Students love essays?!

Wow, what a week it was working through our first big unit projects of the year, an essay and "students media handbook." It took about 2 days of essay work just to get past the shock of the assignment to a calm get-down-to-work environment, lol. I guess it was the first time many of them had been asked to write an essay summarizing a non-fiction reading, though in the 8th grade it shouldn't be. The funny thing is that the ones that I got (about 60% of the classes) were awesome. They are well about their grade level. Could it just be that they don't have any confidence in their ability? Maybe the resistance is just a habit that doesn't really mean anything? In any case, the results will just prove that they are smart kids and that I should expect even better work in the future (sorry kids!).

The artistic, advice to classmates about internet use handbook, however, didn't go as well. I think that they viewed it as just a fun day since there was drawing and coloring and didn't really try for quality ideas. Isn't it weird that the work they enjoy (art project) got lower results than the work they don't enjoy (essay)? Or maybe they really enjoy essay writing and just enjoy the complaining about it too! The secret is out, more essays all around! :)
Peace