Really?

I began a novel with my students on Wednesday. It's a novel that has short chapters, so we're already ready for chapter ten. I had them write in their journals a reaction to what we've read so far. Even my "advanced" class had a few that didn't "know what was going on" in the book. Really? It is a novel that is wayyy under their reading level which should be super simple. In fact, I know of one teacher who has criticized me for it being too easy. So that theory is out the window. Then, today, one thing I had my students do in class was a writing assignment where I gave them a list of prompts (a list of about twenty) and they had to pick one, write about ten minutes about it, and voila. Just that simple -- WRITE -- for ten stinking minutes. Big shocker, some were looking at me like I was speaking a foreign language. I mean, last time I checked it is "English" class, not German. So, today was an eye-opening downer for me. What'll I do about it? Go out to eat Mexican food with my mom, the girls, and Gma. Yeah, that oughtta do it.