It’s not important for them to know. It’s only important for me to know. —Patton (film)

I assigned my first year junior high school students their first big conversation, but I didn’t give them many details.

I did, however, give them an example. The example, though, was too short. This means that even if they copy most of the example and change a few names they will still have to come up with a few original lines.

Some of them asked me if they were supposed to copy the conversation. I gave them examples that didn’t. Some just crossed out names on the example and wrote in their own names.

I told them that was a bad idea because they might have to read the example and a few scribbles on a typed conversation were hard to read.

Eventually, some figured out they’d get more points if they wrote something original.

We’ll find on Monday if they did it well or not.