December 28, 2015

On My Bookshelf: I Am the Messenger by Marcus Zusak

In I Am The Messenger by Markus Zusak, Ed begins receiving mysterious messages from an unknown sender directing him to help, and when necessary, hurt people in his town as a means to make things right. After helping strangers, Ed must take actions that will impact the lives of those closest to him and eventually his own. Read on for more of my review and ideas for classroom application.
Basic plot from Amazon: By the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Book Thief, this is a cryptic journey filled with laughter, fists, and love.

Ed Kennedy is an underage cabdriver without much of a future. He's pathetic at playing cards, hopelessly in love with his best friend, Audrey, and utterly devoted to his coffee-drinking dog, the Doorman. His life is one of peaceful routine and incompetence until he inadvertently stops a bank robbery.

That's when the first ace arrives in the mail. That's when Ed becomes the messenger. Chosen to care, he makes his way through town helping and hurting (when necessary) until only one question remains: Who's behind Ed's mission?

Why I liked it: I like books that make me feel good about humanity and this was one of them. The main character feels compelled to help others, no matter what the cost. After Ed helps to apprehend a bank robber, he begins to receive messages about helping other people and eventually himself. He is still a taxi driver with a stinky dog who spends most of his time with his friends: Richie, who has little to no motivation, Mark, who is obsessed with money and has a child out of wedlock he has never met, and Aubrey, who has a string of failed relationships, but now Ed has a greater purpose. He sits with old woman still pining for her first love, delivers people to a poorly attended church, and unites two teenage brothers. Though I found the ending a bit unclear as to who was sending Ed these messages and why, it didn't take much away from the feel goodness of the rest of the novel.

Classroom application: I would add this to my high school classroom library. The novel could also be used as a choice in literature circles around the theme of coming of age or tests/challenges.

I can also see this novel as a lead in to a "random acts of kindness activity." Ask your students to brainstorm the struggles and/or sadness they see in others' lives and ways they could make that person's life happier or better. Have each student choose one person to do a "not-so-random act of kindness" for and then write about the experience.

If you are interested in purchasing a copy of I Am the Messenger for yourself, you can find it on Amazon here.

Note: The Literary Maven is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.

December 21, 2015

On My Bookshelf: Ever by Gail Carson Levine

In Ever by Gail Carson Levine, Kezi and Olus are young, playful, and in love. The only problem is that Kezi is mortal and fated to die while Olus, god of the winds, can't live among humans. Read on for more of my review and ideas for classroom application.
Basic plot from Amazon: Falling in love is easy . . .

. . . for Kezi, a beautiful mortal, dancer, and rug weaver, and for Olus, Akkan god of the winds. Their love brings Kezi the strength to fight her fate, and it gives Olus the strength to confront his fears. Together—and apart—they encounter spiders with webs of iron, the cruel lord of the land of the dead, the mysterious god of destiny, and the tests of the Akkan gods. If they succeed, they will be together; but if they fail, Olus will have to endure the ultimate loss, and Kezi will have to make the supreme sacrifice.

Newbery Honor author Gail Carson Levine has created a stunning world of flawed gods, unbreakable vows, and ancient omens. Her story of love, fate, and belief is spellbinding.

Why I liked it: The story is told by dual narrators, both equally playful and humorous. Olus, the wind god, is lonely growing up and would rather spend time with humans than gods, but he quickly learns that his interactions with humans only create fear for them. That doesn't stop him from making a little mischief every now and then. Kesi loves to dance and is devoted to her family. When her mother falls ill and her father makes a promise to the gods in exchange for his wife's return to health, Kesi takes the brunt of the curse to protect her beloved aunt. Kesi will have to be sacrificed to the gods, but Olus has fallen in love with her and intervenes, and the two enjoy the delights of their new relationship. It's a light, easy read.

Classroom application: The novel would be a great pairing with a mythology unit in an English class since it features a hierarchy of gods and details the customs of the mortals who worship them, similar to Greek Roman, or Norse mythology. Students could look for connections between traditional myths and Ever and eventually write their own myth featuring a god or goddess of their own creation. Similarly, the novel could be used as a fiction pairing with a history unit on ancient Greece or Rome as students study the structure of the society and its religious rules. The novel could also serve as a mentor text as students practice writing alternating/intersecting plot lines.

If you are interested in purchasing a copy of Ever for yourself, you can find it on Amazon here.

Note: The Literary Maven is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.

December 14, 2015

On My Bookshelf: All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

In All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doeer the lives of Marie-Laure, a blind French girl, and Werner, a German orphan recruited by the Nazis, intersect in extraordinary ways in a tale full of magic and beautiful details. Read on for more of my review and ideas for classroom application.
Basic Plot from Amazon: From the highly acclaimed, multiple award-winning Anthony Doerr, the beautiful, stunningly ambitious instant New York Times bestseller about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II.

Marie-Laure lives with her father in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where he works as the master of its thousands of locks. When she is six, Marie-Laure goes blind and her father builds a perfect miniature of their neighborhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home. When she is twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure’s reclusive great-uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum’s most valuable and dangerous jewel.

In a mining town in Germany, the orphan Werner grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments, a talent that wins him a place at a brutal academy for Hitler Youth, then a special assignment to track the resistance. More and more aware of the human cost of his intelligence, Werner travels through the heart of the war and, finally, into Saint-Malo, where his story and Marie-Laure’s converge.

Doerr’s “stunning sense of physical detail and gorgeous metaphors” (San Francisco Chronicle) are dazzling. Deftly interweaving the lives of Marie-Laure and Werner, he illuminates the ways, against all odds, people try to be good to one another. Ten years in the writing, a National Book Award finalist, All the Light We Cannot See is a magnificent, deeply moving novel from a writer “whose sentences never fail to thrill” (Los Angeles Times).

