Does Taylor Swift have a place in the ELA Classroom?

Well, let's get this out in the open:  I'm NOT a Swiftie.  I hope we can still be friends, but Tay Tay doesn't have a hold on me in pure Swiftie fashion.  To be clear, I'm also not a hater.  I'd call myself “Taylor-Neutral”.

Whether you are a die-hard fan or completely out of the scope of Swiftie life, it's impossible to ignore the continually rising wave of her cultural power.  Named 2023's Person of the Year by TIME Magazine, Taylor has more than earned her spot in a national conversation – and I bet you she's part of many conversations in your classroom.

And here's the thing:  if your students are talking about Taylor, then so should you.  This is an open door into engagement and skill building that is not to be missed. 

In some ELA teacher circles, I see a hesitation to bring the world of pop culture into our sacred space of literature and critical thinking, but here’s the thing: pop culture and trending icons of the moment are vital tools in getting our students to cross that bridge from their worlds into the deep thought and skill practice that we want so much for them. It may be Taylor today, but keep your eye on other trends that can work in a similar fashion: to create a connection and start a deeper conversation.

Here are three ways to pull the power of Taylor into your classroom and spike engagement among your students:

I already LOVED teaching my annual Person of the Year assignment, but holy smokes, this year will lead to some exciting debate.  Did Beyonce get the honor a few years ago?  Nope.  Did Taylor?  She sure did.  Last year's award went to the President of Ukraine as a war raged on, and this year's award goes to Taylor…as the world continues to fall apart.

The conversations and writing possibilities around this assignment are endless, but perhaps the most interesting conversation I've ever had with students was determining the criterion for “Person of the Year”.  How can a pop icon win it one year, but political leaders earn it in another?  What should be considered when choosing the “Person of the Year”?

Taylor Swift's commencement address at New York University has been a favorite of teachers for a long time.  This assignment is a highly engaging way to get students to practice their rhetorical analysis skills and break down Swift's approach in sending off a class of graduating students.  It’s inspirational for our high school students to envision this stage of their lives - whether or not students are college-bound. The speech is about moving into adulthood and holding firm to one’s identity - a message that will resonate with all students.

This lesson is wonderful to do as an introduction to rhetorical analysis (although it is a bit longer than I’d like — I suggest cutting it a bit) or to use independently as students are reviewing what they’ve learned about SPACE CAT and rhetorical analysis.

Here's what one teacher had to say about this lesson: 

“My students LOVED this activity and had some really rich, analytical discussions as a result. I did end up modifying some questions, but this resource was invaluable. The kids were super engaged because Taylor Swift is either super loved or super hated.”

— Elizabeth E

If either of those two ideas aren't what you need right now, maybe this podcast episode will give you the inspiration you're looking for.  A few months ago, I had the delight of collaborating on a Taylor-Made episode of The Spark Creativity Podcast.  In the episode, I share an idea for using my rhetorical triangle graphic organizer with some of her songs for a quick and engaging lesson.  Many more fabulous ELA authors contributed, so make sure to give it a listen!

I hope you've got some ideas now to capitalize on the Taylor energy that seems to always be around.  Have a wonderful week at school!

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LET’S GO SHOPPING

5 Ways to Look at the Magic of Clarisse in your Fahrenheit 451 Unit

Now, more than ever, we need to have Fahrenheit 451 in front of our students. From the new onset of AI technology to the daily threats of our intellectual and academic freedom, Fahrenheit provides windows, mirrors, and doors into our present and our future. While Montag’s transformation, the working symbolism, and general dystopian world-building are all incredibly important pieces to focus on, I’d like to argue that it’s possible we need Clarisse McClellan the most.

Clarisse.

The enigma.

The one character my students always feel collective sorrow for losing.

She brings us so much in this story but in the chaos of teaching and planning, her magic can be looked over. I’m here to help! Here are the most powerful places to let Clarisse step into the moonlight (too cheesy?):

SKILLS: CHARACTERIZATION - FOIL AND/OR STATIC

One of the very first close reading lessons that we do is a side-by-side close reading between the first introduction of Montag and the first introduction of Clarisse. Between the imagery drawn from nature to the colors used in their description, this is a great place to clearly teach the purpose of a foil or static character. Clarisse’s constancy — her unwavering commitment to being exactly who she is and refusing to conform — is what allows us to see Montag’s transformation. There is a distinct “Montag before Clarisse” and “Montag after Clarisse”. Not all literature gives us such a clear angle to teach this piece of literary craft and I highly recommend using close reading to do this.

SKILLS: FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE - SYMBOLISM

Clarisse is nature. She is water. She is the dew drops on the grass. She is the wind. As we learn about symbolism and track it throughout the novel, Clarisse’s symbols connect our readers to hope and humanity. Clarisse's appreciation for the natural world and her desire to connect with it on a personal level stand in stark contrast to the technology-obsessed, disconnected world of the novel. Clarisse (and her many objects) are a symbol of hope and resistance against a dystopian society. Her existence and actions inspire the protagonist Montag, and by extension, readers, to consider the possibility of change and a better future.

THEMES: HUMAN CONNECTION

If you’ve ever looked around your classroom, I bet you’ve seen phones peeking out of hoodie pockets, fingers flipping through TikTok, and wondered: what on Earth does the future have in store for us? Clarisse is our character to bring everyone back to our humanity (while Mildred does a fine job of warning students of the consequences of continued obsessive technology behavior). Clarisse seeks genuine human connections and meaningful conversations in a world where people are more interested in mindless entertainment and shallow interactions through screens. Her character highlights the importance of real, face-to-face relationships, and every year that I’ve taught this, students DO connect to her. Students DO express the feeling that they’d much rather a world full of Clarisses than a world full of Mildreds.

All of the contrast provided by Clarisse gives us ample opportunity to close read and discuss the roles of other characters. When we look at the Montag and Mildred’s marriage, it is one thing by itself, and an entirely different thing when we consider Clarisse’s impact. Beatty and Montag also have a distinct relationship, and that is shifted entirely as Clarisee’s impact works its way between them.

THEMES: INDIVIDUALITY & QUIET REBELLION

In my Fahrenheit 451 unit, we examine the Essential Question: To what extent is rebellion a requirement for society to progress? Again, Montag typically sits at the center of this conversation, but none of his transformation would be possible without Clarisse. Clarisse values her individuality and refuses to conform to the mindless consumerism and thoughtlessness of her society. Her character serves as a reminder of the importance of maintaining one's unique identity in the face of societal pressures - something that is becoming increasingly harder to do for us as adults and especially for students. She thinks deeply and critically about the world around her. She questions the conformity and superficiality of her society, encouraging readers to do the same in their own lives. Her love for books and the ideas they contain represents a rebellion against a society that burns books to control information and thought. This underscores the importance of literature and the free exchange of ideas.

THEMES: THE POWER OF FEAR

Clarisse might be the first person that Montag has ever heard ask a question, much less questioning authority. She challenges the oppressive government and the censorship of books - and in doing so, is killed. The cost of her quiet rebellion, the cost of keeping the lights on, having conversations, and asking questions…the cost was her life. This underscores the power of fear: when we are afraid of what we don’t understand, fear can convince us to take extreme action in an effort to protect our comfort zone. This might be one of the most important themes for students to take away from studying the novel. Clarisse made Montag uncomfortable, but she also brought him out of the dark and into the light. As we work through Beatty’s speech in Part 1, I like to ask students what Clarisse’s reaction would be to what Beatty is reporting. In so many of Montag’s major close reading moments (moments of transformation), his last trailing thought always comes back to Clarisse and the feeling of her closeness and the painful reality of her loss.

Ready to go all-in on Fahrenheit?

If you’re ready to take the leap and transform the way you’ve always taught Fahrenheit or start teaching it for the first time, I have you covered. My complete unit is designed to take you through 5-6 weeks of inquiry driven, student-centered learning. Learn more about the unit here and be sure to click PREVIEW to take a look inside!

RHETORICAL ANALYSIS RESOURCES

20 Speeches and Text for Introducing SPACE CAT and Rhetorical Analysis

When it comes to introducing rhetorical analysis for the first time, choosing texts can feel like an intimidating task. But before you get bogged down with which text to pick, let’s talk through a few initial steps to help ensure your success.

TIP #1: Begin with a Framework

When I first was told to “teach rhetoric”, I had virtually no training or support. I resorted to what I knew from my undergrad: an overview powerpoint about ethos, pathos, and logos. This is exactly the path that I would actively AVOID if at all possible (I’ve written about that more here), and instead begin by introducing students to the framework that you’ll use in order to do the work of analysis. For me, I’ve found SPACE CAT to be my favorite ( BTW, I also do this with poetry using The Big 6).

TIP #2: SKIP ETHOS, PATHOS, LOGOS IN YOUR INTRO

Okay — hear me out. I’m not saying don’t teach ethos, pathos, or logos. I’m saying don’t use that as an INTRODUCTION to rhetoric.

Here’s why:

Whatever the first thing is that students learn is going to be the thing that they think is the most important. And to be perfectly honest — the appeals alone are NOT the most important part of rhetorical analysis.

So what to do instead? Introduce the RHETORICAL TRIANGLE.

The Rhetorical Triangle sets students up to see the ways in which an argument moves from one person to another. It centers students on their role as analysts and the need to be inside of the argument - not outside attacking it with a highlighter.

For two more in-depth discussions and lesson examples on the rhetorical triangle, start here:

1. “Be Our Guest” from Disney’s Beauty and the Beast

2. “Mother Knows Best” from Disney’s Tangled

TIP #3: TEACH ON REPEAT

If you’ve not started “template teaching” let me encourage you to make this the day that you start. As you browse through the list below, try to think of these texts as opportunities to teach and reteach the same skills over and over — not a daunting list of individual lesson plans.

Begin by introducing the rhetorical triangle and situation using either of the two lessons listed above. During those lessons, introduce students to the rhetorical triangle graphic organizer template and help them become well acquainted. This graphic organizer will be the TEMPLATE to print and repeat for every lesson hereafter.

Once students are ready to move to more challenging texts, start movin’. What’s the lesson? It’s all baked in to your graphic organizer template. Using just that one handout, students can do a huge variety of tasks all with varying levels of challenge and independence. Here are a few ideas:

• In small groups, bullet point details about the speaker. SHUFFLE GROUPS, and in the new group, bullet point details about the audience, SHUFFLE GROUPS, and in the new group bullet point details about the context. Repeat as needed for each element of SPACE.

• Read/watch the text together. Complete S - P - A together and assign C - E to work on in pairs

• Put students in small groups. Designate areas/tables around your room as S, P, A, C, and E. Have students move through each station with their group and their handout to analyze the text.

• Have students choose any text from a provided list and complete the graphic organizer independently for homework / individual work

This template allows you to flex the details of your lesson without having to prep brand new handouts for every single new text!

THE LIST YOU’VE BEEN WAITING FOR: THE BEST TEXTS FOR INTRODUCING SPACE CAT

This list comes both from personal experience and teacher recommendations. If you have experience or more ideas, please feel free to add them to the comments at the end of this post!

1. “The Other Side” from The Greatest Showman

2. Battle speeches from Queen Magra and Baba Voss from the Apple TV Series See

3. “Be Prepared” from Disney’s The Lion King

4. “I’ll Make a Man Out of You” from Disney’s Mulan

5. “Under the Sea” from Disney’s The Little Mermaid

6. “How to Mark a Book” by Mortimer Adler

7. “Farewell to Baseball” Lou Gherig

8. Challenger Speech from Ronald Reagan (and grab my close reading template for this speech here)

9. 9/11 Address from George W. Bush

10. “Offensive Play” by Malcolm Gladwell

11. Op Ed: Deb Haaland

12. Op Ed: Brittney Griner

13. Opinion: 4- Pound Fur Ball of Destruction

14. Colin Kaepernick Nike Commercial

15. Verna Meyers: How to overcome our biases?

16. Food Label Fear Mongering

17. Back to School Commercials

    1. Amazon Back to School

    2. Back to School - Back to Walmart

    3. Superheroes

What would you add to this list? I’d love to hear it in the comments below!

Happy teaching!

RHETORICAL ANALYSIS RESOURCES

How to Create Book Club Magic Using Essential Questions {Part Two}

Lackluster literature circles? Boring book clubs? The remedy: lose traditional “role” sheets, declare freedom from organization by topic or genre, and build essential question-focused literature circles or book clubs instead. An EQ as the throughline for your lit circle/book club unit kicks up the impact that comes from having kids talk about what they read in a way that just does not happen with any other method.

This is the second blog post in a series dedicated to this kind of magic. Make sure you catch Part One when you finish reading here!

REASON # 3 – BUILD COMMUNITIES WITHIN A COMMUNITY

Lit circles like “real” life book clubs

One of the great things about lit circles and book clubs is how they build communities within your larger classroom community. 

In “real” life, we join book clubs to find community – to have a social outlet where we share a common interest. And even though lit circles have always had a cooperative learning element built in by design, using an EQ focus takes it beyond a learning strategy. 

• First, kids choose their book in a more authentic way, so regardless of how well they might know other students in their group, they have an immediate connection. 

• Second, like in “real life” book clubs where discussion is not dictated by a “role” but with genuine questions, connections, and a desire to understand, an EQ provides a touchpoint for question creation and passage selection. It also offers a way for groups to come back to center and ground discussions if focus waivers. 

• The work with supplementals and text pairings also offers students opportunities to build community as they try to make connections and develop understanding between texts, looking at “big” ideas through different lenses. Jigsawing between groups is a community builder, and EQs offer more opportunities for this because the text is not centered. 

• An EQ offers the opportunity for students to easily connect digitally. With no shortage of apps for virtual meetings, book groups can even be created between classes, providing alternative ways to foster and develop community. 

As students share their thinking and debate and consider one another’s ideas, whether it is within their “home” lit circle or during a jigsaw, they learn from each other. They consider new perspectives. They lean on each other to understand and analyze the texts they read, creating a sense of belonging at a different level. 

CHECK OUT AMANDA’S FAVORITE BOOKS TO USE IN An AMERICAN DREAM EQ UNIT:

REASON #4 – EASE OF ASSESSMENT

EQ = lit circle/book club assessment special sauce 

How to assess students and what to assess them on is an often-cited source of frustration. You are not alone if you’ve worried about any/all of the following:

• What if I haven’t read all the books?

• How do I keep them accountable individually? As a group? 

• How do I know if they are reading? 

• Should there be a group assessment? 

• Projects? Writing?   

But when your book clubs or lit circles are EQ-focused, they are skills-based, not text specific.  And an EQ and backwards planning – knowing what your summative will be at the beginning of the unit – develops students’ skills throughout the unit so they can find success. 

