contributes at least one of those words to our vocabulary list. Seems innocuous, right? Well, today, Ricky announces that his word is "eh-neema". I start to write "enigma" on the board and he says, "no, that's not it." So I ask, "Do you mean 'anemia'?" No. He starts to spell out "enema" for me. The older students giggle. The younger students look confused and then I made the poor decision to have him tell us his other word. It was one that someone else had already contributed so instead he reads the definition of "enema" aloud. When he gets to the word "rectum" I thought I was going to die from keeping a straight face at their antics. This is the same class that produced the quote, "Ah, we're just messin' witcha, Miss Gitto!" A whole class of my own Scout Finches.