An Antidote to 'Senioritis'?

Grace Pendergrass asks the question:

I have just moved from teaching eighth grade to teaching seniors. I feel a little bit like a fish out of water. My eighth grade classroom was a Literacy Lab classroom where students had choices and a lot of independent learning. While that classroom came with its own set of problems, my senior level classroom is a traditional English classroom with a traditional teacher (no choice, teaching classics — ick).

It is only November, and my seniors already have serious cases of “Senioritis.” I hear phrases like “I don’t need to know this” and “This doesn’t matter.” I have been assigned to teach The Canterbury Tales. Instead of making them write a big fat ugly MLA paper or take some sort of crazy test none of them will study for, I have decided to have them make a life-sized “body biography” of a character from the prologue.

What other ideas do you have to engage my seniors and get them excited ---or at least wake them up?

November 16, 2008