Why I liked it: While having two alternating points of view is a popular narrative technique, in All The Light We Cannot See, the two characters are incredibly unique and equally interesting. Werner and his sister Julia grow up in an orphanage overseen by a French nun, where Werner teaches himself to repair radios and is eventually recruited by the Nazis because of his talents. Marie-Laure loses her vision to the point of blindness and spends her days roaming Paris' Museum of Natural History where her father works. She and her father have a profound bond, and it is he who teaches her how to exist in her world without the gift of sight. When World War II begins, her father is given a valuable gem or possibly one of its replicas to protect, a responsibility that eventually falls on Marie-Laure. Also appealing was that moments in the novel were magical, almost fantastical, with Naria-esque elements to the settings of the museum and Marie-Laure's great-uncle’s house.

Classroom application: The book could be used as a fiction pairing with a unit on WWII. The text reveals the effects of war on the lives of everyday people, life in the German army, and resistance efforts without overwhelming the reader with the horrors of war. The development and use of radio in the text also has science connections. The book would also make a great mentor text for developing atypical characters and practicing with alternating point of views in a narrative.

If you are interested in purchasing a copy of All The Light We Cannot See for yourself, you can find it on Amazon here.

Note: The Literary Maven is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.

December 13, 2015

#2ndaryELA Twitter Chat Topic: Celebrating the Holidays

Brynn Allison, The Literary Maven & Kristy, 2 Peas and a Dog are hosting #2ndaryELA on Twitter every Tuesday evening from 8 - 8:30 PM EST (we are trying out the half hour chat). #2ndaryELA is a weekly chat for secondary English Language Arts teachers focused on a topic. Every Sunday, we will post the topic and questions on our blogs to allow you to prepare for the upcoming Tuesday evening's chat. Thank you to everyone who joined us last week and we hope that you will join us again.

On Tuesday, December 15, our #2ndaryELA chat will focus on celebrating the holidays in the ELA classroom.

The Format:
8:00 Intros: What and where do you teach? Include a link to your blog if you have one. #2ndaryELA
8:05 Q1: Does your school celebrate the holidays? With what types of events or activities? #2ndaryELA
8:10 Q2: Do you celebrate the holidays within your classroom? With what types of lessons or activities? #2ndaryELA
8:15 Q3: How do you keep students focused on curriculum during this month which is filled with special events and activities? #2ndaryELA
8:20 Q4: What do you usually do/teach in the final days before Winter Break?
8:25 Q5: Share your favorite holiday resources (e.g. TPT products, blog posts, Pinterest ideas). #2ndaryELA

The Directions:

1. Log into Twitter on Tuesday from 8-8:30 PM EST.
2. Search for tweets with the hashtag #2ndaryELA in the search bar. Make sure to click “All tweets.”
3. Introductions are for the first 5 minutes.
4. Starting at 8:05 (@literarymaven or @2peasandadog) will post questions every 5 minutes using the format Q1, Q2, Q3, etc. and the hashtag #2ndaryELA.
5. Respond to questions using the format A1, A2, A3, etc. with #2ndaryELA.
6. Follow any teachers responding and who are also using #2ndaryELA.
7. Like and respond to other teachers' tweets.

You can schedule your responses to the questions ahead of time using a scheduler like TweetDeck or HootSuite (but don't forget to use A1, A2, etc. and #2ndaryELA). Links are encouraged, so be sure to use a link shortener like tinyurl, bitly, goo.gl or ow.ly Just visit one of those links and paste your long link to shorten it for Twitter. Using images is also encouraged when relevant.

New to chats? Here are the rules:
1. Stay on topic & stay positive!
2. Please do not post or promote paid products unless specifically asked.
3. If you arrive late, try to look through other posts before beginning.
4. Feel free to just read, like, and/or retweet.
5. Always use our hashtag #2ndaryELA, including in your replies to others.
6. Make sure your twitter feed is set to public. (Also keep in mind that Twitter is completely public – that means students, parents, and administrators can and will read what you tweet.)

Be sure to spread the word to any teacher friends who might be interested in joining us as well. We look forward to chatting with you Tuesday evening!
Get caught up on past chats here:

December 7, 2015

On My Bookshelf: The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini is a heartbreaking tale of brothers growing up as friends and torn apart by war. One, privileged and wealthy, escapes to America, while the other, poor and a racial minority, is killed by the Taliban. Read on for more of my review and ideas for classroom application.
Basic plot from Amazon: The unforgettable, heartbreaking story of the unlikely friendship between a wealthy boy and the son of his father's servant, The Kite Runner is a beautifully crafted novel set in a country that is in the process of being destroyed. It is about the power of reading, the price of betrayal, and the possibility of redemption; and an exploration of the power of fathers over sons—their love, their sacrifices, their lies.

A sweeping story of family, love, and friendship told against the devastating backdrop of the history of Afghanistan over the last thirty years, The Kite Runner is an unusual and powerful novel that has become a beloved, one-of-a-kind classic.

Why I liked it: The main character Amir is far from perfect. As a privileged young man, he is often cruel and unkind to his closest friend, Hassan, who is later revealed to be his half brother. Hassan, though poor and uneducated, is honest, trustworthy, and upstanding, while Amir lies, betrays, and thinks only of himself. Amir resents his father's affections for Hassan and tries to turn his father against him. In the second half of the novel, Amir has the chance to redeem himself for his actions toward Hassan by returning to Afghanistan to save Hassan's son, Sohrab.

As the threat of war becomes more and more imminent, Amir and his father escape to America where their relationship slowly reverses and Amir finally has the chance to grow close to and begin to understand his father. This, along with Amir's efforts to save Sohrab, allows the novel to come full circle. Its ending is imperfect, but realistic. Amir does return to America with Sohrab, but Sohrab's suffering is not left behind in his homeland. The final scenes of the novel show that he cannot quickly rebound from his experiences. but is slowly making progress.

