Grading Papers has never been so much fun

Here is the assignment.

Look at this picture, tell a 3 line story incorporating one relative pronoun.

Most of them went like this:

Two girls got on the bus. They saw an old lady standing on the bus. They gave their seat to the old lady. They were happy.

Here are 2 examples that made me laugh so I had to share. I'll put their oringinal writing in grey and then my corrections in red so that there is no confusion. Keep in mind these are 2nd year junior high school students.

#1. They were going to school. Then, an old woman was standing on a bus. They got money (by) from her first. After that, they gave (they's) their seat to her. It made her happy and they were happy too.

#2. The bus is going to hell. An old woman said, "Excuse me. I am going to hell so please give me your seat." The girls said, "Sure. We are going to hell too."

No good deed goes un-noticed. First the kids got the money and then they gave the old woman their seat. Chivalry is definitely not dead contrary to public belief. On the bright side, everyone was happy in the end!

If you notice, even though the woman was going to hell already she still had the manners to say "please." It's nice to know the kind of English that is really important is actually being retained. They cant remember how to say, "My name is____" but they sure do remember "go to hell" really well. Enough in fact to write a whole paragraph about it!

My students are hilarious and they manage to make me laugh everyday even with something as mundane as grading their papers...or maybe I have just been in Japan to long that I'm finding humor in things that don't really have any. Either way little things are preventing me from going stir-crazy until I can be home for the holidays. Only one more day of work until I leave! Hopefully I'll find something ridiculous to laugh @ tomorrow too and if I do, Ill be sure to fill you in.