Of Mice and Men

So, today in my co-taught English 10 class, we reached Chapter 5 in "Of Mice and Men."  If you ever read the book, you know there are A LOT of "bad" words used in the book.  It takes place in the 1930's which is a time of slavery and the depression.  I really thought the class that I co-teach would not be mature and responsible throughout the book, but was I ever wrong!  They have been absolutely great! The English teacher and I cannot get over how much they are enjoying the book.  There are students who flat out say they never have read a book until now.  When we give them time in class to read, we hear nothing.  They are all very engaged and interested in the book.  We both thought they would make a big deal over the deaths that occur in the novel as well as the language, but so far they have not.  We have done various activities with them such as drawing the sequence of a chapter, group questioning, and charts which have all turned out well.  I guess what I am trying to get at is that you cannot always assume how a class is going to act.  All the worries we had before passing out the novel have subsided and we are very glad we had this experience and the entire class was able to take the book maturely and most importantly, enjoy it!
We are reading chapter 6, the last chapter, tomorrow.  I am curious to see how the students handle the ending and the discussions that arise.