Classroom application: First, let me say that I would only recommend this novel for high school and probably only the upper grades of that. There are some very graphic, violent scenes including rape and beating. I listened to the book on audio tape and at points I wanted to cover my ears. In an English class, the novel could be a choice in literature circles with a coming of age theme or a world cultures theme. Conflict is also a strong theme in the novel as the powerless struggle against the powerful.

While fictional, the novel could be used in a history class paired with units on issues in the Middle East, the Russian/Afghan war, Islamic culture, the Taliban, class issues or immigration.

If you are interested in purchasing a copy of The Kite Runner for yourself, you can find it on Amazon here.

Note: The Literary Maven is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.

December 6, 2015

#2ndaryELA Twitter Chat Topic: Helping Students to Think Beyond Themselves

Brynn Allison, The Literary Maven & Kristy, 2 Peas and a Dog are hosting #2ndaryELA on Twitter every Tuesday evening from 8 - 8:30 PM EST (we are trying out the half hour chat). #2ndaryELA is a weekly chat for secondary English Language Arts teachers focused on a topic. Every Sunday, we will post the topic and questions on our blogs to allow you to prepare for the upcoming Tuesday evening's chat. Thank you to everyone who joined us last week and we hope that you will join us again.




Looking for the recap? Click on the image below.


On Tuesday, December 8, our #2ndaryELA chat will focus on helping students think beyond themselves in the ELA classroom.

The Format:
8:00 Intros: What and where do you teach? Include a link to your blog if you have one. #2ndaryELA
8:05 Q1: How do you get students to think about others during this month? Lessons? Videos? #2ndaryELA
8:10 Q2: What short stories, poems, novels, nonfiction texts would you recommend to get students thinking about giving rather than getting? #2ndaryELA
8:15 Q3: Have you done any volunteering or service projects with students in the past? Share your experiences. #2ndaryELA
8:20 Q4: Are there volunteer opportunities or service projects you’d like to try with your students? What is holding you back? #2ndaryELA
8:25 Q5: Share some resources for helping students think beyond themselves during the season of giving (e.g. blog posts, Pinterest ideas). #2ndaryELA

The Directions:
1. Log into Twitter on Tuesday from 8-8:30 PM EST.
2. Search for tweets with the hashtag #2ndaryELA in the search bar. Make sure to click “All tweets.”
3. Introductions are for the first 5 minutes.
4. Starting at 8:05 (@literarymaven or @2peasandadog) will post questions every 5 minutes using the format Q1, Q2, Q3, etc. and the hashtag #2ndaryELA.
5. Respond to questions using the format A1, A2, A3, etc. with #2ndaryELA.
6. Follow any teachers responding and who are also using #2ndaryELA.
7. Like and respond to other teachers' tweets.

You can schedule your responses to the questions ahead of time using a scheduler like TweetDeck or HootSuite (but don't forget to use A1, A2, etc. and #2ndaryELA). Links are encouraged, so be sure to use a link shortener like tinyurl, bitly, goo.gl or ow.ly Just visit one of those links and paste your long link to shorten it for Twitter. Using images is also encouraged when relevant.

New to chats? Here are the rules:
1. Stay on topic & stay positive!
2. Please do not post or promote paid products unless specifically asked.
3. If you arrive late, try to look through other posts before beginning.
4. Feel free to just read, like, and/or retweet.
5. Always use our hashtag #2ndaryELA, including in your replies to others.
6. Make sure your twitter feed is set to public. (Also keep in mind that Twitter is completely public – that means students, parents, and administrators can and will read what you tweet.)

Be sure to spread the word to any teacher friends who might be interested in joining us as well. We look forward to chatting with you Tuesday evening!
Get caught up on past chats here:

December 4, 2015

Writing In The ELA Classroom: Narrative Writing

Help students to develop a compelling storyline with dynamic characters. In this #2ndaryELA Twitter chat, middle and high school English Language Arts teachers discussed narrative writing: favorite assignments, students' struggles and solutions, and helpful resources. Read through the chat for ideas to implement in your own classroom.
This #2ndaryELA Twitter chat was all about narrative writing in the ELA classroom. Middle and High School English Language Arts discussed favorite assignments, students struggles and solutions, and helpful resources. The highlights are below.

Favorite assignments:
*Short creative assignments like rewriting fairy tales/famous stories
*Write about their average day, then to embellish it into a fantastical story
*Have students do a random act of kindness and then write about their experience
*Write commencement-style addresses, or words of wisdom on what they've learned
*Write a sci-fi/historical fiction piece of their own after reading Kindred by Octavia Butler
*Writing Roulette where they have to continue story of peer, maintaining the story's mood/tone
*Create quirky characters and make collages or social media profiles before writing fictional narratives
*"Encyclopedia of my Ordinary Life," Top Ten, and House Hunters

Struggles:
*Making meaningful revisions
*Page and word limits. They want to keep writing and writing.
*Separating fictional stories from their personal stories
*Slowing down the narrative. They get excited about where the story is going and skip the details.
*Getting started if they don’t have story idea

Solutions:
*To encourage revision, first read mentor texts & identify effective techniques. Then ask students to find those same techniques in their own writing. If they aren't there, students need to add them.
*Page restrictions are essential. One cannot mark a novel.
*Having journalling for personal stories and creating fictional character that are different from them.
*Peer edit with students with different writing styles 
*Use mentor texts as read alouds

Helpful Resources:
*Pinterest boards like this one
*Baby by Patricia MacLachlan. It is simple, beautiful, almost poetic. A great example of concise writing.
*Collect ideas while reading young adult literature
*Teaching for Joy and Justice by Linda Christensen

Hope you'll join us next Tuesday night, December 8 at 8pm EST to discuss helping students think beyond themselves during the holiday season. The questions for our next chat will be posted here on Sunday. If you missed this chat, scroll down and read the whole thing below.