The focus of assessment, simply put, is to answer the essential question using whatever texts they encounter throughout the unit whether it is their novel, pairings or supplementals. Depending on your skills focus – developing interpretive-level questions, providing strong evidence to support thinking/writing/speaking, connecting concepts across multiple texts, paragraph writing – the summative could be: 

• a student-run Socratic with student-developed questions 

• a podcast

• an analytical paragraph or essay

• a synthesis essay 

• a one-pager 

Throughout the unit, individual and small group check-ins could include: 

• written reflections 

• creating discussion questions and choosing passages for each meeting

• write-arounds

• hexagonal thinking activities

• choice-board activities   

• and Sesame Street quizzes 

that focus on the skills students need to practice as they work toward their summative. 

EQ-focused book clubs and lit circles, like other EQ-based units, prioritize understandings about life that are bigger than the text/novel alone, making assessment more authentic and simpler to plan using backwards design.  

CONCLUSION 

EQ-focused lit circles or book clubs, by design, create an authentic, choice and skill-based, rigorous shared reading experience that your students will benefit from and you will enjoy guiding.

What have your experiences with book clubs/lit circles been like as a secondary English teacher? What questions do you have about EQs, backwards design, or EQ Adventure Packs? Let me know in the comments!

Curious about how the thought process goes into an EQ unit? Listen in here to get a feel for how I break down this EQ and the levels of complexity available to teachers and students with just this one question: Why do relationships matter?

Believe it or not, there are even MORE reasons to lean into an EQ-centered appraoch to lit circles, and there’s a PART ONE to this blog series! Did you miss it?

LET’S GO SHOPPING!

How to Create Book Club Magic Using Essential Questions {Part One}

Lackluster literature circles? Boring book clubs? The remedy: lose traditional “role” sheets, declare freedom from organization by topic or genre, and build essential question-focused literature circles or book clubs instead. An EQ as the throughline for your lit circle/book club unit kicks up the impact that comes from having kids talk about what they read in a way that just does not happen with any other method. Here’s why:

REASON #1: CHOICE, BUT LIKE, FOR REAL

Fundamental Tenet of Lit Circles and Book Clubs 

Fact: choice boosts student engagement. And even in the “passage picker, summarizer, questioner, illustrator” role sheet days of early lit circles, students selected books that most interested them – usually within a specific genre or topic. 

Great, right?  

Sort of. 

What about students who: 

• detest dystopia? 

• hate historical fiction? 

• can’t stand “coming of age”? 

They have choice. Among titles they wouldn’t otherwise pick for themselves.😕  

When lit circles and book clubs focus on essential questions (more info on essential questions and inquiry-based learning here and here), novel options for students – unbound by any constraints other than shedding light on the question – grow exponentially! 

For example, if your book club/lit circle essential question is why do relationships matter? book choices could include:

• The Outsiders 

• The Hunger Games

• and The Crossover 

or 

• The House on Mango Street

• Long Way Down

• and The Children of Blood and Bone. 

Classics. Novels in verse. Realistic fiction. Fantasy. Dystopia. 

Something for every student's interest and background, and this is just a short list of possibilities for tackling this EQ! The EQ focus makes the book selection more authentic for the kids. Instead of “the least worst option,” their choice becomes something that truly speaks to their personal preferences as readers thereby creating more emotionally engaged lit circle/book club participants who are ready to tackle the EQ! 

CHECK OUT AMANDA’S FAVORITE BOOKS TO USE IN A RELATIONSHIPS EQ UNIT:

REASON #2 – RIGOR 

EQ-focused lit circles and book clubs elevate rigor!  

While choice certainly helps open the door to student engagement, rigor plays a role, too. By rigor, I do NOT mean offering only complex texts, accelerated reading calendars, or piling on assignments.   

As high school reading and writing gurus Kelly Gallagher and Penny Kittle say in their latest book, 4 Essential Studies, rigor does not equal text difficulty.  

““Book clubs motivate us to read. They deepen our understanding of not only the book but how others read and interpret the same text … rigor is not in the book itself, but in the work the students do to understand it” (45-47). ”

— Gallagher & Kittle

And the work students do with EQ-focused book clubs or lit circles encourages this work.  

Sure, in a genre-based book club, the kids can examine what elements show up in their book and how. They can compare how one author achieves this versus another. 

But an EQ, like Which is more powerful: hope or fear? immediately asks students to sit with uncertainty and consider possible answers and solutions rather than identify more correct ones. 

EQ-based lit circles or book clubs meet students where they are – literal, theoretical or anywhere in between – and provide opportunities to scaffold toward analysis, synthesis and more abstract thinking.

How? 

One way is to use supplemental texts and pairings! 

These texts are not novel-specific but EQ-connected, so every book group can use them:

• articles

• poems

• songs/lyrics

• art pieces

• videos 

• stories

• book excerpts 

Supplementals and pairings can be used to create whole-class, lit circle-based, or jigsawed skill-focused lessons that students can then practice independently. Check out my EQ Adventure Packs for supplementals and pairings AND a choice board that can also be used for this purpose.

What might such a lesson look like?

• Your EQ:  what is more powerful: hope or fear? 

• Skill focus: writing analytical paragraphs (students hyperfocus on literal aspects of plot) 

• Whole group: listen to one of the songs, give kids a copy of the lyrics

• Whole group: model identifying where you notice hope or fear in the lyrics; think-aloud  noting which felt stronger and why

• Small groups: kids continue identifying examples of hope & fear in the lyrics

• Small groups: kids note whether “hope” or “fear” was stronger in each example

• Small groups: select two lines/stanzas that best illustrate hope or fear

• Post on Padlet 

• Whole group: debrief; model what a “good” reflection looks like; show a skills progression 

• Independently: kids draft a paragraph reflection on whether they felt fear or hope was a more powerful idea in song and why, using evidence from any of the groups’ findings. 

This is just one way EQ-focused lit circles or book clubs can be rigorous while meeting kids where they are. The work they do in a lesson like this does not have a right or wrong answer; the kids discuss and rehearse their ideas and thinking aloud before they put pen to paper. The EQ requires kids to think beyond plot and surface-level similarities to do this work; it pushes them to consider ideas that are bigger than a text alone.

Listen in here to get a feel for how I break down this EQ and the levels of complexity available to teachers and students with just this one question:

Believe it or not, there are even MORE reasons to lean into an EQ-centered appraoch to lit circles, and there’s a PART TWO to this blog series! Are you ready for more?

LET’S GO SHOPPING!

12 Nature-Themed Activities for Secondary ELA

There is a long history of connectedness between literature and nature. From the important role that setting plays in any given story to the prolific use of nature as symbolism, novels like Frankenstein, A Thousand Splendid Suns, Lord of the Flies, Into the Wild, and so many dystopian stories rely on multiple connection points with nature to fully understand the themes of the story. Even knowing this, I somehow always felt distant from the outdoors inside my classroom and found it a challenge to incorporate the natural world into my instruction as an ELA teacher.

In an effort to bring nature inside classroom walls, I grabbed eleven ELA teacher friends to give me their best ideas for connecting the beautiful outdoors with the work we’re doing in class.

1. Northern Lights Makerspace

One of my life-long fascinations has been the wonder of the Northern Lights.  There’s something so magical and mysterious about the dancing lights, the way legend and folklore have been inspired by them, and one more incredible way that nature and literature have intertwined.

That’s why I had to finally create a project that did this same overlapping -- how might students in my ELA (read:  not science) classroom be able to explore this phenomenon while still hitting ELA standards?  And that, my friends, is how the Northern Lights Makerspace Project was born!

Here’s option #1:  pair nature and poetry.  Take the project in this direction, and students will learn about the Northern Lights and then transform that knowledge into a controlling extended metaphor for their lives that carries throughout their poem.  Once they’ve written the poem, students then get to create their own chalk pastel drawing depicting their own vision of the Northern Lights.

And here’s option #2:  look at other natural and cultural sites that are meccas for tourism.  Examine the industry of tourism and special places like Machu Picchu, Easter Island, and small far-north communities that offer lookout points for the Northern Lights and ask students if tourism is more likely to have long term positive or negative impacts on the environment and community around these areas.  

Let’s take a closer look here:

Creating opportunities for cross-curricular work has become a deep passion of mine over the years, and especially after the intense screen time and distance of COVID, I’m committed to finding creative, out-of-the-box ways for students to interact with their hands and with the world around them. Also — let’s acknowledge the need for students to have FUN! In Episode 129 of the Brave New Teaching Podcast, I chat about Makerspace, classroom transformations, and other fun activities that can reignite the energy in your classroom. Give it a listen below!

2. Leaf Lantern Poems

One of Simply Ana P’s favorite things about poetry is that there are SO many different types of poems. She loves introducing haikus as a short poem format, but another fun one to teach students about is the lantern poem. 

A lantern is a 5-line poem, with the first line being just 1 syllable, and each sequential line increasing by 1 syllable, except the last line, which goes back to only containing 1 syllable. Below is an example:

Life

crazy

yet crucial

constant growth thrives

Live

It’s meant to represent the shape of a lantern or a bell, but it also looks great on the shape of leaves. Ana gives her student this assignment, where they create a lantern leaf poem and need to include at least 1 figurative language or poetic device (like alliteration in the example given).

It’s a short and sweet assignment, but it can last an entire class period because students take a while to decide on topics, break down syllables, and put together the art component of the project.   

Students enjoy connecting with nature, and often say the hands-on piece is therapeutic.

3. MORE Creative Writing 

Nature is a beautiful thing to explore with your students. Kristy from 2 Peas and a Dog believes that students need to be connected to nature in some capacity with their learning. It is probably not possible to connect every lesson to nature, but the changing of the seasons is a perfect time to get outside and explore.

Once a season, take your classes outside to collect found natural objects e.g., pinecones, leaves, branches, etc. These items will vary depending on your location. 

After you return to class, have students select 1 of their found items to write a creative story about. Students can write about how it arrived at the location it was found, they could write about how it came there in the first place, or they could give the item human characteristics and write about it from that perspective. 

Kristy loves giving students creative writing choices by turning season items into writing prompts. For example, she has asked students to write a love letter from a garden rake to a snow shovel explaining why they are in love with them. The responses were amazing. These types of creative writing prompts are so open ended that students really get to shine as they do not feel that there is a wrong answer.

For more creative writing information check out this blog post.

4. POETRY TO PROTECT THE PLANET

Years ago Lesa from SmithTeaches9to12 did a Buzzfeed quiz (well tons of them but this one stands out) and there was a question about whether you’d rather have a lovely picnic outside in what looked like beautiful natural surroundings or be on a blanket in a living room that was not so beautiful. Let’s just say the indoor picnic was tops! While she isn’t much for the outdoors, Lesa is a strong advocate for environmental causes and a need for change to protect our communities.

With that in mind, Lesa, in among her many poetry lessons–check them out on her blog–incorporates spoken word that is decidedly pro-environment. 

Here are four options to use in your class:

1. IN-Q: A poet's plea to save our planet | TED Talk 

2. 24 Hours of Reality: "Earthrise" by Amanda Gorman

3. Dear Future Generations: Sorry (2023)

4. His Epic Message Will Make You Want to Save the World | Short Film Showcase 

You can use these performances anytime of year but if you want to tie your curriculum to specific moments then Earth Day in April is great since it also coincides with National Poetry Month. 

1. Watch the video to do a notice and note. What do they notice about the performance? Make (jot) notes. 

2. What are the environmental tie-ins with the piece? In what ways does it encourage the audience? Depending on time and your group of students, you can expand this reflective activity to encourage students to take action.

3. Get student to dive deeper into the poetic aspects - rhyme, rhythm, figurative language. Use the full text versions to help with this.

You can check out the full lesson plan with teacher answers that Lesa created for these performances.

5. PLAY WITH PERSPECTIVE

“Get your snow boots on and let’s go!” Mom would shout as the snow continued to fall from the winter sky. For Krista from @whimsyandrigor, this formed the basis of many memories growing up in the Midwest. As she and her family trudged through the snow, dragging sleds and carrying a thermos of extra hot, extra chocolate-y cocoa to Valley View Park, sometimes she would stop and notice all the boot prints in the snow.

Reflecting back, Krista realizes maybe she was also imagining what it felt like to walk in those boots. By stepping in the literal prints of another person, her vivid imagination would run wild-Were their toes as cold as hers? Were they holding someone’s hand? Would they rather be in front of the fireplace with a good book?

As a middle school English teacher today, Krista harnesses the power of playing with perspective in an activity called “Walk with Me.” This lesson focuses on helping students see new perspectives of either real people or fictional characters. It goes like this:

1. Students choose two characters that have different opinions or points of a view on a single topic. For example, Aven and Conner from the phenomenal middle-grade book Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus by Dusti Bowling or Will and Shawn from the inimitable Jason Reynolds’s Long Way Down.

2. Students choose a boot print handout for the first character they will write about. Help students to think analytically about the print they choose. What do the shoes say about the character? 

3. Using the prompts on the handout (Where is this person going? What do they see? What are they remembering?, etc), students will write from that character’s point of view. (This could be in first- or third-person and could create an opportunity to demonstrate how switching perspectives impacts the reader’s experience.)

4. Students then choose another boot print handout and write from the other character’s point of view. Students should stay focused on the same topic or event explored in the first piece of writing. Push writers to dive deeply into what makes the characters different from one another in order to further refine their understanding. 

For both perspectives, students will make inferences about each character and dive into the thoughts, feelings, worries, and hopes embodied within.  

If you have time to extend the activity, students could have the two sets of prints meet and engage in a dialogue about the topic each was thinking about. If you teach how to write dialogue, this is an excellent way to have students practice those skills in a creative writing activity. 

Krista loves a hallway display and these boot prints will make for a powerful visual. She suggests hanging prints in groups of two so other students and teachers can see the contrasting views side-by-side. 

Getting students to metaphorically walk in the shoes of another person is a cornerstone to creating a collaborative and caring community. This classroom activity, rooted in close reading and detailed writing, encourages students to always consider other perspectives, both in literature and in life.

If you want more creative teaching ideas like this, hop onto Krista’s email list and get little surprises delivered straight to your inbox!

6. Serene Snowflake Studies

Before moving to middle school, Natayle spent several years as an early elementary teacher. One of the things she missed the most after her move was the hands-on crafts that were a staple in her earlier teaching years. While “crafts” may be a forbidden word in secondary ELA, Natayle found a way to incorporate them here and there in her lessons, particularly those related to nature.

One of the lessons that Natayle kept in her back pocket in December, January, and February (typically snow-heavy months in Colorado) was one on a commonly overlooked feature of nature: snow crystals. On one of those rare academic “flex” days (the day before a break, a half day, or following a snow day), Natayle had her students work through Snowflake Stations. They read about the original Snowflake Paparazzi, Wilson Bentley, watched a TEDed video on the science of snowflakes and got their hands busy making their very own paper snowflakes.

Her students appreciated the brief reprieve from their usual classroom routines while taking a closer look at a wintry wonder.

Learn more about Natayle’s snowflake stations here.

7. Book Flat lays with natural elements

Assessing a text doesn’t have to mean another essay or quiz. Samantha from Samantha in Secondary loves to shake up learning with creative assessments that work no matter what you’re reading. One of her favorite assignments is a Book Flat Lay!

