We Interrupt this Program

I know we are right in the middle of the most exciting safari ever taken, but I have to tell you what happened in Class 6 today.

We have been reading the novel The Phantom Tollbooth as a class, and it's quite hard to grasp.  Most of the plot is figures of speech that become literal in the "Kingdom of Knowledge" with tons of puns.  The Humbug is a grumpy character assisting the main adventurer. To help with understanding, after we've read it together, the students break into Literature Circles and answer discussion questions. 

Except today no one was discussing.  They were all trying to figure it out without help from anyone or anything.

I finally stated that I had given permission to do everything they usually weren't allowed to do: "cheat" by looking in the book and asking their neighbor for answers, move from their normal seat and talk while working.  "This is every student's deepest desire," I urged.  "Get on it!"

Pretty soon, the class was a quiet, controlled roar of conversation.  One group was really going at it over a question.  Ezekiel (above in glasses) stood up so he could argue his point better against his groupmates who were avidly trying to convince him of their position.  Finally, Margaret asked him, "Ezekiel, why are you so disagreeable?" to which he replied with great flair: "I'm the Humbug!"  The whole class laughed together.

This may not make sense to you or even be funny, especially if you haven't read the book (Get on it!  It's great!).  But to this young teacher's heart, hearing this class make intelligent, accurate jokes from the book they are reading...well, it did me good.  This is the class that struggles with starting sentences with capital letters and adding punctuation at the end.  This is the class that hasn't been able to consistently pass reading comprehension quizzes.  And now they are making good jokes?  It's a great day in this teacher's life.