December 2, 2015

Writing In The ELA Classroom: Argument Writing

Help students to develop the skills to write a convincing argument and evaluate the strength of others' claims. In this #2ndaryELA Twitter chat, middle and high school English Language Arts teachers discuss argument writing: favorite assignments, students struggles and solutions, and helpful resources. Read through the chat for ideas to implement in your own classroom.
This #2ndaryELA Twitter chat was all about argument writing in the ELA classroom. Middle and High School English Language Arts discussed favorite assignments, students struggles and solutions, and helpful resources. The highlights are below.

Favorite assignments:
*Argumentative research papers are argumentative. Students draw three topics from a set of idea cards and prewrite on all three before choosing one.
*After reading "The Lady or The Tiger?" by Frank Stockton, students write an essay debating the fairness of US justice system
*Using current events like racial profiling or school to prison pipeline
*Analyzing the argument of infographics
*Civil rights topic. Begin by separating students by ethnicity in the classroom and get their juices fired over "unfairness." (Note: do this activity with caution and sensitivity)

Struggles:
*Choosing the best evidence to support an argument
*Crafting the rebuttal paragraph
*Forming personal opinions/thoughts and expressing them in writing
*Coming up with own argument when analyzing sources
*Coming up with different types of evidence
*Revision
*Formation of ideas into sentences and grouping ideas

Solutions:
*Looking at sample rebuttal paragraphs, identifying the components, then use them as a model for students to write their own
*Practice finding strong evidence by ranking evidence for practice argument
*Select topics that are relevant and interesting
*Do a debate first. Talk about it, then write about it.

Helpful Resources:
*Everything's an Argument
*They Say I Say
*Teaching Argument Writing by George Hillocks
*New York Times "Room for Debate"

Hope you'll join us next Tuesday night, December 8 at 8pm EST to discuss helping students think beyond themselves during the holiday season. The questions for our next chat will be posted here on Sunday. If you missed this chat, scroll down and read the whole thing below.

November 29, 2015

#2ndaryELA Twitter Chat Topic: Narrative Writing

Brynn Allison, The Literary Maven & Kristy, 2 Peas and a Dog are hosting #2ndaryELA on Twitter every Tuesday evening from 8 - 8:30 PM EST (we are trying out the half hour chat). #2ndaryELA is a weekly chat for secondary English Language Arts teachers focused on a topic. Every Sunday, we will post the topic and questions on our blogs to allow you to prepare for the upcoming Tuesday evening's chat. Thank you to everyone who joined us last week and we hope that you will join us again.




Looking for the recap? Click on the image below.


On Tuesday, December 1, our #2ndaryELA chat will focus on narrative writing in the ELA classroom.

The Format:
8:00 Intros: What and where do you teach? Include a link to your blog if you have one. #2ndaryELA
8:05 Q1: How do you incorporate narrative writing in your classroom? #2ndaryELA
8:10 Q2: What are your students’ favorite assignments? #2ndaryELA
8:15 Q3: What are your students’ struggles with narrative writing? #2ndaryELA
8:20 Q4: How do you address these struggles? #2ndaryELA
8:25 Q5: Share a resource for narrative writing that you find invaluable (book, article, blog post, type of technology, etc.). #2ndaryELA

The Directions:
1. Log into Twitter on Tuesday from 8-8:30 PM EST.
2. Search for tweets with the hashtag #2ndaryELA in the search bar. Make sure to click “All tweets.”
3. Introductions are for the first 5 minutes.
4. Starting at 8:05 (@literarymaven or @2peasandadog) will post questions every 5 minutes using the format Q1, Q2, Q3, etc. and the hashtag #2ndaryELA.
5. Respond to questions using the format A1, A2, A3, etc. with #2ndaryELA.
6. Follow any teachers responding and who are also using #2ndaryELA.
7. Like and respond to other teachers' tweets.

You can schedule your responses to the questions ahead of time using a scheduler like TweetDeck or HootSuite (but don't forget to use A1, A2, etc. and #2ndaryELA). Links are encouraged, so be sure to use a link shortener like tinyurl, bitly, goo.gl or ow.ly Just visit one of those links and paste your long link to shorten it for Twitter. Using images is also encouraged when relevant.

New to chats? Here are the rules:
1. Stay on topic & stay positive!
2. Please do not post or promote paid products unless specifically asked.
3. If you arrive late, try to look through other posts before beginning.
4. Feel free to just read, like, and/or retweet.
5. Always use our hashtag #2ndaryELA, including in your replies to others.
6. Make sure your twitter feed is set to public. (Also keep in mind that Twitter is completely public – that means students, parents, and administrators can and will read what you tweet.)

Be sure to spread the word to any teacher friends who might be interested in joining us as well. We look forward to chatting with you Tuesday evening!
Get caught up on past chats here:

'Tis The Season: Four Tips for ELA Teachers to Navigate the Holidays

The holidays are a hectic time for everyone, but even more so teachers. Find ideas for engaging lessons in the final days before winter break, a meaningful gift exchange for students, and easy gifts for you to give.
The holiday season is hectic for everyone, but maybe even more so for teachers.

We want to wrap things up neatly before the holidays so that we can start fresh when we can return in January; no papers or projects hanging over into the new year. We are in a frenzy to finish up grading before we head home to the holidays or we are collecting a mountain of assignments to be graded as we sip hot cocoa in front of the fireplace.

Read on to find ideas for engaging lessons in the final days before winter break, a meaningful gift exchange for students, and easy gifts for you to give.



November 25, 2015

Using Choice Boards to Differentiate in the Classroom

Meet your students' varying needs with motivating student through choice by using choice boards in the classroom to differentiate during novel units, homework assignments, author studies, and other units of study.
In my first year of teaching, all of my students did the same assignment at the same time. Choices were limited. Maybe students could pick one of two extension activities at the end of reading a short story, but individual students working on different assignments of their choosing did not happen.

As I grew more experienced in the classroom, I also grew more comfortable with students making choices and working independently. As the teacher, I didn't have to have the control all of the time. 