SAMANTHA IN SECONDARY

“Flat lays have become increasingly popular with books, but you can see the technique used with any object, especially food or fashion items.”

A "flat lay" is a photography term for an image shot directly above an object. It includes a bird's eye view of an item with carefully curated elements surrounding it. Flat lays have become increasingly popular with books, but you can see the technique used with any object, especially food or fashion items. Samantha loves to have students curate objects based on a text and lay them out to take a photo. 

Not only does this assignment lend itself to critical thinking (Which objects would be best to include and why? How do the objects directly connect to the text?), but it also provides a great opportunity to practice 21st century skills like photo editing and graphic design. Try a free platform like Canva to help your students edit their photos!

Take your students for a walk around your school’s campus to find some nature-inspired objects that could be used in their flat lays. You’ll be amazed at the creative insights they’ll gather 

Looking for a done-for-you version of this activity with complete instructions, examples, and a rubric? Click here to check out Samantha’s complete resource.

8. Reading zone

After months of snow, rain, and freezing cold temps, Carolyn from Middle School Cafe looks forward to being able to spend time outside. When the temps warm up enough to spend a lazy afternoon in the park reading, Carolyn knows that spring is just around the corner!

Carolyn share's her love of reading in the park with her students by taking them outside for Reading Zone as a reward for positive behavior. Reading Zone is a magical place where students can immerse themselves in countless stories, genres, and authors. By providing opportunities for reading choice books, students will discover the true joy of reading!

Nothing motivates students more than an opportunity to go outside! By changing up the scenery and reading outside students see reading as fun and not just for academic purposes. 

With choice books in hand, Carolyn leads her students to the courtyard at the back of the school. Students can decide where they want to sit - on the benches, at the tables, or even on the ground with the warm sun shining down on them.  As long as they are reading, students can choose their spot. 

Carolyn looks forward to many afternoons in the sun, surrounded by her students and their books!  It's a perfect way to celebrate the end of winter and the beginning of a new season. 

Be sure to check out this blog post for more tips and making silent reading more fun and productive.

9. literary snowman

Katie from Mochas and Markbooks works at an Indigenous high school where many of her students come from remote northern communities with strong connections to the land. Trying to find meaningful and memorable ways to connect her curriculum to the outdoors, Katie thought of the ultimate way for her students to conduct character studies in the snowy weather - literary snowmen!

If you’re lucky (or unlucky) enough to have snow on the ground, Literary Snowman Building is a cool idea to try with your students, and the best part is that your students can complete this activity at school or at home, depending on your circumstances.

The concept is simple, students build a snowman and then decorate it with items to signify a literary character.

Students can work individually or as a team and you can turn this into a fun competition by completing a gallery walk of the snowmen and asking students to vote for their favorite, or you can check out this blog post which contains a rubric you can use to assess the snowmen and determine a winner that way!

10. environmental issues bloom balls

Yaddy from Yaddy’s Room loves to use Bloom Balls as a way of getting her students involved with the environment and nature. Bloom Balls are a 3D project where students complete a task for each face of their ball based on Bloom’s Taxonomy. Yaddy’s students absolutely love putting together their Bloom Balls together and displaying them for visitors. 

@YADDYSROOM

Yaddy’s students absolutely love putting together their Bloom Balls together and displaying them for visitors. 

For this project, students choose one environmental issue that interests them and go deep into research, looking up facts on the environmental issue, what causes it, what effects it has, what policies have been put into practice already, who they can write to right now to tackle the issue, illustrating what the world would look like in ten years if the problem persists and so much more! 

11. symbolism scavenger hunt

Olivia of Distinguished English Teacher knows symbolism is all around us, and the sooner our students realize that, the easier their academic lives will be!

One fun way to introduce symbolism is to set a timer for 5 minutes and send kids outside to find and collect natural objects like a blade of grass, a pebble, a leaf, etc.

When the kids come back in, give them five minutes to come up with a lesson they could learn from that object. Maybe the blade of grass teaches them that we should always be growing. Maybe the pebble teaches them that strength comes in all sizes. Maybe the leaf reminds them that there are seasons of life and that change can be a good thing.

As students start to see objects as more than just objects, their minds will be ready to delve into the complexity of symbolism in the literature they read.

For text-based symbolism practice, check out this fun activity!

12. “stewards of the earth” community clean-up

If you’re a nature lover, you likely have some early memories involving the great outdoors - maybe you were raised in a natural environment, or were fortunate enough to spend holidays someplace outdoors.  With the growing threat of climate change, it has never been more important to help foster a love for nature with our students.

Daina from Mondays Made Easy has spent the majority of her teaching career in large cities, including Toronto and Bangkok, where the effects of pollution are quite stark.  In order to instill a sense of responsibility in students, they participate in an annual “Stewards of the Earth” community clean-up.  This stewardship opportunity involves time spent in nature and the shared objective of collecting trash to show appreciation for our earth.

Your community clean-up can be facilitated as a group outing, where you and your students visit a local park or green-space during classroom hours.  If leaving campus isn’t in the cards for you, you can have students practice stewardship independently by picking up a piece of trash every day for a duration of time.  Have students photograph each piece of trash and compile their pictures in a journal or “pollution log.”  Students’ findings can be discussed in class to foster conversation about pollution in their community.  Check out this free lesson on the effects of plastic waste to get the conversation started!

Whether you facilitate your clean-up as a class or independently, be sure to model safe practices to your students: ensure that they are always avoiding sharp or hazardous materials, are protecting their hands with a pair of reusable gloves, and are practicing proper hand washing after being outdoors.  Speak to your science or geography departments to find out if a class set of reusable gloves can be found at your school.

Reading Sprints to Increase Student Engagement in ELA

The following is a guest post written by Lindsay from @smalltownela

cultivating a love of reading

One of my biggest goals as an ELA educator, like many others, is to promote independent reading to my students as much as possible. Because of course we want them to love reading or at least enjoy it more than they want to let on. Over the years I have tried many different ways to promote reading in the classroom including, reading logs, AR tests, and journaling. But the one way that I have found that helps my students read more and apply it to topics we learn in class is through reading sprints. 

LET’S TRY READING SPRINTS

Now I just want to come out and say that I am most definitely not the first person to come up with this concept because I saw it on Instagram from some of my favorite accounts (@missboverseas and @elaeveryday) and tweaked it for my own classroom. 

But here is the gist if you haven’t heard of them yet:

• Have your students mark down the page that they are starting on, and then you have your students read for an allotted time, usually around 8-10 minutes.

• Once the timer goes off, have them mark down where they finished and then have them take a break and answer a question of your choosing.

• Then, repeat the process. Usually, I only do 2 reading sprints in my class, but you are free to do more or less however you see fit.

Amanda has a reading sprints slide deck that teachers love to keep the time structured and you can grab it here.

READING SPRINTS: THE STRATEGY

When using reading sprints in your classroom, you can do multiple things in between “sprints” with your students. You can have them do a quick reflection, ask them to write a summary, or look at a different element in their reading, including tone, mood, foreshadowing, or make a  prediction to name a few. The easy thing about it is you can constantly switch up the questions and then every quarter or so just reuse them because the answers and the analysis will be different because they will be reading a different novel. This helps them understand the topic that you are learning and apply it in many different ways to strengthen their skills. 

The best part about reading sprints is how easy it is to implement them in your classroom on a regular basis. Not only are you building in solid independent reading time, but also having them work on skills or standards that you want them to practice more. I have found that using reading sprints in my class on a regular basis helps my class build up their reading stamina which helps when reading full class novels, poems, or close reading activities. 

STREAMLINING READING SPRINTS IN THE CLASSROOM

Here are a few more ways you could use Reading Sprints in my class.

1. Early Dismissals - this is the best way to have a productive class when you are on an early release schedule. The students know to walk in, open up their computers and we get started right away. Usually, I try to link it to whatever standard we have been learning about that week.

2. Bell-Ringer - depending on how long your class is having your students do one reading sprint every day and answering a question in their journal or on Google Slides is an easy way to have them read every day while also being held accountable. 

3. End of the Week - I personally do reading sprints on most Fridays with my students. It’s the best low stakes end of the week plan that both my students and I look forward to. We look at different skills we worked on during the week and apply them easily to our independent novels. Plus it’s an easy way to end the week and send them off with no homework for the weekend.

READING SPRINTS AND FLEXIBILITY

I love using reading sprints in my classroom and my students begin to look forward to them as well. The best part about them is you get to decide how often and how long you get to use them. This can be a random activity you do once in a while or something you do on a consistent basis with your class. I hope you can go and find new ways to use them in your classroom. 

Hey! Amanda here checking in :)

Reading Sprints are another great tool to help teachers move away from plot-centered teaching. When it feels like we’re so tied to plot level detail comprehension, it can be hard to remember the big picture. As you work through building your craft and aligning your goals, I made this YouTube video to help you think through the ways in which critical thinking can show up in your lesson planning. I hope it helps!

Teaching Rhetorical Analysis: Using Film Clips and Songs to Get Started with SPACE CAT

Rhetorical analysis: so much more than commercials and appeals

Rhetorical analysis can get a stuffy reputation.  Sometimes, we reserve it only for “serious” classes and students and we focus on monumental, world-shaking types of speeches.  While this approach accomplishes a few of our long-term goals for education, it’s not doing enough to reach the masses of students who need these skills.

I hope you’re here reading this because you want to try RA with seventh graders.  You want to introduce rhetorical analysis to your struggling 10th graders.  I hope you’re here because you’re trying to do RA even though you haven’t been deemed worthy and been exclusively anointed as an AP Lang teacher.  I hope you’re an AP Lang teacher here looking to do things with a broader scope and new entryways into conversations about complexity and sophistication. 

Really, I’m glad you’re here.

RHETORICAL ANALYSIS:  THE BASICS

Here’s where we need to start:  the triangle.

Rhetorical analysis is less about appeals and more about the unique connection between three points:  the speaker, the audience, and the message.

When we start RA zeroing in on ethos, pathos, and logos, we are playing a bit of a dangerous game.  Teaching terms can be a comfort zone for teachers (we do this with figurative language, too).  In our field, there are so few direction instruction content types of lessons, that it can feel cozy to snuggle up with a list of terms we understand and deliver them to our students.  Without realizing it, we’ve created a pretty deep hole, jumped in, and forgot to throw down the rope ladder for when we need to get back out.  

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A post shared by Amanda Cardenas (@mudandinkteaching)

When we start with terminology, we’re sending the message to students that this is the primary focus of analysis:  identification.  We’ve armed them with dozens of terms, so the goal of analysis must be to slap these labels all over a speech and call it annotation.  Then?  It ends.  Students falsely believe that they’ve accomplished the task because they did exactly what you taught them.  They found the rhetorical questions.  They found a simile.  They found an example of ethos.  

And then?  We get really frustrated when they can’t tell us WHY, HOW, or SO WHAT when we probe them deeper about what they’ve identified.

This is my very long way of telling you this:  DON’T start with terms, or, if you do, be ready to pivot quickly!

RHETORICAL ANALYSIS:  WHERE TO BEGIN

START with the rhetorical triangle or a framework that you like (I like SPACE CAT) and a conversation around the rhetorical situation (SPACE).  By emphasizing the importance of understanding the components of the broader context of the argument, we help students start the probing question why? in the back of their heads as we go deeper and deeper into the argument itself.

One of my favorite pieces to use for practicing the rhetorical situation is looking at Lumiere’s plea to Belle in “Be Our Guest”.  In another blog post, I outline how much there is to the situation -- there is so much to consider in terms of the speaker, the purpose, the audience, the context and the exigence.  In the slide deck for this lesson, we spend a great deal of time listing as many details as possible before even looking at a single lyric.  Why?  Because once we get into the argument, we’re seamlessly moving through true analysis.

Ms. C?   I think I found a simile.

What similie is that?

Well it says ____________.

Hmm.. You’re right.  So why does this particular simile hold weight knowing what we know about who Lumiere is and what he’s trying to achieve in this moment?

Wheels turning…

RHETORICAL ANALYSIS:  GETTING INTO THE ARGUMENT

So we’ve got a handle on the rhetorical situation.  That’s a win.  In fact, that might be the entire goal of a unit if you’re just beginning.  If your school is taking their time and truly working on vertical articulation, this is a great skill to introduce at 9th grade and build toward mastery in 10th.  

But let’s say we’re moving on a bit and ready to analyze the argument.  You might have a speech, a commercial, another song, or another type of  fictional scenario, and now we need to look at the techniques used and do the analysis work.

This is where we come back to our analysis framework.  I like using SPACE CAT, so this stage is where I rely on CAT:  choices, appeals, and tone.

Rhetorical choices include just about everything, so it’s up to you to narrow the lane of what each argument is doing well.  A rhetorical choice might be the structure or organization of the argument, an extended metaphor, the use of personification, or even a particularly interesting use of parallel structure.  Appeals are what you think they are:  ethos, pathos, and logos.  And of course, tone is exactly what you think it is, too.

Not all choices, appeals, or potential tone words are important to talk about in every speech, so fully embrace your right to decide ahead of time which choices are on the table for discussion (this is called scaffolding and if you need help with it, I have a training in my Mastering Close Reading Workshop that you might find very helpful!).

Let’s Look at an Example: “Mother knows best”

Here’s a quick example from “Mother Knows Best” in Disney’s Tangled for each of the components in CAT.

Mother Godel opens her song referring to Rapunzel “as fragile as a flower; still a little sapling, just a sprout”.  She’s comparing Rapunzel to an undeveloped, extremely young plant.  

She then uses the refrain “Mother Knows Best” along with other overly-assertive physical behaviors to assert her own ethos and Rapunzel’s lack of life experience.

The song also gives students the chance to look at tone, especially in the verse where Mother Godel tells Rapunzel that she won’t survive as a “sloppy, underdressed, immature, clumsy” and “gettin’ kinda chubby” girl out in the real world.  This demeaning tone further underscores Mother Godel’s authority and increases the fear in Rapunzel about leaving her tower.

RHETORICAL ANALYSIS:  SO WHAT?

Well, we’ve arrived back where we started, friends.  There’s a whole lot of highlighting, lots of phrases and details identified as one thing or another, but here comes the real work:  SO WHAT?

So, Mother Godel uses a demeaning tone toward Rapunzel.  So what?

She compares her to a “sapling” that has just sprouted from the ground.  So what?

Here’s where we send students back to the rhetorical situation.

Support them through their “so what” with questions referring back to SPACE:

• Why is this tone effective given what we know about the audience?

• How does this metaphor create a sense of fear in Rapunzel?

• How does Mother Godel’s use of hyperbole help her achieve her purpose?

• Given the context of the situation, why would Mother Godel rely on the emotion of fear in this particular argument?

Once you’ve gotten through the SPACE, the CAT, and now arrived at the analysis part, remember that you can do this a few ways.  Students oftentimes will write a paragraph of analysis, but if you’d prefer, you might have students complete a one-pager or just have a discussion that outlines what students could write about.  It’s okay for some lessons to be heavier on the process than on the result.

