Expect the Unexpected.

There is one student who has taught me this lesson for the second week in a row. And it's a great lesson to learn again and again!

This particular student has an IEP and is normally sitting in the back of the room in the beginning of class, working on a separate curriculum with an instructional assistant. But when I am reading the novel aloud, he promptly logs off the computer and turns to face me. He stares at me with the eyes of rapture, but he quickly averts his eyes when I chance a glance in his direction. I should never know that he is actually listening and listening attentively.

Last week we were reading A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L'Engle, and we stopped as we normally do at the end of each chapter to discuss some questions or elements from the novel. When I asked the question, "What three faults of Meg's were identified in this chapter?" the rest of the students sat and thought for a minute.

It was _________ who chimed up and said, "Anger, impadence and, and dhh."

"Yes,___________! It was anger and impatience and what else did they mention in the book?" Woohoo! How exciting! And OH MY GOSH! The rest of the students sat for a second and marveled at the student and he got a bit embarrassed. At this, I continued to prompt the rest of the class to come up with the last one, which they did through checking back through the text.

But first, there were many congratulations spoken to _____________!

There's the first anecdote for the title of this quote. The second event came today.

Again, we were reading A Wrinkle in Time and we are into some of the final chapters. All of the student participate in a word studies in order to be the "pros" for a particular word we will meet throughout the chapter.

Well, one word came up that no one had completed in a word study. So, I turned to the class and asked them what the word "perplexity" might mean. They shot out many answers such as afraid, and nervous and sad, but none of them were spot on. So, I was about to ask them to look up the definition in the dictionaries spread throughout the tables in the classroom, when an instructional aid near ____________ made the mime gesture to me that I should call on this student. It should be noted that she was not sitting close enough to give an answer or prompt him. I called on the student and he said, "Confused. It means confused!"

So, again I repeat...


Expect the unexpected.