When I did relax a little bit and hand some of that control over to my students, I realized I was also increasing the level of responsibility students had for completing their own work. When all of my students were doing the same thing at the same time, it required very little effort on the students' part.  Giving them choices meant now they had options, but they had to do the work individually rather than relying on the teacher or other classmates.

One of my favorite ways to give students choices is using choice boards.

Choice Boards: The Basics
A choice board is just what it sounds like, a board of choices. The choices might be questions to answer or activities to complete related to a short story read in English Language Arts, a concept in mathematics, a unit in science, or a time period in history. The possibilities are endless.

The formatting and directions for choice boards are also flexible. You could create a 3x3 board and ask the students to make "tic-tac-toe" by completing any three choices in a row, column, or diagonally. You could create a 5x5 board and ask students to make "BINGO" by completing any five choices in a row, column, or diagonally. You could also make a choice board of any size and require students to complete a certain number of choices from each row or column, or a total number from the board as a whole.

Using Choice Boards During Novel Units
Meet your students' varying needs with motivating student through choice by using choice boards in the classroom to differentiate during novel units, homework assignments, author studies, and other units of study.
Instead of requiring all students to answer the same questions as they read a whole class text, literature circle novel, or book club selection, you can use a choice board to offer a variety of questions and activities. 

For example, as my students were reading Nightjohn by Gary Paulsen, I created choice boards for every two chapters, four in total (it is a pretty short book). The choice boards were broken down into four columns of questions/activities marked "knowledge & comprehension," "application & analysis," "synthesis," "and "evaluation." As the column titles suggest, different questions/activities were different levels of difficulty.

For this type of choice board, I assign a certain number of choices per column. That number can be modified to meet the needs of special education students or when a student is absent from class. For that reason, at the top of each column it says "choose __"; students individually write in the number of choices I assign them. This also makes it easy to be flexible when we have a short week or unexpectedly miss a class period for a school event. Similarly, I created a set of choice boards for my Romeo & Juliet unit where students choose a set number of activities from the choice board as a whole, but I can adjust that required number and whether they are completed in class, for homework, or a combination of both.

Using Choice Boards for Homework Assignments

Meet your students' varying needs with motivating student through choice by using choice boards in the classroom to differentiate during novel units, homework assignments, author studies, and other units of study.
If students have the same kind of homework each night or week, such as independent reading or practice with spelling words, choice boards are a great way to mix things up.

To accompany their independent reading, students might have choices like describe the setting of your novel and draw a map to accompany your description, create a Venn diagram comparing the protagonist and the antagonist in your novel, or write a letter from one character to another explaining a conflict he is facing and the steps he is taking to try to resolve the conflict. All of these choices would apply to any book a student is reading. 

While creating this type of choice board might take some time and creativity, it would save you from creating and assigning homework each night, and with enough choices, this choice board could be used over and over throughout the year as students read different books. 

At the high school level, vocabulary exercises are a part of my students' homework. I use a root based vocabulary system of instruction and I created a homework choice board that students could use all year. This meant I only had to make copies once, though I kept extra copies in the classroom, and I never had to waste time discussing the students' homework assignment as it was the same each week: choose activities from your vocabulary homework choice board). I divided the choice board into four sections to appeal to students' different learning styles: practice/word relationships, writing, visualization, and movement/kinesthetic. To receive a free copy of this vocabulary homework choice board, sign up for my monthly newsletter here.

Using Choice Boards At the End of an Author Study
Meet your students' varying needs with motivating student through choice by using choice boards in the classroom to differentiate during novel units, homework assignments, author studies, and other units of study.
To wrap up an author study (reading several texts by and/or about the same author) or genre study (reading several texts within the same genre, i.e. mystery or historical fiction), students are often asked to write a culminating writing piece, perhaps an essay synthesizing information about an author and his writing style or defining the characteristics of a genre. Working through the writing process can take different amounts of time for different students, with some students requiring intense amounts of support. 

Using a choice board of activities in conjunction with the assigned essay allows students to work independently while you facilitate small group lessons throughout the writing process. The choice board activities must be activities students can truly complete independently or your small group lessons will face constant interruption. The activities must also be ones that students are motivated and excited to complete so that you don't have to constantly redirect students who are supposed to be working independently.

During a unit on Edgar Allan Poe, one of my favorite authors, my classes read one of his short stories, "The Black Cat," and one of his poems, "The Raven," as well as a series of nonfiction readings on the different possible causes of Poe's death. As a culminating writing assignment, students must select and defend one of the theories about his death. While I work one-on-one or with small groups of students to collect evidence, outline arguments, or craft rebuttal paragraphs, other students work on activities from their choice board, including writing their own tale of terror, creating a comic version of one of Poe's short stories, or recording a podcast of one of Poe's poems.


Using Choice Boards to Culminate a Unit
Meet your students' varying needs with motivating student through choice by using choice boards in the classroom to differentiate during novel units, homework assignments, author studies, and other units of study.
Sometimes at the end of a unit, I want to reinforce concepts, but also let students explore topics of interest to them. While having total free choice can be overwhelming, I also don't want to dictate a final product or project since student buy-in is much higher if they make the decision for themselves.

By the final week of my poetry unit, for example, students have been exposed to many different figurative language terms, sound and rhyme techniques, and forms of poetry. Instead of requiring all students to complete the same poetry project, I use a choice board to allow students to do an in-depth examination of topics of interest to them. Some students might opt to analyze additional examples of a certain type of poetry and write their own poem in that form or style while other students create a storyboard to accompany a favorite poem.

You can find all of my teaching resources that include choice boards here.

November 24, 2015

Writing In The ELA Classroom: Informational Writing

Help students to be able to clearly and accurately convey factual information through writing. In this #2ndaryELA Twitter chat, middle and high school English Language Arts discussed informational writing: favorite assignments, students struggles and solutions, and helpful resources. Read through the chat for ideas to implement in your own classroom.
This #2ndaryELA Twitter chat was all about informational writing in the ELA classroom. Middle and High School English Language Arts discussed favorite assignments, students struggles and solutions, and helpful resources. The highlights are below.

