Tuesday, November 10, 2009

You Have to Love a Sophomore

Time for Julius Caesar in my class. The sophomores amuse me during this unit. Someone always asks if they can get a copy of the play in English. (Yep. Every single year! The Bard is spinning in his grave.)

Shakespeare begins this play on an old Roman Holiday. The Lupercal or the Feast of Lupercus was the holiday set aside to honor the god of fertility. They needed a lot of little Romans to fill up their empire. So when I ask the students on the first quiz to tell me what holiday the Romans are celebrating, their answers are an exercise in creative spelling and interesting guesses. My favorite answers this year:

The Feast of Lutherans (!)

And the one that had me rolling and definitely gave me pause-

The Feast of Lubricants.

Yes, who knew grading quizzes could have the teacher laughing until the tears rolled. (Note to self: it would probably be better if you graded quizzes when there are no students in the room. You'll have less explaining to do.)

9 comments:

Puna said...

My son is a sophomore and he definitely would have guessed...I would have loved to see his answer.

Steve Gravano said...

Any points for the first two letters? Extra credit for the funniest wrong answer?

margie said...

my absolute favourite posts...your student bloopers.

Heidi said...

I'm with margie- student bloopers are the funniest...

BTW- I still have most of my eyebrow, actually. It scared me more than it removed my brow.

joyce said...

I think my son is a sophomore..that's grade 10 right? The feast of Lubricants smacks of someone who heard the story, like watched a movie or something, and didn't bother reading it. You have to admit, Lubricant sounds like Lubercus! Come to think of it, it could be the Feast of Ludacris too. The creative possibilities are endless!

Dandy said...

OMG! The feast of lubricants!

Well it is the fertility feast.....

Ragamuffin Gal said...

They are almost as cute as first graders ~ almost. Thanks for the chuckle tonight my dear. Blessings!

Pugelicious said...

That is hilarious - I can imagine your surprise and amusement when you read it.

Gayle said...

Oh boy, that is too funny! How do you keep a straight face?