SOME FINAL THOUGHTS…

RHETORICAL ANALYSIS: TRUST THE PROCESS

This is the process.  It takes time, practice, and more practice.  But if you are able to confidently lean on a framework that you like, provide the right types of arguments that meet students where they’re at, and stretch their work with rhetoric over multiple years, you’re going to find increasing success.

If you’re looking for more support, I have resources that are ready to help you.  Keep doing the work -- I’m right here behind you every step of the way.

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Three Myths about Close Reading

Three Myths about Close Reading (Busted!)

Wait, what? Close reading? That thing in Common Core everyone says they do but can never actually explain? If these sound like your thoughts, you’re not alone. And here’s why: 

Close reading is often confused or made synonymous with things it most definitely is not, making it seem too scary to even approach. Maybe you’ve tried it, hit a wall of frustration, and abandoned-ship.

Well, it’s time to replace frustration, uncertainty and fear with the truth, and bust three common myths of close reading. 

Three offenders. 

Three stories that have run amok doing what myths do best – attempt to explain what we don’t understand.

But the thing is, close reading CAN be explained and understood, and there is a close reading reality. Let's talk THAT reality, so you can see the power this instructional strategy has to transform both your teaching of reading and your students’ growth and confidence. 

MYTH #1: Close Reading = Reading an Entire Text 

If the thought of figuring out how to teach a close read of an entire short story, or 

an entire chapter OR

an entire article OR

an entire scene

gives you hives, well, that’s fair. It should! 

If telling your classes to “do” a close read of X story results eye rolls, audible groans, and no sense of whether students are actually practicing reading skills –  also fair. 

This idea that close reading means scrutinizing an ENTIRE text is a complete and total, well, MYTH! It is also a recipe for overwhelm for both teachers and students, with little to no benefit for students’ growth as readers. Reading an entire text is just that – reading. And while there is nothing wrong with “just reading” that is not the purpose of close reading. 

HERE’S THE REALITY: Close Reading = Reading a Passage

Close reading is re-reading with intention, with the purpose of practicing skills, learning patterns and deepening understanding. So instead of an entire text, choose passages no more than a page long, maybe going onto the back, for your lessons. 

Begin by having students read a longer chunk: a chapter or chapters, an act, a short story – either for homework or independently during class – of which the passage is part. When the kids come to the close reading lesson, it will be at least their second encounter with said passage.

Pffft, you might be saying. My students aren’t going to read that longer chunk independently. 

That might be true. But they can still do the lesson. 

Close reading lessons are always in-class, skill-focused, teacher-directed experiences. Keeping the passage short allows students to do the lesson whether or not they completed all of the prior reading. The passage is read, and often re-read, in class, so you know, at the very least, even if students read nothing else for an entire unit, they have read those close reading passages and practiced skills. 

Length is critical, and to keep passages short, it is not only ok but necessary to eliminate content that does not help students practice the skill. Consider what is most important and what is necessary for student practice. Then decide how much to include before and after. Context can always be provided by you for the kids in the lesson directions.

MYTH #2: Close Reading Prioritizes Reading the Whole Text 

Your reading curriculum contains four core novels and a Shakespearean play. The best way for students to grow as readers, writers, and thinkers is to make the text central to learning. They must read every page and every word of every novel and the play in order to make progress. Frequent comprehension quizzes are the way to keep them accountable. 

Close reading is reading EVERYTHING – page one to page end. 

Um, no. Just NO. To ALL of that. 

HERE’S THE REALITY: Close Reading Prioritizes Skills 

Close reading DOES NOT – like, to infinity DOES NOT – center the text.

Close reading centers SKILLS. 

The text is the vehicle through which skills are taught. Don’t get me wrong, the text is important, but students are not being assessed on whether or not they “know” the whole text. They will be assessed on the skills you taught and that they practiced during your close reading lessons. 

Skills can run the gamut – from rhetorical situation to recurring symbols, to use of imagery – depending on the type of text, your essential question (more info on this here), and your summative assessment. The skills determine the annotation focus(es). Remember, though, not to get carried away in asking students to annotate for all the things. Less is more.

Make it super clear in your directions what you want them to annotate for. Without this, students end up randomly highlighting and labeling with no sense of how or why it all fits together. Instead of wild goose chase annotation, send students on a purposeful, scaffolded path toward analysis.

MYTH #3: Close Reading Answers A Set of (Text-Dependent) Questions 

You are at the photocopier and find a handout titled, “Close Reading Questions.” You look through it and consider that maybe this is close reading. 

Nope. Not even kind of. 

HERE’S THE REALITY: Close Reading Works with Essential & Analysis Questions

A list of teacher-created questions for students to answer as they read a text – or after they read it – could maybe be considered “guided” reading. But it is not close reading.

Close reading does involve questions, but they are of the essential and analytical variety. And you come up with them before students close read anything. These are the questions that drive your unit and skill focus. They are the questions that inform your backwards planning: what it is you want students to know or do by the end of that unit?

Your close reading lesson passages should all connect to your unit essential question (more on EQs here), so that they build on each other, which results in students building their learning – comprehension, pattern recognition, deep thinking – over time. 

And within each lesson, you create an analysis question for students to work with at the end. When planning a close reading lesson, come up with this question first. Consider what you would look for in the passage to answer it. This will help you come up with student annotation guidelines. Having kids draft a skills-focused analytical paragraph to answer a question using their close reading annotations helps prepare them not only for a summative task, but makes them derive meaning, instead of searching for a “correct” answer.  

So, yes, questions, BUT questions that require students to make meaning using the skills they practiced in that close reading lesson for that particular passage, not to hunt and peck through an entire text to find “the answer.” 

SOME FINAL THOUGHTS…

Close reading is not its mythology! It is not reading an entire text, it is not whole-text centered or answering a set of text-dependent questions. Close reading reality decenters the text, prioritizes skills, and uses essential and analysis questions to drive learning. This instructional strategy has the potential to move mountains for your students as readers, writers and thinkers and for YOU as a teacher of reading. 

If you haven’t tried close reading before in your classroom or if you’d like to revisit it after a less than positive experience, grab this free video where I go into more depth about the what, why and how of close reading. What has been your experience with close reading? What questions do you have?  

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How to Throw a Gatsby Party as PreReading Strategy

How to Throw a Gatsby Party as PreReading Strategy

There is no shortage of blog posts in the world about English teachers throwing Gatsby parties for their classes before or after their study of the great American classic.  What I want to show you here is how you can use this party as a gateway activity to the book and a prereading strategy that sets students up for early success in reading.

WAIT! DO YOU HAVE A COLOR SYMBOLISM TRACKER TO USE FOR YOUR UNIT? GRAB THE ONE PICTURED ABOVE RIGHT HERE AS MY GIFT TO YOU!

SHOULDN’T PARTIES BE FUN?

Yes!  No matter when, where, or how you throw your party, there should be plenty of fun.  Of the many goals of the party, getting students hyped up to read and feeling the energy of the story is a huge priority.  If you have some money to spend, spend it on items that can be reused for a few years -- that makes the investment worth it.  You’d be surprised at how a Dollar Tree raid can add up and then at the end of the party all get thrown away and be completely disposable.  Era costume pieces, tapestries to hang as backdrops, photo props, or even centerpiece items from thrift shops are things that can be packed up and used year after year.  I like these posters ($10) and once they’re laminated, they’ll last forever.  If you’re not going to spend any of your own money, there’s plenty to do to set the mood for free:  YouTube playlist of music from the movie or Jazz Age music, cover your whiteboard in hand-lettered quotes, grab white paper from the supply closet for tablecloths, etc.  I even make my students invitations to the party and hand them out a few days ahead of time.  Most of them look at me and roll their eyes, but enough of them appreciate the dorky gesture.

PREREADING WITH STATIONS

Now that you’ve set up the energy and atmosphere of the party, it’s time to do the behind-the-scenes work of getting students ready to read.  For those of you reading this post who prefer to do your party at the conclusion of the novel, consider moving it to the beginning of the unit instead.  As I set up my room, I create 5-6 large tables that I’ll use as the stations.  This blog post will walk you through everything that I do in my lesson which can be found here completely ready for you to print and use!

Never used stations before? I’ve got a quick and easy guide to using stations here as well as how I use this learning strategy for back to school here!

Designing Stations to Support Readers

Whether you’re doing prereading stations for Gatsby or any other book, you need to consider what students need to support their reading experience.  In the case of Gatsby, I’ve found that the earliest struggle students have with the novel is knowing who is who.  Because of this, four of my stations are designed as “Meet the Character” stations.  I pull a passage of description of Nick, Gatsby, Tom, and Daisy.  At each of these four stations, students read the passage “meet” the party guest, and then jot down a record of their initial impressions of who they just met at the party.

This is a quick (but important) prereading exercise disguised by fun.  In the passage selected for each character, students are getting:

• Familiarized with Fitzgerald’s language

• Context around each character’s personality

• Basic characterization

These may seem like small things, but in the world of reading comprehension, they’re critical.  Imagine reading Gatsby for the first time completely blind to the story.  Now, imagine reading it witht he mood of the party that you’ve created and an initial understanding of the personalities and roles of each of the main characters.  This is a huge win!

OTHER NON-CHARACTER BASED STATIONS

The other stations are flexible.  Here are a few other ideas I’ve used:

• Book Cover analysis:  have students look at various different versions of published book covers.  What does the art reflect about the focus of the story?  How does the artwork make you feel in terms of what mood you’re expecting to encounter?  What are the colors used in each?  How might that be reflective of the story you’re about to read?

• Setting analysis:  Choose 1-2 passages that capture important setting descriptions.  Where will this story take place?  How does the energy of the setting match or seem different from that of our “Gatsby Party” atmosphere?  What are the colors, textures, sounds, smells, and visuals included in the description?  You can even have students attempt to draw exactly what they’re reading in the description for an added “party game”.

• Music/lyric analysis:  Pull a Jazz age song and it’s lyrics for students to read and analyze.  What were the values of this type of music?  What did the music center?  What kind of energy does this music give?

• Trailer analysis:  Set up one table with several of the Gatsby film trailers pulled up.  Students can compare and contrast, make predictions, etc.

If you’ve been partying at the end of reading Gatsby and still love it, by all means, continue to do what brings you joy!  But I do hope that at the very least, these character stations activity will provide a strong foundation for your readers at the start of the study of the novel.  I’d love to hear about your experiences in the comments below!

Ready to think more through the Gatsby reading experience? Watch below!

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Unit Makeover: The Short Story Unit in Secondary ELA

Unit Makeover: The Short Story Unit in Secondary ELA

When is the last time you sat down for a meal where your server recommended a very specific bottle of wine to match the meal you were considering on the menu?  The perfect Argentinian Malbec to compliment the perfect marbled ribeye.  And when is the last time you tasted that symphony of flavors?  The melting, fatty salt of the meat on your tongue is followed by the gentle swirl of the deep red wine just after.

Maybe you’re a vegetarian and ready to never come back here and read another article from me again, and I understand (this is not the first time that I’ve used a metaphor about meat.  Hmmm…), but if you’re willing to hear me out, here it is:

Disjointed experiences are fine, but intentionally, purposefully blended ones are so much more memorable.

This is precisely how I feel about unit planning and especially the notoriously predictable plan that every English teacher since the dawn of time seems to design:  UNIT 1 - SHORT STORIES.

THE DISJOINTED SHORT STORY SCENARIO

The idea for this unit seems logical on paper:  start the year with some shorter texts to warm back up, review everything students need to know for the year coming up, and presto!  Ready to take on the year.  But after experiencing this myself and talking to hundreds of other teachers, there are a few notable problems:

PROBLEM 1: Lack of connection

Short stories don’t naturally connect to one another just because they are short stories. So when we begin these units thinking about the skill review component, we are often blindsided as the unit is in progress feeling like it’s clunky and lacks flow. Without the feeling of connection, these units can be difficult to navigate in terms of pacing and engagement.

PROBLEM 2:  Lack of representation

The most commonly anthologized stores also tend to be Euro-centric, male-authored stories.  We have a responsibility to do better for our students and to have their own voices, stories, backgrounds, and experiences represented and included in everything we do.  This means branching outside of the short stories most frequently recommended by text book companies and doing some of our own research to find new, fresh voices.

PROBLEM 3:  Lack of variety

One teacher wrote to me saying: “I do run into trouble when I try to use short stories that are available on CommonLit. When I've tried to use them in the past--some are amazing short stories, like "The Landlady" and "The Intepolers"--the kids complain that they've already read them! UGH”

Does this sound familiar?  Since starting the year this way is so popular and databases like CommonLit have come around, teachers sometimes find themselves going to the same places for ideas and then repeating stories.  

PROBLEM 4:  Trying to cover too many skills

Sometimes the nebulous goal of “reviewing literary terms” stretches student focus too thin.  Attempting to use one single unit to cover a dozen or more terms ends up giving us more attention to breadth rather than depth.

Specific EQ Unit & Text Set Pairings:

To solve many of these problems with the traditional short story unit, I recommend implementing an Essential Question to drive the unit. Short stories need to be contextualized, and using an Essential Question connects the dots and creates meaning. The art of writing an essential question takes into consideration three key components:  text(s), themes, and skills.  Essential questions should drive genuine curiosity and be exciting for students to explore, discuss, debate, and return to throughout the year.  

Below, I’ve drafted a few examples of EQs that could theoretically be used at the start of a school year. You’ll notice a few things:

1. The question anchors the unit.  From introducing the question to assessment, the question is the driving force that connects all texts and activities.

2. Instead of teaching short stories and a variety of random literary terms, the unit is cohesively driven by a more narrow focus.

3. The EQ gives direction for the unit without being prescriptive.  The suggestions I have here are flexible and adaptable to different grade and difficulty levels.

In each of the example units below, I’ve provided a mixture of the most commonly used short stories that you may have from anthologies or prescription curriculums blended with new ideas, short film, music, and other genres to further address the complexity of the EQ. Be sure to check out Episode 107 of the Brave New Teaching Podcast to see how this method was applied in Marie’s class!

Here are a few example ideas to get started:

Example #1:  Connected by a skill/standard

Unit 1:  Is conflict more likely to make our lives better or worse?

Skill Focus: The shape and arc of stories

• Plot diagram components (with emphasis on conflict)

  • Exposition, inciting incident, rising actions, climax, falling actions, resolution

• Vonnegut’s The Shape of Stories

• Internal VS External Conflict

• Three classical types of conflict:  “man vs man”, “man vs. nature”, “man vs himself”

Text Set:

• “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell

• Buzz Lightyear Internal Conflict - You are Just a Toy:  Scene 1 & Scene 2

• “Contents of the Dead Man’s Pockets” by Jack Finney

• “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” by Ursula K. Leguin

• All American on Netflix Episode 1

Assessment:  

• Skill Focus:  Cold Read & Written response based on conflict

• EQ Focus:  Synthesis argument writing answering the EQ (utilize personal experience and texts from the unit to answer EQ)

Example #2:  Connected by genre

Unit 1:  To what extent does gothic fiction reveal the human condition?