Favorite assignments:
*Kelly Gallagher Article of the Week
*How-to pieces written as a script with an accompanying video
*Responses to watching CNN Student News
*Writing a "travel for dummies" piece about a dream destination
*After reading Steve Jobs' biography Thinking Differently, students choose an inventor to research, report on, and create a body for
*Responses to TED Talks

Struggles:
*Appropriate tone and incorporating text features
*Stamina
*Paraphrasing
*Summarizing
*Plagiarism
*Structure

Solutions:
*Post transition/signal words for different types of text structures
*Use mentor texts
*Look at cases of musicians who have gotten in trouble for plagiarism
*Modeling
*Working in pairs/small groups
*Writing conferences
*Frequent feedback
*Mini-lessons
*Examine bad examples
*Graph stamina by recording time spent writing
*Identify transitions/signal words in sample texts
*Use a site like KidBlog to publish student writing and create a real audience
*Create competitions
*Use Google's Voice Recorder option

Helpful Resources:
*Pinterest boards like this one and this one
*Kelly Gallagher
*Dave Stuart Jr.
*Erin Klein
*Write the World's monthly contests
*Hemingway Editor or Analyze My Writing
*Lucy Calkins Units of Study for Informational Writing
*Read and Write for Google

Hope you'll join us tonight at 8pm EST to discuss argument writing. The questions for our next chat will be posted here on Sunday. If you missed this chat, scroll down and read the whole thing below.

November 23, 2015

On My Bookshelf: Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

In Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver, Samantha Kingston has the chance to relive the last day of her life over and over and try to make things right. Her retakes allow her to realize who and what is really important. Read on for more of my review and ideas for classroom application.
Basic plot: Samantha Kingston's life seems pretty perfect. She and her three best friends, Lindsay, Ally, and Elody are the most popular girls in school. Her boyfriend Rob is hot, she receives plenty of roses on Cupid's Day, and other girls want to be her. But her perfect life is shattered that night when Rob gets too drunk for their "first time," Sam and her friends are confronted by a girl they pick on, and Lindsay's drunk driving lands them off the road. Sam finds herself dead, floating in time and space, and then awakening to relive that day over and over (think Groundhog Day meets The Butterfly Effect). Each time she awakens, she makes changes to the day trying to change its outcome, first just for herself and then for others as well, but realizes that just making changes for the good cannot cancel out all of the bad.

Why I liked it: The main character, Sam is impossible not to like. She is confident and sassy at times, vulnerable and insecure at others. On some of her "retakes," she is kind and thoughtful, and on other "retakes" she is her own woman,brutally honest and refusing to play by the rules of social order. She is trying to cover up a nerdy past, but also enjoys a close knit friendship full of laughter, inside jokes, and silly hijinks. Like the characters in Panic, another of Lauren Oliver's novels, those in Before I Fall were believable rather than stereotypical teenagers.

Classroom application: This is definitely a title I would add to my high school classroom library and would be a popular pick among female students.

The novel would be an interesting pairing with Ray Bradbury's short story "A Sound of Thunder" as both deal with the idea of "the butterfly effect," one one event or action impacts another in the future.

If you are interested in purchasing a copy of Before I Fall for yourself, you can find it on Amazon here. Note: The Literary Maven is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.

November 22, 2015

#2ndaryELA Twitter Chat Topic: Argument Writing

Brynn Allison, The Literary Maven & Kristy, 2 Peas and a Dog are hosting #2ndaryELA on Twitter every Tuesday evening from 8 - 8:30 PM EST (we are trying out the half hour chat). #2ndaryELA is a weekly chat for secondary English Language Arts teachers focused on a topic. Every Sunday, we will post the topic and questions on our blogs to allow you to prepare for the upcoming Tuesday evening's chat. Thank you to everyone who joined us last week and we hope that you will join us again.




Looking for the recap? Click on the image below.



On Tuesday, November 24, our #2ndaryELA chat will focus on argument writing in the ELA classroom.

The Format:

8:00 Intros: What and where do you teach? Include a link to your blog if you have one. #2ndaryELA
8:05 Q1: How do you incorporate argument writing in your classroom? #2ndaryELA
8:10 Q2: What are your students’ favorite assignments? #2ndaryELA
8:15 Q3: What are your students’ struggles with argument writing? #2ndaryELA
8:20 Q4: How do you address these struggles? #2ndaryELA
8:25 Q5: Share a resource for argument writing that you find invaluable (book, article, blog post, type of technology, etc.). #2ndaryELA

The Directions:

1. Log into Twitter on Tuesday from 8-8:30 PM EST.
2. Search for tweets with the hashtag #2ndaryELA in the search bar. Make sure to click “All tweets.”
3. Introductions are for the first 5 minutes.
4. Starting at 8:05 (@literarymaven or @2peasandadog) will post questions every 5 minutes using the format Q1, Q2, Q3, etc. and the hashtag #2ndaryELA.
5. Respond to questions using the format A1, A2, A3, etc. with #2ndaryELA.
6. Follow any teachers responding and who are also using #2ndaryELA.
7. Like and respond to other teachers' tweets.

You can schedule your responses to the questions ahead of time using a scheduler like TweetDeck or HootSuite (but don't forget to use A1, A2, etc. and #2ndaryELA). Links are encouraged, so be sure to use a link shortener like tinyurl, bitly, goo.gl or ow.ly Just visit one of those links and paste your long link to shorten it for Twitter. Using images is also encouraged when relevant.

New to chats? Here are the rules:
1. Stay on topic & stay positive!
2. Please do not post or promote paid products unless specifically asked.
3. If you arrive late, try to look through other posts before beginning.
4. Feel free to just read, like, and/or retweet.
5. Always use our hashtag #2ndaryELA, including in your replies to others.
6. Make sure your twitter feed is set to public. (Also keep in mind that Twitter is completely public – that means students, parents, and administrators can and will read what you tweet.)

