April First Foolhardy? Try NuSpell on your Students
Students have a sense of humor that is commensurate with their age. And, some of your colleagues failed to grow up. So, expect April Fools jokes to be rampant on the "Day that Pranks Begot!"
But, there are instructional ways to turn the tables on your rambunctious, "carried away by the mirth of it," students…teach them a lesson that they won't soon forget.
Sidebar
Wouldn't it be "loverly" [sic] if all lessons were ones that our students didn't soon forget.
Wishful dreaming?
Your strategy for "hot-seat role reversal" is to deliver a lesson on "NuSpell." Yes, there is such a thing, and the proof is online.
Visit the NuSpell Site
NuSpell Bingo Game
Link to the evolution of the alphabet
Poor Little Sick Boy Story
Link to the Hogs Time Article
And what to do for an encore?
Let students recite the "Dearest Creature of Creation" Poem for special April First Prizes.
Link to the Dearest Creature of Creation Poem…
Be sure to preview and practice reciting this poem yourself. And, look up the pronunciation of the words that you don't know, otherwise the joke will be on you.
One great method for introducing this poem is to offer a "nice prize," say $5.00 to any student that can recite the poem all the way through without errors. Another strategy is to offer a consolation prize of $1.00 to the student that gets the farthest through the poem without making a mistake.
And, what great math lessons in:
- Creating graphs of how far each student gets in the poem, by either words or lines
- Sorting lists of the missed words and creating sets of those categories
- Creating statistics of performance of teams, i.e.,
- boys vs. girls
- groups based upon hair color
- student height
- Groups based upon affiliation such as, "Jocks, Geeks, Cheerleaders, Teacher's Pets, Eggheads, etc.
Just prepare ahead of time, and watch the fun.
Oh! And be sure to wear green to keep from being pinched.
