pwock, p'quok, plawk...or somethin'

I spent the day doing reading assessments with my students.

One story, set in the distant past (days of yore and whatnot), begins with the main character, Margaret, who's twelve, going to the farmers' market to buy a chicken.

As she approaches the stand where she plans to buy the chicken, she sees several older women poking at the chickens, trying to decide which of the birds on display is the plumpest and most tasty. "Stop poking and start choosing," the grumpy shop owner snaps at the women.

The story goes on from there to be largely about other things.

As part of this assessment, the kids have to stop after the first page, and record a few predictions and questions they have after reading the first section. Then, they read the rest of the story and write a summary.

A couple of my students just couldn't get past the thing with the chickens.

Some sample questions...

1. Why are they poking the chickens?

2. When will they stop poking the chickens?

3. I predict they will go on poking the chickens.

And from a summary....

"Margaret goes to the market. She is looking for a chicken. She sees some women poking some chickens. They keep on poking the chickens. Marget finds a nice plump chicken in the back. The women say, 'Why is she getting that chicken? We were here first.'"

I could not stop thinking about this bit from the Daily Show:

This clip, BTW? It is not safe for chickens...or, though strategically bleeped, work, most likely.