Over a year ago now, I posted a Poetry Thursday poem entitled, “How to Get a Girlfriend.”  So go here to read it before you read the rest of this post.

Back in March, I was doing my poetry unit with one of my classes.  That particular poem was very popular with one of my classes.  The class was all boys except for one girl and they were very interested in this topic.  My other students saw a copy lying on the floor and they were suddenly upset that they were not also getting this good advice!  I had to give out so many copies that I ran out.

So later in the month, I finally remembered to make more.  One of my student, L, was from Iraq.  He came here knowing literally NO English and struggled for the vast majority of the year.  So by the time March rolled around, he knew a little English but not that much.

When I showed him the poem and asked him if he wanted a copy, he said,

Look at that?  A complete sentence!  He couldn’t even read the poem!  But such is the middle school boy’s obsession with girls!

(And on a really cool note, I saw L’s brain kick into gear the last couple weeks of school – I think the culture shock finally wore off.  All of a sudden he was producing such good writing and speaking.  It made the whole really hard year with him worth it all of a sudden!)