Have You Ever Wondered About What 7th Graders Think About Vampires?

Then today is your lucky day! 

During the second week of school, every kidlet in our school district took a literacy pre-assessement which required them to read some stuff and then write about what they read. The results give the teachers a good idea of what we need to spend the next two semesters teaching. The kidlets then get to do the same type of thing again in the spring so we can compare their essays and see how much they learned about reading, thinking, and writing. 

Each grade level team gets to chose their own prompt and sources, so my fellow 7th grade teachers and I decided to pick some things the kids could have some fun with. For the last two years, the 7th grade pre and post tests have been focused on legendary creatures. The kidlets are given two readings (usually an article and a legend) about a  creature, and then they use those readings (and whatever prior knowledge they have about that creature) to help make an argument for or against that creature's existence. 

Here is this year's prompt and some responses that reminded us why we love working with those awesome 'tweens. 

Background: In our culture, everyone has heard of vampires. They have appeared as everything from glittering schoolboys to hideously deformed monsters. What isn't  known is that their existence has been debated by intellectuals for centuries. 

Prompt: Write a persuasive argument for or against the existence of vampires. Use evidence from the articles provided to support your claim. You must address at least one of the opposing viewpoint's claims with your own counterclaim. 

People think that stories of vampires are just legends. But here’s the thing: Legends aren’t just stories. They come from lessons and ring with truth. I honestly don’t know if they are real, but I think they are.

I am against vampires because they are dangerous and could give you a disease.

Most stories about vampires are from the 1800’s when the people were just weird. 

Then the doctors discovered Pool’s body was swollen. With what, you might ask? Well let me just tell you… it was swollen with blood that was dripping out of his mouth! Gross! I feel bad for those doctors.

Honestly, I do not believe vampires are like Edward from the world famous Twilight (she should have picked Jacob, by the way). I also don’t believe they are hideously deformed, either. But I do believe that even though they have a human silhouette, no one will ever know what they look like.

(About a man who claimed to have been attacked by a vampire) Is he crazy? Yes! He is crazy! When I go to the doctor for shots, I might think she is a lion because she is trying to give me a shot. But is she really a lion? No! She is my doctor who is trying to keep me healthy. 

In most movies, vampires mostly just fall in love. Twilight is about vampires who fall head over heels for each other. In real life, vampires are really just people with tuberculosis who cough up blood. 

Vampires were originally created from sinners. 

Some facts about vampires are that they like to take a bite out of your skin so they can suck your blood. Vampires only bite people so they can get more vampires on their side. If someone gets bitten and starts to turn into a vampire, you want to pray for the whole family and hope the rest of the family don’t turn into vampires…I try to sleep so I can see my windows and doors, just in case. 

Doctors in 1727 didn’t come in contact with a lot of corpses. That said, the doctors wouldn’t know how a corpse looks. But the blood in the dead guy’s mouth, now that is creepy. But today we know that is still normal for a corpse. So that corpse was just doing what a corpse does. 

The article “Beware the Night” is convincing, but not convincing enough. When it says that the man started rubbing dirt all over his body, that is just too weird. Why would you want to rub dirt all over yourself  and try to dig up a grave to suck the blood out of someone? I think you should just go to Stokes, buy some tomatoes, and just suck out the juice. 

And our favorite…

Do you really believe in vampires just because the definition is a wandering, blood-sucking woman who exploits and ruins her lover? I mean, just because some women can suck all your money and energy at the mall does not make them a vampire. It makes them a girl or your wife.