Lasallian Volunteers 2005-2006

Lord, The Work is Yours...

Wednesday, August 31, 2005

Dirty Dirty Lemony Snickets

For those of you who don't know, aside from my Language Arts classes, I also teach two periods of Reading each day. One with each room of 7th grade students. Today, we were in reading period and the students were all reading on their own. They all had a book at independent level and I was reading with Dominica when Jamal got up and came to my side. Jamal looked to me and in a whispered voice said, "Ms. Wagner...I'm not supposed to read this kind of book." I quickly assessed the situation and saw that he had one of the Lemony Snickets books in his possession, though dark, I was quite sure there wasn't a reason he couldn't have the book, so I checked the Reading level on it. All seemed okay still so I told him, "Jamal, you can't just go and get a new book, you need to finish that book, only then will I let you exchange."

When I said this, his face got really dark and he said, "But Ms. Wagner, it's not okay to read this stuff."I could tell from his voice that he wasn't simply trying to get out of the book, so I took the bait, "What's wrong with it Jamal?"

"It's got words like this..." he said pointing to a word on the page he was reading. There sat the word "pantyhose."

Without the ability to prevent myself, I immediately laughed. "Jamal, it's pantyhose. That's okay. They're just like socks that go to your waist. Women wear them all the time."He didn't appear to think that was enough to convince him that he wasn't reading "bad stuff."

"Jamal, really, it's not a bad word, next time you see a woman with a skirt on, look at her feet and ankles, she is probably wearing pantyhose."

He must have finally decided I wouldn't steer him wrong or that I was out of my mind because he said, "Okay Ms. Wagner..." and went back to his seat to read.

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