Be sure to spread the word to any teacher friends who might be interested in joining us as well. We look forward to chatting with you Tuesday evening!
Get caught up on past chats here:

November 21, 2015

Lesson Planning: How To Do It & Where To Find Great Ideas

Lesson planning can be overwhelming. Where to begin: the content or the standards? In this 2ndaryELA Twitter chat, middle and high school English Language Arts teachers discussed lesson plan organization and format, topics covered, the planning process, where to find great ideas and other valuable resources. Read through the chat for ideas to implement in your own classroom.
This #2ndaryELA Twitter chat was all about lesson planning in the ELA classroom. Middle and High School English Language Arts discussed lesson plan organization and format, topics covered, the planning process, where to find great ideas and other valuable resources. The highlights are below.

Ways to create lesson plans:
*Use Google Sheets for year plans
*Planbook.com which can be shared with other teachers and parents
*iDoceo can be used to plan, take attendance, and enter grades with an option to print/share/download PDF version
*Planboard
*Handwriting plans may make them easier to remember, can also be easily revised and used as reference for next year

Great places to get ideas for lessons:
Lesson planning can be overwhelming. Where to begin: the content or the standards? In this 2ndaryELA Twitter chat, middle and high school English Language Arts teachers discussed lesson plan organization and format, topics covered, the planning process, where to find great ideas and other valuable resources. Read through the chat for ideas to implement in your own classroom.*Blogs like Runde's Room and Teaching With a Mountain View (upper elementary/early MS), All Access Pass (MS)
*TeachersPayTeachers
*Site for Advanced Placement English 
*Pinterest
*Lucy Calkins Units of Study
*Notice & Note: Strategies for Close Reading by Kylene Beers and Robert Probst
*The Common Core Reading Book
*Mirrors and Windows
*Twitter chats like #tlap and #2ndaryELA
*When Kids Can't Read - What Teachers Can Do by Kylene Beers
*The Non-Freaked Out Guide to Teaching the Common Core by Dave Stuart
*Kelly Gallagher's Article of the Week 
*Common Core flipbook of expectations
*The Common Core Companion by Jim Burke

Hope you'll join us Tuesday, November 24 at 8pm EST to discuss argument. The questions for our next chat will be posted here on Sunday. If you missed this chat, scroll down and read the whole thing below.

November 20, 2015

Teaching the Classics: Strategies & Resources For Challenging Texts

Classic literature still dominates most English course reading lists. In this #2ndaryELA Twitter chat,  middle and high school English Language Arts teachers discussed classic titles we teach, why they are still important, how to support students who struggle with them, and making connections with modern day issues. Read through the chat for ideas to implement in your own classroom.
This #2ndaryELA Twitter chat was all about teaching the classics in the ELA classroom. Middle and High School English Language Arts discussed which titles we teach, why they are still important, how to support students who struggle with them, and making connections with modern day issues. The highlights are below.

Popular classic titles:
Lord of the Flies, Gilgamesh, Oedipus Rex, Julius Caesar, Of Mice and Men, To Kill A Mockingbird, Romeo & Juliet, The Odyssey, Fahrenheit 451, Frankenstein, A Christmas Carol, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Canterbury Tales, Beowulf, Animal Farm, The Great Gatsby,  A Separate Peace, The Crucible, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Daedalus and Icarus, Antigone, Our Town, The Death of a Salesman, Doll's House. 

Strategies for teaching challenging texts:
*Work backwards chronologically which will allow you to begin the year with more accessible texts and build up to the more challenging ones.
Classic literature still dominates most English course reading lists. In this #2ndaryELA Twitter chat,  middle and high school English Language Arts teachers discussed classic titles we teach, why they are still important, how to support students who struggle with them, and making connections with modern day issues. Read through the chat for ideas to implement in your own classroom.*Pair texts with the seasons: Frankenstein at Halloween, A Christmas Carol during the holidays, A Midsummer Night's Dream as summer approaches.
*Look on YouTube for short, often goofy adaptations to show at the start of teaching.
*Find a meme, quote, or reference to the text to engage students.
*If it is a play, act it out or go see it.
*Read modern translations and just excerpts of the original text.
*Use side-by-side texts (No Fear Shakespeare).
*Use Storybird to have students translate archaic language into storybooks.
*Read graphic novel versions.
*Listen to audiobook versions.
*Keep a visual list of readings to refer back and connect to as you read new texts.

Resources for teaching the classics:
*Video on Shakespeare's rhythm
*Blog post on adapting classic text's basic elements into video game, movie, or story
*No Fear Shakespeare for side-by-side texts
*New York Times & National Public Radio for modern day news articles
*Pop sonnets for teaching Shakespeare
*Blog post on group annotation
*Thug Notes videos like this one on The Outsiders (be sure to preview for adult language)
*Crash Course videos like this one on The Great Gatsby
*NewsELA text sets
*Sassy Gay Friend videos like this one on Romeo & Juliet (be sure to preview for adult language)

Hope you'll join us next Tuesday, November 24 at 8pm EST to discuss argument writing. The questions for our next chat will be posted here on Sunday. If you missed this chat, scroll down and read the whole thing below.

November 16, 2015

On My Bookshelf: The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

In The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness, Todd is the only boy left in a town of men, all of whom hear the Noise, the thoughts of other men. When Todd unexpectedly finds a girl, the two must flee his home town and he discovers that the world is not the place he was raised to believe it was. Read on for more of my review and ideas for classroom application.
Basic plot: Todd is the only boy left in Prentisstown and his 13th birthday, the day he will become a man is soon approaching. Like all of the other males in Prentisstown, he can hear the Noise (the thoughts) of the other men and animals and his Noise can be heard just as clearly. The same germ that infected all of the men with the Noise killed all of the women in Prentisstown, so Todd is shocked when he and his dog Manchee discover a creature with no noise, a girl, down by the swamp at the edge of town. With this discovery, Todd's caretakers, Ben and Cillian (his parents are long dead), tell him he must leave Prentisstown taking with him his mother's journal, even though he can't read very well. Todd saves the girl, Viola, from Aaron, the twisted religious leader of Prentisstown and the two escape into the next town over, one that Todd did not know even existed. Viola turns out to be a settler from outer space, much like the founders of Prentisstown. As Todd and Viola flee, chased by a growing army of Prentisstown men, Todd realizes that more and more of what he was taught about the world is not true.