Skill Focus: The elements of gothic fiction

• Author’s use of tension

• Author’s use of tone/mood

• Setting

Text Set:

• “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe

• Excerpt from Mexican Gothic by Sylvia Moreno Garcia

• “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner

• Various scenes from The Phantom of the Opera

• Luella Miller by Mary Wilkins Freeman

Assessment:

• Skill Focus:  A project-based assignment where students analyze the connection between tension, mood and setting (a recreated scene and written analysis; a living tableau; an artistic interpretation)

• EQ Focus:  A literary analysis writing that hones in on one of the stories and the gothic elements that reveal the human condition

Need to teach plot elements?

Example #3:  Connected by another genre

Unit 1:  How does dystopian fiction use the present to predict the dangers of the future?

Skill Focus: The elements of dystopian fiction

• Characteristics of a dystopian protagonist

• Author’s use of tone/mood

• Setting

• Imagery

Text Set:

• The Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler (Chapter 1)

• “The City Born Great” by N.K. Jemisin

• “There Will Come Soft Rains” by Ray Bradbury

• “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson

• “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut

• “The Veldt” by Ray Bradbury

• “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” by Ursula K. LeGuin

Assessment:

• Skill Focus:  Cold Read & Write:  How does the author’s use of genre elements / setting / imagery / use of tone/mood in order to warn about the dangers of the future?

• EQ Focus:  Research project:  select a present problem and predict the dystopian future to come from this issue

Example #4:  Connected by a theme

Unit 1:  Which is more impactful in a child’s coming of age:  the influence of family or the physical environment around them?

Skill Focus: Elements of coming of age genre

• Setting

• Characterization (direct & indirect)

Text Set:

• Where the Crawdads Sing (Chapter 1 excerpt)

• “Thank You Ma’am” by Langston Huges

• “Only Daughter” by Sandra Cisneros

• “All Summer in a Day” by Ray Bradbury 

• “The Hawk” by Jules Chung

Assessment:

• Skill Focus:  One Pager - Choose one character to place at the center.  Surrounding the character, add evidence of coming-of-age moments, setting, etc. that have influenced their development

• EQ Focus:  Synthesis Argumentative essay responding to the EQ using the short stories from the unit

Example #5: Short Stories Reimagined in Fairy Tales

In episode 107 of the Brave New Teaching Podcast, I chat with my cohost Marie Morris about the process of tackling a unit makeover with short stories. Listen in to see how we resolved so many of the problems (at the top of this post) and built a Fairy Tale Unit that completely revamped the level of engagement while still tackling all of the skills that mattered the most.

No matter how you tackle your unit makeover, consider the power of that Essential Question to give the context your unit needs. I’d love to hear how you tackled your own makeover, so be sure to leave a comment below!

TRY AN EQ ADVENTURE PACK!

These units are packed up and ready to teach! They are seamlessly aligned with a juicy Essential Question, supplemental texts, and plenty of templates to use in tandem with whatever short stories or novels you have on hand. Check them out right here!

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LET’S GO SHOPPING…

10 Back to School Learning Station Ideas for Middle and High School

10 Back to School Learning Station Ideas for Middle and High School

For several years now, teachers have joined the mission to intentionally create a first day and first week of school that are reflective of the kind of classroom culture and environment that they want to create for the whole school year.  Gone are the days of reading the syllabus aloud to students and droning on for days at a time.  And one of the most popular ideas that has grown to replace these teacher-centered practices is the use of back to school STATIONS.  It’s been a cornerstone lesson in my First Ten Days of School practice for the last decade.

Stations as an instructional strategy is relatively straightforward.  A certain number of tasks that take a similar amount of time to complete are predetermined by the teacher and become the “stations”.  Then, students are broken up into the same number of groups as there are stations.  Using a timer, students work at their assigned station for the allotted time, then with the timer, switch to the next station for the next task.   This is a great way to begin the process of teaching your routines around this instructional strategy -- trust me, your October self will thank you for starting routine practice early and often!

With back to school season always having a slew of odd ball housekeeping tasks to accomplish, stations is a great way to keep the pace of class moving, get students out of their seats, and begin the process of getting to know each other based on the small group they’re moving.

Syllabus & Questions for My Teacher

After making the switch from a paper to a digital syllabus, I’ve been able to navigate getting the important information it includes in front of both students and parents.   With a digital syllabus, I can “assign” looking through it the night before stations, and then, in this station, ask students to revisit the syllabus and on an index card, leave questions and comments for me at the station that I can answer FAQ style in upcoming days.  You could also give the students at this station a syllabus “quiz” in the style of true/false or multiple choice.

A copy of my digital syllabus template is available inside my exclusive course for teachers:  The First 10 Days:  The Complete Back to School Toolkit.

Establish a “Brave Space”

Station time is also a wonderful opportunity to set up intentional experiences for students to see and participate in your classroom expectations.  One simple, yet powerful, station idea is to use a section of your room close to a whiteboard (using my FAVE markers) or giant post-it, and write on the board BRAVE SPACE.  Explain in the directions for students to write around the word with definitions and examples of what a “Brave Space” should look and feel like in the classroom.  I make sure to take a picture of each class period’s answers to use later for debriefing and adding to my digital syllabus under my “Expectations” tab.

FAQ QR Code Classroom Management System

Another way to use your stations activity is to introduce your students to various functional spaces in your classroom and give them a chance to be oriented to how they work,  I speak about this at length in episode 58 of the Brave New Teaching podcast as we discuss the importance of functional classroom decor.   For me, one of the most important spaces in my room is my FAQ QR Station.  This is the place in my room where students come to get their frequently asked questions answered…by a video, not by me.  Because we can answer questions about late homework, going to the bathroom, and other policies for only so long before we want to pull our hair out, right?  So instead of answering these questions again and again (in October and November, especially), the QR code does all the work for me!  This is how I prioritize functional classroom design over splurging at the Target Dollar Spot all summer long..

All About Me Student Survey

At the start of the school year, there’s quite a bit of information that I want to know about my students.  Some I want to learn through conversation, but much of it I want to have to refer back to as the year progresses and I see where students are finding strength and struggle.  I designed an All About Me Student Survey using Google Forms that I’ve used for years and I use this station to give students time to fill it out rather than making it “homework”.  

Student-Created Classroom Decor

Typically each year I try to make one of my stations artsy crafty.  The quick little project is usually connected somehow to one or more of the following:  my classroom theme, something bookish and Englishy, something connected to authors we’ll study, etc.  I love doing these things, but don’t have a lot of original ideas of my own, so I scour the internet for ideas!  Here are a few things I’ve done in the past that have been fun and great for a quick station:

• Blackout poetry on a random dictionary page:  cut into triangles and closepin them to twine for a classroom banner

• Contributions to a door decoration

• This wreath but with different clipart

• A collaborative poster of different sorts

Six Word Memoir

These can be used ANY time of year, but at the beginning of the year, six word memoirs serve as a quick and easy way to get to know students AND see how their writing brains work.  Narrowing down their life story to only six words offers powerful insight into how they see themselves and how they creatively and critically approach the writing process.  Since the station time might be too short to fully think this out, you might ask for a draft at this station and revisit them for a final revision later in the week.

Create a name plate/Name voice recording

Learning student names is a paramount priority when beginning the school year, but also something that can be very boing for other students to watch us struggle through.  Instead of going through the attendance roster every day trying to learn names, use a station to have students create name places and even record a sound bite of their accurate name pronunciation!  I show you how to easily do this in this blog post.  All you’ll need for the station is paper and markers for the name plate and a few chrome books with tabs open to Vocaroo.com.  

Classroom Library Tour

If you are an ELA teacher, another classroom space that you most likely need to share with your students is your classroom library.  If you have a system for checkout and returns, if you have a routine associated with first chapter Friday, or just generally want students to begin perusing teh books on your shelves, make this an exploratory station!  My classroom library is on a rolling cart:  it’s a rotating “best of the best” system and the majority of my books are housed on a database that students access through QR code.  Using this as a station during back to school give students a chance to explore that without a time-consuming overview from me and puts the ownership and focus back on the students as they begin that exploration on their own.

Take What You Need Station

Another classroom space that matters to me in the classroom is my Take What You Need station.  This is an area by the front of the room that houses all of the little odds and ends of things that students are always asking for:  breath mints, hand lotion, dry shampoo, gold star stickers, and more.  I keep some coloring pages for students who need time to unwind when they’re feeling stressed, blank note cars to write a hand-written note to a friend, and more rotating goodies as needed.  

Goal Setting

Fresh starts with a new semester are the perfect time for students to do some serious and some light hearted goal setting.  I like using these one-pager templates as a station where students can do fun goal setting and add to the page as the semester continues.  I have them choose three sections that are together, record the date, and share the goal.  They can illustrate them as they like!  As we move through the year, we revisit this template and add more and reflect on the things written at earlier stages in the semester.

I hope this year, back to school learning stations hit the trifecta for you:  establishing routines, building relationships, and setting the bar for rigor.  I’d love to take you through my full first ten days of school in my course when you’re ready.  I’ve got every lesson, the philosophy behind each step, and a digital drop down lesson planning calendar all inside just waiting for you!  Take a peek inside right here…

Happy back to school, everyone!

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Getting Books with LGBTQ+ Protagonists into the Hands of All Students

This is a post from guest teacher-author John Rodney.

Getting Books with LGBTQ+ Protagonists into the Hands of All Students

Many teachers are creating LGBTQ+ inclusive classroom libraries that speak to the many identities of their LGBTQ+ students.  Teachers are seeking out stories that feature LGBTQ+ protagonists in diverse storylines across genres.  They are choosing stories with care to ensure that restrictive gender stereotypes are not reinforced and that intersectional identities are represented.  They are putting stories that move past LGBTQ+ trauma on their classroom bookshelves. 

Teachers are doing all this amazing work, and yet, despite all of this, the books remain on the shelves untouched.  There are many potential reasons why students are lining up to check out these books.  I want to give some steps that teachers can take to help get books into the hands of students which is exactly where we want them!

Guest blogger John Rodney shows us just one of many books to consider adding to your classroom library.

#1: Advertise. Advertise. Advertise. 

Books featuring LGBTQ+ protagonists should not be separated from other books.  They should be put alongside all the other books for young readers, LGBTQ+ and non-LGBTQ+, to discover and enjoy.  They should be organized however that teacher may organize their library: by genre, alphabetically, etc..  This is an important symbol to students that these characters and storylines are just like every other character and storyline and deserve to be read and enjoyed.  This seems like a great idea, doesn’t it?  It is!  Now, why might this be preventing students from reading these books?  One of the issues is that the students who may be impacted the most by these books don’t know they exist.  They don’t know that your bookshelves are ones that have stories that feature LGBTQ+ characters in them. One way to solve this is to step up advertising of these stories and let kids know where they are if they wish to read them.  Advertising is not a one-time thing.  It needs to be done repeatedly throughout the school year so that when students are finally ready to hear you, they know they have options in your classroom library to explore. When you think you’ve done enough, do a little more.  

There is some debate amongst teachers that perhaps there should be identifiers of the LGBTQ+ books on the bookshelves like putting rainbow stickers on the bindings, so students may find them more easily or to separate the books entirely into their own section, so students would know where to find them. I totally get this and have contemplated it in the past myself; however, in the next section, you’ll find why making an identifiable marker for LGBTQ+ books that is recognized class-wide may negatively impact the students you are trying to help.

#2: Judge the risk by the cover.  

Teachers want their students to be their authentic selves.  They want students to feel an immense sense of pride in who they are; however, coming out (the act of publicly identifying yourself as a member of the LGBTQ+ community) can be a very difficult experience for young people in middle and high school.  In many student’s experiences there is constant taunting and teasing for those who may not fit into what is characteristically considered masculine or feminine.  The straying from norms places a target on them for harsh ridicule.  A student does not actually need to be part of the LGBTQ+ community to be targeted, they just need to be perceived as one. 

If students are looking to explore their identity through literature, through the books on your classroom bookshelves, it needs to feel safe to them. This is where covers of books need to be considered.  For a student who is just beginning to understand who they are and wishes to read about LGBTQ+ characters or for a non-LGBTQ+ student who wants to read a good book that features an LGBTQ+ protagonist, having a book with rainbows (symbol of the LGBTQ+ community), characters breaking stereotypical appearance gender norms, or characters expressing same-gender affection on the cover can feel extremely dangerous.  A book with a cover that represents an LGBTQ+ protagonist could out a child (reveal their identity as a member of the LGBTQ+ community) or have their sexuality/identity questioned.  They may face severe social and physical consequences from friends and family.  Be aware of the risks a child is taking to pick up that book from your classroom bookshelf when selecting which books you’ll offer. 

#3:  Set aside time for student to check out books when there isn’t an audience.    

When some students are choosing books that feature LGBTQ+ protagonists/storylines during class, they feel like the whole world is watching them. They feel like the second they touch the book with an LGBTQ+ protagonist, a siren will go off, a spotlight will be put on them, and they will be outed or have their identity questioned and ridiculed. Why would they risk it? Many times, they don’t, and the book that could really benefit them is left on the shelf unread. Building in time during the day or the week for students to come in when others are not present is something that could get a book into the hands of a student who needs it most. This should be a part of the schedule that you create for your students so that any student can take up this opportunity.

#4:  Celebrate LGBTQ+ characters, storylines, and authors. 

John’s Instagram and TikTok are a wonderful source of recommendations, ideas and support for building your classroom library! Check him out!

Many ELA teachers find ways to try to engage students to inspire a life-long love of reading.  They find ways to expose students to stories and genres that they normally would not gravitate to and create a curiosity within them to read.  Be deliberate with the books that you are choosing for these activities; include LGBTQ+ protagonists and authors. 

If you are performing “First Chapter Fridays” in your classroom, choose a book that features an LGBTQ+ protagonist.  Project the cover of the book for the students to see along with a picture and brief biography of the author.  Make sure to identify the LGBTQ+ identity of the author, so students understand this part of their identity.   

If you are doing a “Book Tasting,” include a variety of books featuring LGBTQ+ characters and storylines across genres for the students to read and try out.  

These types of activities give LGBTQ+ students and non-LGBTQ+ students opportunities to discover stories they may want to read, and it gives them a sense of pride seeing storylines fromt communities they, friends, or family members are a part of.  This could make kids aware of stories open up their minds, and increase the rates at which books are checked out.

#5: Normalize the reading of LGBTQ+ books by non-LGBTQ+ students through classroom activities.

An idea that many young people have is that if a student reads books with an LGBTQ+ protagonist, the student must be queer.  They ask themselves:  

• Why would a student read a book about a queer/gay/transgender person saving the world in a science fiction book when they could just read a “normal story” with a straight person doing it?  

• Why would a young person read a same gender love story when you could just read a “normal love story”?  

