Ms. Harris' classes read The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer as a class project. They picked groups, and within their groups they made a schedule that they could all agree to, instead of the teacher picking the groups and the deadlines. Some students liked this new learning style, where they could go at their own pace, but some felt that they weren't as motivated to do work when they did not have the due dates. Ms. Harris did this style to "help kids learn how to learn. These real life skills are to set deadlines, plan, work together, and pull their own weight." They had a lot of work to do. Besides reading the whole book, they had to finish a figurative language sheet, quotation class work, vocabulary and context, character trait work, weekly jobs such as discussion leader or summarizer, chapter assignments, concept read aloud's, journal questions, and quizzes after every couple chapters. All of the students wanted less work, but admitted that they would not have under...