What I Like About You

We're just days away from the big end of year goodbye--somewhat anticlimactic, though, as almost everyone will be back again in a couple of short months for part two of this second/third grade loop. Same classroom. Same teacher. Same homework passes, which may be redeemed in grade 3 after having been earned in grade 2. One student figured out that this was actually a remarkable return on investment. Earn a free night's worth of second grade homework and cash it in for the inflated value of a free night of third grade homework!

But a goodbye nonetheless. My end of year tradition is to have all of the students write compliments about each other and to compile them to present to each kid on the last day. When gearing up to write, we do a minilesson on what makes a good compliment--it's always positive and specific compliments are best.

On year, Shay received this compliment:

You are my friend and I like that and you can do the Robot.

When we presented the typed list on fancy scroll paper to Shay, she did the Robot.

Friends in the class are a piece of cake. "You're my best friend" always appears on the list of compliments between a few buddies. Less-than-friends, though, can be a stretch. Much though I try to help the kids brainstorm possible areas for compliments, model some examples, and review the two features of a good compliment, some compliments always turn out to be not particularly specific. Still others turn out to be not particularly positive. This year I haven't even looked through them all yet, but already I came across one that is rather amazing in its backhanded-ness and will definitely not be included on the scroll.

You're mean to people but not to me.

Image: wikimedia.org