• Why read an autobiography about a LGBTQ+ person when you could read about a straight person?  

This mentality can be combatted by exposing and normalizing literature by LGBTQ+ authors featuring LGBTQ+ protagonists being read by every student in the classroom.  

• Identifying theme through picture books?  Use one with an LGBTQ characters.

• Reading circles?  Provide options which feature LGBTQ+ protagonists. 

• Compare and Contrast Paragraph? Use a short story or film that features an LGBTQ+ character to serve as the basis for the assignment.  

• Biography Unit?  Include options of LGBTQ+ people from your bookshelves for students to read and write about. 

If every student in class is reading a short story or a book by an LGBTQ+ author which features an LGBTQ+ character, then it isn’t an LGBTQ+ thing. No one is a target.  No one is ridiculed.  It’s just normal.  It’s what students in your class do.  This will empower students to pick up these stories and books own their because that’s what students do in your class.  They read all stories.  

This list of ways to get LGBTQ+ stories into the hands of students has not been exhausted by any means. There are so many ways to thoughtfully set up systems and build classroom culture that normalizes getting books that feature LGBTQ protagonists and storylines into the hands of all students. That is where they will do their most important work.  It is where they will have the most impact. 

Check out some LGBTQ+ books to add to your classroom library.  

The following are affiliate links from which the author will earn a small commission from your purchase

LGBTQ+ Children's Books: https://a.co/1HIU1lm

LGBTQ+ Middle Grade Books: https://a.co/geHRTkV

LGBTQ+ Young Adult Books: https://a.co/4GeELKK

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MEET OUR GUEST CONTRIBUTOR:

John Rodney has been a secondary English educator for the past 15 years at both the middle and high school levels in Southern California. For inclusive practices, relatable experiences, classroom tips, and good laughs follow him on Instagram at @teachertoteacher, TikTok at @teachertoteacher, and Twitter at john_j_rodney. He would love to connect with you.

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LGBTQ+ Stories Belong in Your Classroom Library

This is a post from guest teacher-author John Rodney.

LGBTQ+ Stories Belong in Your Classroom Library

Each year teachers welcome new students to embark on amazing learning journeys in ELA classrooms.  Teachers try as hard as they can to provide activities that engage students, introduce new skills, and create environments that are welcoming to all students.  

In recent years, a question has been posed causing teachers to aim their critical eyes at their own practices, activities, and classroom environments:  Is your classroom truly a place that celebrates the identities of ALL your students?  

Teachers want to do what is best for all of their students, so they are reflecting more closely on what is going on in their own classrooms.  They are 

• looking at the literature shared.

• looking at the physical and culture created.  

• looking at the classroom library books offered.

• looking at the materials prepared.

• looking at the practices implemented.  

Amazing teachers are thoughtfully reflecting on the question and readying themselves to take action to improve the validation of their LGBTQ+ students’ identities in their classrooms, and I’m here with your first step.  There are so many ways to increase LGBTQ+ inclusivity in schools; however, I would like to provide a few steps that focus on one of the most treasured spaces in an ELA classroom: the classroom library.  

When I speak to teachers about the diversity in a classroom library, they fall into two camps:  ones that have LGBTQ+ books available to students and those that don’t.  If you fall into the first camp, the following list is going to help you get started.  If you are a person who already has LGBTQ+ books in the classroom, the list is going to help you be more conscious of the types of LGBTQ+ books you’re providing your students.  

Let’s get started! 

Guest blogger John Rodney shows us just one of many books to consider adding to your classroom library.

Step #1:  Find books that include LGBTQ+ protagonists.  

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Amanda Cardenas (@mudandinkteaching)

Perform a quick audit of your classroom library. If you were to randomly take 20 books off the shelf, how many of the protagonists would be members of the LGBTQ+ community? Often times, if there is an LGBTQ+ person in a story they are tokenized and used as a sidekick. Each year I commit to buying a certain number of books featuring LGBTQ+ protagonists to add to my classroom library. A diverse library doesn’t happen by accident. You must plan for it. Start researching middle grade and young adult lists that feature LGBTQ+ protagonists, read the synopses, and purchase ones for your students read and enjoy. Revisit these lists regularly for new additions.

#2:  Find narratives with LGBTQ+ characters that are plot diverse, not just ones about LGBTQ+ trauma.  

There are so many stories to be shared in the LGBTQ+ community. Stocking bookshelves with one type of narrative does not support LGBTQ+ students and non-LGBTQ+ students who are looking to learn about the experiences of the LGBTQ+ community.  Traditionally, stories of LGBTQ+ young adults are ones where they struggle to be their authentic selves, fear lack of acceptance of family and friends, and struggle with finding where they belong in the world.  These are often stories of physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual trauma.   

While having some of these stories are important, having them be the only story shared on your shelves is dangerous as children come to attempt to understand who they are.  LGBTQ+ protagonists deserve to fall in love, play sports, save the world, have loving families, etc.  When doing your research of books featuring LGBTQ+ characters, find stories that will fill the hearts of LGBTQ+ readers and bring smiles to their faces. 

#3:  Find LGBTQ+ characters across all genres.  

LGBTQ+ characters should be able to see this part of their identity across all genres.  

• They should be in faraway galaxies saving the universe.

• They should be trying escape the ghosts in a haunted house.

• They should be traveling back into time to keep the timeline intact.

• They should have magical powers that are yielded to defeat villains.

• They should be falling in love without issues of identity.

• They should be helping their best friend win contests.

• They should be on the courts or fields sinking the winning basket or throwing the game-winning touchdown.

• They should be solving the mystery of who stole their best friend’s bike.

LGBTQ+ students should see their interests mirrored through the books we offer them in our classrooms and non-LGBTQ+ students should see LGBTQ+ characters normalized being present across genres.

#4:  Find books that share the stories of all the letters of the LGBTQ+ community.

If you look at what LGBTQ+ middle grade and young adult literature is readily available for purchase, the narratives heavily center stories of young, cisgender gay males.  Teachers need to offer these stories; however, they should deliberately seek out stories that share the experiences of young people who identify as queer, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, non-binary, gender fluid, intersex, asexual, and questioning too.  Every reader deserves to see themselves in a piece of literature.

#5:  Find books that share the stories of intersecting identities.  

Not only does middle grade and young adult literature center the young, cisgender gay male experience, but it also centers the Christian, white experience.  It is so important for students to see that LGBTQ+ experiences span religion and skin colors.  A young person can be a lesbian Muslim.  A young person can be a non-binary Black person.  A young person can be Asian and trans.  An Indigenous person can be a bisexual young person.  Teachers should seek out these middle grade and young adult stories which share the intersection of these identities.  There’s no one LGBTQ+ story or experience.  The more stories and experiences that can be shared, the better for all the student in the classroom.  

Bonus Step (but an important one):  Find books that don’t reinforce the binary/limits of gender or gender expression.  

In middle and high school as students seek to explore what it means to be a young person; students often retreat into the strict ideas of girl and boy or masculine and feminine.  For people who do not fall into this either or, it can be difficult to feel a sense of belonging.  Find stories that feature protagonists that do not fall into these stereotypical/traditional behaviors of masculine and feminine.  Find that protagonist that is unabashedly themselves in whatever gender expression they may exhibit who are leading awesome lives and kicking butt.  

Building a classroom library that includes inclusive LGBTQ+ narratives will take time; however, these steps will get you started!  If you are looking for a place to get started, check out the following link which has a variety of LGBTQ+ middle grade and YA stories for you to consider adding to your ELA classroom shelves. 

Ready for the next step?

Click over here to read John’s next blog post that shows you HOW to get all of the great new books in your library actually into the hands of students that need to and want to read them…

Check out some LGBTQ+ books to add to your classroom library.  

The following are affiliate links from which the author will earn a small commission from your purchase

LGBTQ+ Children's Books: https://a.co/1HIU1lm

LGBTQ+ Middle Grade Books: https://a.co/geHRTkV

LGBTQ+ Young Adult Books: https://a.co/4GeELKK

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MEET OUR GUEST CONTRIBUTOR:

John Rodney has been a secondary English educator for the past 15 years at both the middle and high school levels in Southern California. For inclusive practices, relatable experiences, classroom tips, and good laughs follow him on Instagram at @teachertoteacher, TikTok at @teachertoteacher, and Twitter at john_j_rodney. He would love to connect with you.

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3 Habits for Happy, Powerful Teachers

Teaching is HARD. These are three habits that helped me ease some of the pressure of the demands of teaching. As with all habits, they take practice and small steps. I hope these help you feel like a boss in the classroom!

HABIT ONE: PLAN YOUR GRADING DAYS

This one took me years to learn, but once it became habit, the stress of grading significantly changed in my life. In backwards planning, we know to start with the assessment and plan our calendar backwards from there. But here’s what I started doing: as soon as I knew what that assessment was going to be, I decided right there exactly how many days I would give myself to GRADE that assessment. I started building my grading days into my plan for the unit. This helped me in so many ways:

• Grading wasn’t happening magically whenever I found a free plan period or weekend hour. Grading was happening in a set time frame. Grading “in bulk” was a massive time saver — the more of the same essay I read back to back the easier it was to detect patterns across my classes of struggles and successes, making the subsequent revision lesson that much easier to plan.

• Grading wasn’t a panic before the end of a marking period. If I knew that a marking period ended on a Friday, I would have decided that I needed four days for grading. Knowing this, I planned the assessment for the Friday BEFORE the end of the marking period, rather than a closer date. This ensured that I had the days I needed to grade and also accommodated any students that required extended time or were absent.

If you’re looking for more grading tips and advice, I’ve got you covered! I did an entire podcast episode about this and you might just hear a little nugget of wisdom to help you on your journey. Give it a listen below!

HABIT TWO: START EVERY PLANNING MEETING WITH ASSESSMENT

Okay, I promise I know how tempting it is to plan the fun stuff. The intro week, the gateway activity…it’s all so exciting and probably the most engaging part of your unit to come. But it’s time to start a new habit — one you might have to very consciously force yourself to practice: start with the assessment. At every team meeting, every time you sit down to plan, check in with the assessment. Are you making progress toward that assessment? Have you introduced and practiced the rubric with students? Are the lessons you’re planning building the skills needed to perform on that assessment?

This is a big switch. I used to start my planning with impulses. With new ideas I found online. It was energizing at first, but after a while, we were scattered and all over the place with tons of ideas, but no direction. Making the little habit switch to focusing on the assessment is one of the best ways I’ve found to help me with decision fatigue. Was it an awesome idea that I found on Instagram? Sure, but does it help students prepare for the assessment? If the answer was yes, then green light! If not, then it goes in the save pile for another unit.

HABIT THREE: PERFECT YOUR MONDAY ROUTINE

The Sunday Scaries are real. The anxiety, pit-of-your-stomach pain of a Sunday night with no idea what’s coming for Monday absolutely destroys any chance at resting on the day that you actually need REST. Here’s the third and final habit that will change your teaching life: create and stick to a Monday routine.

For me? Monday is all about formative assessment. For the most part, students are almost always finishing an assigned reading for Monday. I like to assign reading in large chunks and include weekend time to get that reading done, so Mondays in my classroom are dedicated to formatively assessing that reading.

There are so many benefits to assessing on a Monday:

• Kids are coming off of a weekend which is the most realistic time frame that they have to accomplish reading outside of school.

• The energy level is usually pretty low, so forcing a discussion or something interactive is usually pretty hard. Taking a quiz matches their energy level on a Monday.

• Attendance is usually better at the start of the week than at the end

• Assessment at the start of the week gives me usable instructional information about students to use throughout the week.

All of these are massive benefits to building up the habit of keeping a consistent Monday routine. If Mondays are planned, you are RESTING on the weekend OR using your creative energy for other things. Panicked energy is usually wasted energy, so let’s conserve those sparks of inspiration when you have them to something productive!

I’d love to share more with you about my Monday plans, so when you have a chance, give this episode of the Brave New Teaching Podcast a listen:

If you’ve got your planning down but are still looking for a way to shake up the way you run those formative assessments, take a look at the Brave New Teaching FREE Masterclass: Down with the Reading Quiz! You’ll learn all about my favorite Monday formative: the Sesame Stree Quiz. I promise you’ll never look back!

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4 Authors, Activists and Artists to Highlight During Black History Month

Take it from these student poets: Black history is American history. It's world history. It's ongoing and cannot be reduced to one month, but what February is all about is lifting up Black voices and celebrating the incredible works of Black people.

In the high school ELA classroom, this means that we have work to do to make this month special, memorable, and joyous. There is a rich literary history of Black American voices that can be showcased and I want to share some ideas with you outside of the same few voices that students always hear from.

ANGELA DAVIS

Who: an American political activist, professor, and author who was an active member in the Communist Party and the Black Panther Party (read more).

Check out : “The Gates of Freedom” a speech performed here and free lesson plan here

JAMES BALDWIN

Who: James Arthur Baldwin was an American novelist, playwright, essayist, poet, and activist. His essays, collected in Notes of a Native Son, explore intricacies of racial, sexual, and class distinctions in the United States during the mid-twentieth century (read more).

Check out: “Sonny's Blues" is a moving and important short story. This 1 hour live Zoom call is a bit long, but it's incredible PD for you as a teacher. Farah Jasmine Griffin, chair of Columbia University’s Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies, offers a close reading of James Baldwin’s unforgettable story of a jazz pianist’s struggles with his art and his addiction. And if you have a New York Times subscription, "The Discovery of What It Means to Be an American" is absolutely worth your time, and if you have the space for a novel study, you will love If Beale Street Could Talk.

AVA DUVERNAY

Who: Ava Marie DuVernay is an American filmmaker. She won the directing award in the U.S. dramatic competition at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival for her second feature film Middle of Nowhere, becoming the first black woman to win the award.

Check out: “The Power of Women”, a speech she gave at an awards ceremony with Variety magazine (short) or this other keynote address that she gave at the 2013 Film Independent Forum would be great for any speech or rhetorical analysis unit.

Jordan peele

Who: Jordan Haworth Peele is an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. He is best known for his film and television work in the comedy and horror genres. Peele started his career in sketch comedy before transiting his career as a writer and director of psychological horror and satirical films. In 2017, Peele was included on the annual Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world

Check out: “How to Turn Fear Into Success”, a talk he gave at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

INTENTIONAL REPRESENTATION FOR STUDENTS

If you are all in for sharing more voices but at a loss for how to incorporate them into your regular classroom routine, try using a digital choice board. These choice boards can be used for early finishers, as bell work to start a class period, and even as a once a week lesson plan throughout a heritage month.

And if you STILL are looking for more ideas, I have a blog post featuring 9 incredible poets that deserve a place in your curriculum at any point of the year. You can check that out here! And further still, Marie and I published a podcast episode featuring some wonderful African American writers to feature in your curriculum and you can listen anytime here or on your favorite podcast listening platform.

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Middle Grade Books Matter

The following post is a guest writer contribution from Wendie Ward

A Reading Life

There are many academic reasons for students to become proficient readers, but it’s the life reasons that continue to give me professional purpose. Books have taken me to places I will never physically be able to visit. I’ve met so many characters in books—people who live a life similar to mine, and people who have lives that are very different. Reading has reduced my stress level over the years. It gives me an escape hatch when I need a break from the stresses of life. It always calms me down. 

I want all of those things for my students.

After 20 years as a teacher, connecting students with books and authors they love is still at the heart of all I do. Book matchmaking is one of my favorite pastimes, both in and out of the classroom. There’s nothing like the feeling of introducing a reader to their new favorite book, especially when that book is a middle grade novel.

Our Little Middle Grade Library in Room 17

Why Middle Grade?

Middle grade literature is my comfort, even after all these years. It all started in 4th grade when I read The Babysitter’s Club, and saw myself so clearly in Mary Anne Spier. It was love at first chapter. Then in middle school, I have such clear memories of my teacher reading aloud to us from Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising. It is a fantasy series where a seemingly normal kid ends up being extraordinary. It made me think that maybe I could be extraordinary, too.  

It is a dream come true to spend my working life in the midst of middle grade novels. The greatest part of all is when students begin to share their favorite books with me. I get to witness the transformation from passive to active reader, and that is magical. It is one of the things that keeps me going on those long days (let’s be honest, sometimes it’s long years) when I feel like it’s hard to find the light.

A Few Thematic Middle Grade Recommendations

I of course read much more widely now as an adult. I love sharing books for grown ups on my Instagram account, too, but there’s just something about middle grade books that draw me back in every time. Part of it is nostalgia for sure. But there are also certain themes that middle grade books highlight perfectly in a way that no other books can.

Three themes that middle grade books do especially well are Friendship, Grief/Loss, and Family. I thought it might be helpful to recommend a few of my favorite books that focus on these themes.

(Amazon affiliate links included)

Middle Grade Books that Center Friendship

Blossom and Six. Kevin and Paul. Greg and Rowley. Cory and Shawn. Cher and Dionne. Pop culture is full of famous adolescent friendships, and it makes sense. Anyone who has spent any time at all with an adolescent will tell you that friendships are at the core of tween life. There are so many middle grade books that center friendship, and here are a few of my favorites.

The Misfits by James Howe

More to the Story by Hena Khan

Jack & Louisa by Andrew Keenan Bolger & Kate Wetherhead

The Chance to Fly by Ali Stroker

American as Paneer Pie by Supriya Kelkar

The New Kid by Jerry Craft

The Way to Bea by Kat Yeh

Becoming Brianna by Terri Libenson

Middle Grade Books that Center Grief & Loss

Unfortunately, in middle school, it is common for grief and loss to happen to kids for the first time. Seeing a character in a middle grade novel experience grief can help kids to feel less alone. Even for students who have not experienced the pain of loss, these novels can give them a deep sense of empathy for those that have. 

Love that Dog by Sharon Creech

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan

The Thing About Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin

Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky by Kwame Mbalia

Prairie Lotus by Linda Sue Park

Sunny by Jason Reynolds (Track & Field series book 3)

When You Trap a Tiger by Tae Keller

Middle Grade Books that Center Family 

Ahhhh, family. It’s complicated, isn’t it? Shifting family dynamics have a way of making the middle school years a challenge for some kids. And while it’s true that middle school is a time to start making small steps away from family, it can also be a time when students begin to appreciate the uniqueness of their family of origin. Middle grade books that explore these facets of family life are so important.

Like Vanessa by Tami Charles

The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall

Indian No More by Charlene Willing McManis

The Parker Inheritance by Varian Johnson

The Last Last Day of Summer by Lamar Giles

One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia

Stand Up, Yumi Chung by Jessica Kim

Crenshaw by Katherine Applegate

Simply put, middle grade books matter. We can learn so much about ourselves through these novels. I love how the writer Anne Lamott said it when she was addressing middle grade readers in her essay from the book, A Velocity of Being: Letters to a Young Reader. She said, “Life will always have hardships, pressure, and incredibly annoying people, but books will make it all worthwhile. In books, you will find your North Star, and you will find you…”  

So, teachers, here’s to helping our students find the books that help them to find themselves.

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MEET OUR GUEST CONTRIBUTOR:

Wendie Ward teaches middle school ELA, history, and musical theater in Southern California. If you would like a book recommendation or if you just want to learn more about her work in and out of the classroom, follow her on Instagram @middleschoolforever

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12 Ideas for Teaching American Lit

1. Use a Highly Engaging Essential Question

When it comes to teaching American Literature, it can feel overwhelming deciding how to set up your curriculum.  Chronological?  Thematic?  By text?  Each of these methods has their benefits and drawbacks, but by far, the most successful way that I’ve seen American Lit courses flourish is under the guidance of a highly engaging and exciting Essential Question.

In our podcast Brave New Teaching, Marie and I talk about using the question, What is America’s story?  I love framing America as a story:  something complicated, evolving, and crafted by the people in it.  By teaching American Lit with a question rather than pre-designed topics or themes, it keeps units student-centered and focused on pursuing answers to student questions.  When we look at To Kill a Mockingbird, we use the unit EQ:  When injustice arises, is empathy enough?  With that question, we explore everything from the skyrocketing rates of incarceration to more commonly heard narratives of injustice in America.  We can look at Atticus and Bob Ewell with the same question - is empathy enough?  And if not, then what is to be done?  Exploring these texts, topics, and times in America’s history sparks genuine conversation among students.

2. Utilize a Literature Circle Unit

With soooo much available to cover in any American Literature class, Betsy from Spark Creativity suggests that one way to approach time periods or themes is to break them up into literature circle sets. For example, rather than have your whole class read The Great Gatsby, you might let kids choose to read The Great Gatsby, The Sun Also Rises, A Room of One’s Own, or a selection of poetry and short pieces from the Harlem Renaissance. As students work through their selection in their groups, have them share back to the class now and then, so everyone gets to learn from each other along the way. You can also bring everyone together to read complementary essays, listen to podcasts related to the era, or watch part of a documentary together.

Setting up literature circles doesn’t have to be intimidating. Start with a book tasting, and let kids find the work they’re most attracted to. Then have kids gather to break up the reading as they wish. Rather than assign the “roles” often used with younger kids, give older students creative prompts like one-pagers and character Instagram posts to guide them in responding to the literature along the way - these also make ideal visuals for helping groups share what they’re reading and learning back to the whole class.

As your students complete their works, wrap it all up with something fun like a literary food truck festival that will allow them to showcase their selection to the whole class. 

3. Ask Yourself, “Who’s Missing?”

“OK-who is missing from my curriculum?” is a question that drives Krista from @whimsyandrigor as she plans for her middle school English classroom. For many teachers, this question can be uncomfortable because it forces us to answer, “Ummm, it looks like my library represents white boys and I teach zero books with a BIPOC as a central character and all of the authors I teach are white…”

Yeah...that got awkward...

Krista developed a tool, inspired by a social location wheel, that enables teachers to analyze their libraries and curriculum so they can answer “Well, my library represents all of my students because I feature books with Black, Native, queer, white, and deaf protagonists that are part of the #ownvoices movement, so, yeah, my students see themselves in our books.”

Mic. Drop.

Here’s how it works:

• Download your free copy of a blank social location wheel HERE.

• Gather ALL of the texts you share with students. 

• Dive into that massive stash of Flair pens every teacher has. 

• Choose a text and choose a pen.

• Start filling out the wheel. It might look something like this:

• After you have analyzed the first text, continue the process with the remaining books.

• When you have finished, step back. What do you see? What do you NOT see? Who is there? Who is missing?

Now it is time to start researching books to fill those gaps. @buildingbooklove, @theconsciouskid, and @readingisresitance are all excellent places to begin.

If you are feeling extra empowered, take your completed social location wheel to your department chair or the administration and start having a tough discussion about who is missing.

Use #findthebookgap to connect with other educators doing the work to bring all voices into the classroom and visit Krista’s blog to get more real-life teaching ideas.

4. Engage with Social Media

Liz Taylor from Teach BeTween the Lines knew keeping kids engaged can be difficult, to say the least! That’s why she would recommend using something that they care about and know well to help guide them in their understanding of their novels and in the understanding of American Lit. Social media is the key! Having them “create an Instagram post” describing the theme/delving into the “American Dream”, or “post a tweet” from a character perspective on their American identity, can give a modern take to teaching American Literature.  In her blog post, Using Social Media to Create Engaging Reading Response Activities, Liz goes in-depth with a multitude of ideas on how to make sure your lesson plans are up to date and exciting for your class! This is a fun activity for both in-person and distance learning! She even includes an idea on how to turn a protagonist’s story into a Netflix Comedy Special! These activities could work for nearly any type of novel, and the possibilities are endless! 

5. Add Updated Novels Outside the Cannon

American Literature has a long history of canonical texts that are still found in many high school curricula. Samantha from Samantha in Secondary believes that one way to level up your course is to add updated novels that highlight the many complex issues in American society with a fresh lens. All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely provides a look at the nuanced issue of police brutality by viewing it through the lens of two very different main characters, Rashad and Quinn. Readers are pulled back and forth as they are shown both sides of an incident of police brutality. Far from the Tree by Robin Benway provides insight into the new American household as she explores what the term family really means. Grace, Maya, and Joaquin are biological siblings who all lead very different lives, but are brought together by a common goal. This complex, heartwarming read will truly highlight all of the intricate themes begging to be explored in an American Literature course. (You can find a longer review and teaching ideas for Far from the Tree on my blog!) Finally, Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson will give any American Literature curriculum an instant facelift. Captivating and thoroughly real, Stevenson takes readers on a journey through his years as a death row attorney in Alabama. The result is captivating. Stevenson even makes several comparisons to Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird which would make for an excellent comparative unit. I invite you to explore your own curriculum for opportunities to refresh your texts. There are so many moving, thoughtful offerings that deserve a space in your updated canon.

6. Look at America Through Motifs

Do your students have trouble crafting meaningful analysis from motifs? We often see characters in American literature chasing the American dream, uncovering their identity, feeling alienated, etc., but how does an author develop these motifs and how can we help students unfold the impact? 

In her blog post, Motif Analysis: Simple Questions to Prompt Better Analysis, Kristina from Level Up ELA (@levelup_ela) shares a simple strategy which encourages students to look beyond the superficial and into the greater meanings of motifs across a text. She creates a list of 3-4 motifs in the text and assigns each student one motif to track on a graphic organizer while they read. Students document the concrete details and evaluate the context of the quotation, considering what was happening before, during, and after this quotation. Finally, she has them move into analysis. She asks them, “What does this example of the motif do? Does it reveal a theme, conflict, deeper characterization, etc.?” 

By giving students the final destinations (theme, conflict, characterization), students are more likely to make more meaningful connections. Finally, Kristina groups together students who tracked the same motif at the end of the reading to share analysis and create a thesis statement and product to showcase to the rest of the class what significance the motif holds. This lends itself well to a group discussion at the end of all of the presentations exploring the common motifs of American literature and why those might exist.

7. Make Real World Connections

Often, when students hear the term “literature” they immediately think of something boring and outdated; and, as a result, they tune out. Elizabeth from Teaching Sam and Scout suggests helping students make real world connections with classic novels by pairing them with contemporary issues and current events. For example, students can debate the pros and cons of “cancel culture” (The Daily, a podcast by The New York Times, has a great two-part series on this topic that’s perfect for the classroom) while studying The Crucible, examine social media addiction and manipulation (Netflix’s documentary The Social Dilemma is a great place to start) as they read Fahrenheit 451, or discuss the 2019 college admission scandal (this investigative report from USA Today gives all the details) as it relates to the American Dream and entitlement in The Great Gatsby. By tying together “old” works and “new” issues, students are more engaged with the text, better able to see literature - yes, even fiction - as a timeless tool for social commentary, and more inclined to think critically about everything they are reading, watching, and listening to. A win all around.

8. Break Up the Serious Discussions with Humor

Much of American Literature deals with themes that are important, yet heavy. In between reading more serious works, Molly from The Littlest Teacher likes to break up the gravity with an American humor unit. Short stories are perfect for this. 

Be sure to include classics such as James Thurber’s “The Night the Bed Fell” and "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” or Mark Twain’s “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” and “What Stumped the Bluejays.” Although O. Henry’s beloved “The Ransom of Red Chief” is often read in middle school, high school students would benefit from reading it again, this time with an analysis of O. Henry’s use of staple humor techniques. 

For more modern American humor, check out the works of Erma Bombeck, Bailey White, Patrick F. McManus, or Dave Barry. This blog post has links to several more humorous American short stories for high schoolers that can be read online.  

9. Infuse the Curriculum with Modern Texts

In order for students to fully comprehend American Literature and participate in meaningful discussions four things need to happen: 

1. Students need to care about the book and topic(s) being discussed. 

2. Students need background knowledge about the book and topic(s) being discussed. 

3. Students need to feel safe to speak their true opinions. 

4. Students need to feel valued by the classroom community. 

Amanda from Amanda Write Now recommends reading modern American Literature and providing students with a text/media set before and during your American Literature unit in order to build background knowledge. 

This text/media set can include links to articles and videos that provide students with the background they need to fully comprehend the context of the book they are reading. 

For example, if you are taking a more modern approach to teaching American Literature (highly recommended if you want students to care about the book) you might choose to read All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and provide students with this text/media set. 

Students also need many opportunities to write their thoughts and ideas about what they are reading before engaging in discussions. Check out this blog post that includes 15 inspiring ideas for how to help students have more meaningful discussions about literature, whether those discussions are happening online or in person.

10. Incorporate Authentic Voice

Marie from The Caffeinated Classroom LOVES using podcasts in the classroom in any way possible because they are highly engaging and novel to students. When teaching a class like American Literature, it can be easy to feel stuck relying on the textbooks or pre-written curriculum we are given, but these absolutely do not tell a full story of America.

While there is really no way to include EVERY perspective within American culture in one single course, it is possible to broaden student exposure to varied perspectives quite a bit with authentic experiences told by the people who live them.

Two of Marie’s favorite podcasts to include are Storycorps and This American Life - both tell the stories of average, everyday Americans, as well as US Presidents, and all walks in between.

When students listen to podcasts they can analyze things like the storyteller’s style and craft, as well as the overall production and experience of being a listener. After listening, having students break down an episode together and discuss their own takeaways makes for a very rich small group discussion.

If using podcasts and other nonfiction texts is something you’d like to try in your classroom, check out this blog post and video for ideas on how to work them into your curriculum and current classroom setup. ;)

11. Pull kids in with a hook

It’s all about that hook says Samantha from Secondary Urban Legends. Before starting to plan any unit, we have to think about how the topic relates to today’s learners. If they do not see the connection to their lives and what is happening around them, why would they feel motivated to read and care about themes, characters, etc. Remember, the reading makes sense in the context of the reader. The story doesn’t come alive until a reader connects with it. Pop culture is rich with sagas that you find in many American Literature texts. For example, Gatsby. New money trying to blend with old money or selling out to get ahead. What about Lord of the Flies. For sure today’s students can be hooked on the chaos vs order theme that is essential to the story and there is plenty of that to go around in 2021.

12. Be Brave & Teach Through a Social Justice Lens

I’m back here to wrap up this post with a final thought: when you teach American literature, be brave. We are teaching in a highly polarized political climate, so it feels like any social justice conversation requires us to walk on egg shells. My encouragement to you is to be brave and take on the injustices that we see in our country. I’ve had.a lot of success helping kids think about our country through metaphors. Let’s start with an athletic one: say you (student) are an athlete — an exceptional basketball player. To get to play on the college team of your dreams, however, the coaches are looking at speed, agility, ball handling, and sportsmanship. You (the student) have a few options: insist you’re already the best and have no room for growth, or, request critique from your coaches, accept their recommendations for improvement, and work on those areas of weakness. Our nation is a lot like this: we are a strong, healthy democracy founded on a vision of equality and self-governance, but we’re also a nation responsible for forcible removal of Native Americans from their own lands, a long-time supporter and proprietor of slavery, and often misguided by greed and power. We can be patriotic AND critical in the same sentence. Establishing this understanding with students helps conversations around social justice moving forward, and I hope you have the courage to have those conversations.

Thank you so much for joining us in this blog post collaboration! See you next time!

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The Best Essay My Students Ever Wrote

You guys.  This is the first time in over a decade of teaching that I’ve gone through a stack of papers saying, “Yes!  Yes! YESSS!!!!” I’m so proud of what’s been accomplished that I’m just dying to share with you how to make this happen in your own classroom.

First, a concession:

I must begin by conceding an important pedagogical and curricular point:  my students were not given proper writing instruction for this assignment.  The success I’m about to share with you is limited by the situation that I am currently part of at this moment in time:  a curriculum that focuses on novels and then assesses with essays. Most of us know this is nonsense: if we want students to become better writers, we need to not only use writing as a summative assessment, but we need to actually teach it, workshop it, and provide wide experiences TO BE writers.  

What I’d like to share with you today is how my team and I were able to work within our parameters and still find huge student success.  

So, for the purposes of this blog post, please know that I’m talking about writing AS assessment for learning.

And one more concession:

While on the whole this essay was a massive success, I still managed to find THREE instances of plagiarism.  Each instance had its own unique set of circumstances, but still, I’d like to be transparent with you. Nothing is perfect.

Here’s what worked and what you can do, too:

ONE:  The prompt was perfect

Having success in essay writing that is based off of an entire unit of learning means that your writing prompt has to be on point.  Here’s the prompt I gave students after completing our study of The Great Gatsby:

How does Fitzgerald use style to examine dreams, and to what extent does he suggest they are inspiring or destructive?

This prompt was the cornerstone of student success.  Here are two checkpoints you can use to assess the quality of your own essay prompts:

The prompt should truly ask students to use what they’ve learned.

Need some ideas to kick off your Great Gatsby unit? Try some of these!

Our study of Gatsby focused on a lot of author’s style elements, namely symbolism, characterization, and use of setting.  We also spent a great deal of time discussing the American Dream and other issues relating to the thematic ideas around dreams.  I didn’t want to write a prompt where students only examined one of those things, so I used the word “style” to broadly offer students options for their body paragraphs.  Now, the paper would be led by the student’s choice of stylistic elements and the way in which they reveal the central theme. There are options that would be relatively easy to write about (even for students who read very little but maybe paid a bit of attention during class), but also more complex elements that students may have noticed or paid attention to on their own.  The key here is RANGE and ACCESSIBILITY, while still holding them ACCOUNTABLE for everything we’ve learned.

The prompt should set students up for a claim that’s simple and clear (for those that struggle), but also has space for sophistication (for students ready to push)

For this prompt, there is a very simple, basic claim that students can write:

• Fitzgerald uses ______________ and ________________ style elements to show that dreams are inspiring.

It’s lame, but it does the job.  It sets a focus and even offers simple organization for two body paragraphs.  This is so important for the students in your class who struggle getting started.   But here’s the beauty: this prompt also can be answered with a great deal more sophistication.  Here are a few interesting claims I got from students that went beyond the “fill in the blank” option:

• “Throughout the story, Fitzgerald shows us many examples of how destructive dreams can be, using the symbolism of the green light across the bay, and the characterization of Gatsby himself.”

• “As evident in the story, Fitzgerald uses the idea of dreams to represent something dangerous and not worth chasing.”

• “In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald suggests that dreams inspire; however, some people can be blinded by their own self-centeredness.”

TWO:  We tried a non-traditional outline

I’ve used dozens of different kinds of outlines over the years.  The goal has always been to find an outline or two that students can internalize and use on their own and in their future that works for them.  For whatever reason, this time around, I decided to switch things up a bit and try something totally crazy. I wanted the outlining process to be more TACTILE for students -- I wanted them to put their hands on the paper itself and be able to move it around.  So, this is what I came up with:

I called it the “Hands-On Outline”.  The directions were pretty simple. After breaking down the prompt, we had about five different angles students could take in their body paragraphs.  The could look at: color symbolism, object symbolism, weather/temperature symbolism, characterization, or setting. To scaffold this process, I copied half sheets of paper with mini outlines for each of these potential subclaims.  I also created mini outlines for the introduction and the conclusion. Now, students “simply” had to come up to the board and select their options for each body paragraph.  

Whether you do a more hands-off version of this (just offer the cards, not the suggested subclaims) or not, I think what worked was PHYSICALLY getting up from their seats, PHYSICALLY making a selection and taking their cards, and then PHYSICALLY arranging the cards in the order they wanted to use for their arguments.  Something about the movement hooked them this time. They were able to simultaneously break the paper into smaller, more manageable pieces, while also seeing the big picture.

THREE:  The Timeline Worked

When we write essays, I always use the same timeline, but this time around, I made one VITAL tweak:  the turn-in time. Here’s a peek at essay writing week (and remember, this is ONLY when we’re writing for assessment purposes)

• Day One:  The prompt & the claim {HW finish drafting claim}

• Day Two:  The outline & the evidence {HW finish collecting all evidence and put on outline}

• Day Three:  The outline & start writing {HW work on any writing you’d like}

• Day Four:  Writing & turn-in AT THE END OF THE PERIOD {THE END}

That was the game-changer:  due at the end of the period.  

As a writer, I so deeply believe in the writing process - believe me, I do!  However, as an experienced educator, I must say that the more time I’ve given students to work on writing, it has not necessarily made the written result any stronger.  In fact, with more time, my struggling writers tend to either procrastinate further, or, worse, overthink writing decisions that really don’t matter. And what’s worse? The frustration builds and I end up getting an unfinished product by the deadline.

A firm, hard end-of-class deadline can work in your classroom.  Especially if you’ve planned time for revisions after the fact. The rule in my classroom is:  if it’s turned in on time, you can always revise, so there’s very little risk involved in submitting work.  Also, what’s important to remember is that this essay is writing for assessment, not writing for writing improvement.  The goal of this paper is to show me what students have been able to synthesize and think about for the past unit, and it is CRITICAL that I have all papers turned in, almost regardless of quality.  With a regular level and with struggling readers and writers especially, an end of class deadline ensures that you will have something of theirs to read and to assess.  

You guys, that entire fourth day, I walked laps in the room helping students with last minute details and just riding the buzz in the room of writers working to meet a deadline.  As soon as a student clicked TURN IN on Google Classroom, I let the student ring my classroom doorbell and we all cheered (more on the classroom doorbell here!). We kept the energy high, positive, and exciting. At the end of the period, two students still hadn’t clicked turned in and I made them sit at their tables and click that button right in front of me.  It was tough love, and I’m okay with that. For my students with IEPs and 504s that would be too overwhelmed in that environment, they were working at a desk in the hallway with my cooperating teacher.  

If you struggle with turn in and student work completion, make this change and you’ll be so glad you did!

FOUR:  I graded them quickly

Fast, focused feedback is a critical component to improving student writing and helping students become better writers through revision.  This year, I only had one section of juniors that got this essay, but even with more sections, I would have planned this the same way. After the essay was due, I scheduled THREE DAYS to watch the film.  And the students understood the deal: you watch the movie and do the activity - I grade your papers and you get them back at the end of the movie. And I did it. In three class periods and a little time at home, I was able to get an entire class’s worth of essays graded the same week that they were written.  As soon as the movie was over, we moved into revision.

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I can’t tell you guys how good it feels to have successfully nailed this essay.  I know this blog post was long and there are quite a few moving pieces, but I hope some of these principles and ideas can get you moving in the direction of essay success in your own classrooms.  Let me know in the comments - have any of these strategies worked for you? What else would you suggest?

Here are some of my favorite lines that students wrote — some are simply fabulous writing and others are the best work I’ve seen from that particular student. I’m sure you can appreciate that! I also gave out awards for “Best Lines” and it was quite the celebration! So without further adieu, here’s me being a Proud Mamma Bear:

"The dreams we have are what inspire us to get up out of bed every day, love is what drives us to talk to others make those connections with others and find the one we love, but for some that drive gets too serious."

"Reading this, some might say that the green light represents the one goal that Gatsby wasn’t able to reach, but rather, I believe that it represents the one dream that kept him going in life. Gatsby had already attained every dream he wished, every dream but Daisy. However, his constant reaching for Daisy only helped to further him in life. Daisy was the reason that he wished to obtain such mass amounts of wealth, she was the reason he got his house, just across the bay from her; Daisy was Gatsby’s inspiration in life."

"He may be betrayed by the American Dream but his dream is deferred.. And then destroyed." (We read A Raisin in the Sun before Gatsby so I’m SUPER impressed with this allusion!!!)

"This billboard could have possibly been put here as an advertisement for a business, but was forgotten because no one took advantage of the offer. This killed a dream of the founders’, providing cheap and decent eye care for those that needed it."

"Not only does this piece of evidence describe Gatsby’s swimming pool, it describes the luxury Gatsby enjoys, the magnitude of sheer wealth protruding from every inch of his property"

LETS GO SHOPPING!

30 Poems to Teach Using The Big Six

“More than the fuchsia funnels breaking out
of the crabapple tree, more than the neighbor’s
almost obscene display of cherry limbs shoving
their cotton candy-colored blossoms to the slate
sky of Spring rains, it’s the greening of the trees
that really gets to me. When all the shock of white
and taffy, the world’s baubles and trinkets, leave
the pavement strewn with the confetti of aftermath,
the leaves come...”

— from "Instructions on Not Giving Up” by Ada Limon

I love this poem. I love the imagery, the title, the metaphor, but most of all, I love how teachable it is. The poem has a great deal of mystery and room for debatable discussions about author’s intent, but it’s also accessible to students who might feel intimidated by poetry - or even just intimidated by language.

That was the goal I had in mind while making this list: I wanted to find poems that were challenging and worth discussing in class, but also poems that could be tackled by students in one or two class periods. As a guide, I used The Big Six as my foundational analysis tool. If you’ve never used it, get on board!

THE BIG SIX

The Big Six is a tool that I developed in graduate school to help teachers take a consistent, rigorous, and focused approach to teaching poetry analysis. When teaching poetry, the goal for teachers is simple: GET OUT OF THE WAY. The worst damage we can do as teachers is setting the stage for teacher-led and teacher-dictated conversations about poems, what they mean, and how they should be interpreted. Yes, there are ways that students can veer of into wildly off-base territory, but for the most part, if the can be anchored by a few key concepts, most students are more than capable of discussing and thinking their way through a poem.

The Big Six components are meant to be entry points, or doors, into analyzing a poem: students can enter from any place they choose or feel most comfortable. Let’s stay your students just read the above poem by Ada Limon. One student might be curious about the title’s relevance and impact on the rest of the poem, another student might be laser-focused on the use of color imagery, and yet another student might have picked up on some of the themes suggested in the subtext of the piece. Now, those three students have three different places to start: title, tools, and theme.

TEACHING WITH THE BIG SIX

Here are my favorite ways to use The Big Six:

• STATIONS: This couldn’t be any easier - create six stations, one for each of the components. Assign or keep a single colored marker at each station (title - yellow; turns - blue, etc.). Have students move through the stations annotating for each different element in the designated color. Once students have moved through all six stations, come back as a whole class and start the conversation!

• SMALL GROUPS: Put students into six different small groups. Assign each group a different element of The Big Six. Read the poem together as a whole class at least twice (be sure to define difficult language and answer preliminary questions), then, have each group analyze for their element. Come back together as a whole class and have a spokesperson from each group share out their findings.

30 POEMS TO USE FOR ANALYSIS WITH THE BIG SIX

After lots of thoughtful consideration and practice in the classroom, I’ve found these to be my thirty favorite poems to use when analyzing with the Big Six. The poems I’ve selected are poems that I would use to specifically teach ONE element of the Big Six. When you’re introducing the tool, it’s critical that students are able to practice the tool, not just glance at it and start discussing all six elements from the get-go. Spend a few days and poems working on title. Dig into the nuances and subtle (and not so subtle!) ways that title can impact a poem. Do the same for the other elements! Then, once students have really LEARNED the tool (not just been handed a copy of it), the best analysis conversations and writing are ready to take place.

TITLE:

• “Design” by Robert Frost

• “Oranges” by Gary Soto

• “Instructions on Not Giving Up” by Ada Limon

• “How to Be a Person” by Shane Koyczan

• “In a Station of the Metro” by Ezra Pound

SPEAKER:

• “Shooter” by Lamar Jorden

• “Pig Song” by Margaret Atwood

• “Skinhead” by Patricia Smith

• “Totally, Like, Whatever, You Know?” by Taylor Mali

• “Facing It” by Yusef Komunyakaa

THEME:

• “Remember” by Joy Harjo

• “Ode to the First White Girl I Loved” by Jose Olivarez

• “B” (If I Should Have a Daughter)” by Sarah Kay

• “Phenomenal Woman” by Maya Angelou

• “New Clothes” by Julia Alvarez

TOOLS:

• “Ode to a Lemon” by Pablo Neruda

• “Invisible Workforce” by Bobby LeFabre

• “Shoulders” by Shane Koyczan

• “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke

• “Chicago” by Carl Sandburg

MORE POETRY IDEAS FOR YOUR CLASSROOM

TURNS:

• “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost

• “You Fit Into Me” by Margaret Atwood

• “We Real Cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks

• “‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers - (314)” by Emily Dickinson

• “Awkward Scars” by Robbie Q. Telfer

PARAPHRASE:

• Queen Mab speech from Romeo and Juliet

• Prologue from Romeo and Juliet

• “Her Kind” by Anne Sexton

• “One Art” by Elizabeth Bishop

• “Let America Be America Again” by Langston Hughes

I hope you found these poems to be useful as you work on your essential question units or your poetry unit! Let me know which ones you taught, how The Big Six is helping you teaching poetry, and what you’re up to in your classroom these days!

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