Why I liked it: The plot was well-crafted with the truth about Prentisstown slowly being revealed and a completely unexpected ending. The characters were well developed, from the lovable Manchee (Todd's dog) to the feisty Hildy, to the creepy Aaron, who just won't die. I look forward to reading the other books in the trilogy and it looks like plans for a movie are in the works.

The mix of sci-fi, fantasy, and dystopia creates a setting where the future is reminiscent of the past. In The Knife of Never Letting Go, life is very simple, farm based with little technology. The "settlers" land in spaceships, but the settlements have no phones, cars, etc.

Classroom application: The novel could be used as a mentor text for creating voice. The narrator has a very distinct dialect/use of language, but it does not inhibit a reader's understanding.

The novel could also be used in a genre study or in literature circles to compare how different authors view the future and the dystopian societies they imagine.

If you are interested in purchasing a copy of The Knife of Never Letting Go for yourself, you can find it on Amazon here.

Note: The Literary Maven is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.

November 15, 2015

#2ndaryELA Twitter Chat Topic: Informational Writing

Brynn Allison, The Literary Maven & Kristy, 2 Peas and a Dog are hosting #2ndaryELA on Twitter every Tuesday evening from 8 - 8:30 PM EST (we are trying out the half hour chat). #2ndaryELA is a weekly chat for secondary English Language Arts teachers focused on a topic. Every Sunday, we will post the topic and questions on our blogs to allow you to prepare for the upcoming Tuesday evening's chat. Thank you to everyone who joined us last week and we hope that you will join us again.




Looking for the recap? Click on the image below.



On Tuesday, November 17, our #2ndaryELA chat will focus on informational writing in the ELA classroom.

The Format:
8:00 Intros: What and where do you teach? Include a link to your blog if you have one. #2ndaryELA
8:05 Q1: How do you incorporate informational writing in your classroom? #2ndaryELA
8:10 Q2: What are your students’ favorite assignments? #2ndaryELA
8:15 Q3: What are your students’ struggles with informational writing? #2ndaryELA
8:20 Q4: How do you address these struggles? #2ndaryELA
8:25 Q5: Share a resource for informational writing that you find invaluable (book, article, blog post, type of technology, etc.). #2ndaryELA

The Directions:

1. Log into Twitter on Tuesday from 8-8:30 PM EST.
2. Search for tweets with the hashtag #2ndaryELA in the search bar. Make sure to click “All tweets.”
3. Introductions are for the first 5 minutes.
4. Starting at 8:05 (@literarymaven or @2peasandadog) will post questions every 5 minutes using the format Q1, Q2, Q3, etc. and the hashtag #2ndaryELA.
5. Respond to questions using the format A1, A2, A3, etc. with #2ndaryELA.
6. Follow any teachers responding and who are also using #2ndaryELA.
7. Like and respond to other teachers' tweets.

You can schedule your responses to the questions ahead of time using a scheduler like TweetDeck or HootSuite (but don't forget to use A1, A2, etc. and #2ndaryELA). Links are encouraged, so be sure to use a link shortener like tinyurl, bitly, goo.gl or ow.ly Just visit one of those links and paste your long link to shorten it for Twitter. Using images is also encouraged when relevant.

New to chats? Here are the rules:
1. Stay on topic & stay positive!
2. Please do not post or promote paid products unless specifically asked.
3. If you arrive late, try to look through other posts before beginning.
4. Feel free to just read, like, and/or retweet.
5. Always use our hashtag #2ndaryELA, including in your replies to others.
6. Make sure your twitter feed is set to public. (Also keep in mind that Twitter is completely public – that means students, parents, and administrators can and will read what you tweet.)

Be sure to spread the word to any teacher friends who might be interested in joining us as well. We look forward to chatting with you Tuesday evening!
Get caught up on past chats here:

November 8, 2015

#2ndaryELA Twitter Chat Topic: Avoiding Teacher Burnout

Brynn Allison, The Literary Maven & Kristy, 2 Peas and a Dog are hosting #2ndaryELA on Twitter every Tuesday evening from 8 - 8:30 PM EST (we are trying out the half hour chat). #2ndaryELA is a weekly chat for secondary English Language Arts teachers focused on a topic. Every Sunday, we will post the topic and questions on our blogs to allow you to prepare for the upcoming Tuesday evening's chat. Thank you to everyone who joined us last week and we hope that you will join us again.




Looking for the recap? Click on the image below.



On Tuesday, November 10, our #2ndaryELA chat will focus on avoiding teacher burnout in the ELA classroom.

The Format:
8:00 Intros: What and where do you teach? Include a link to your blog if you have one. #2ndaryELA
8:05 Q1: What causes teacher burnout? Do you ever discuss this with colleagues? or as a whole staff? #2ndaryELA
8:10 Q2: What strategies do you use to help manage stress and avoid teacher burnout? #2ndaryELA
8:15 Q3: How do you do to recover from teacher burnout? #2ndaryELA
8:20 Q4: What advice would you give to new teachers to help them avoid new teacher burnout? #2ndaryELA
8:25 Q5: Share some resources you have found for helping to manage stress and avoid teacher burnout (book, article, blog post, type of technology, etc.). #2ndaryELA

The Directions:
1. Log into Twitter on Tuesday from 8-8:30 PM EST.
2. Search for tweets with the hashtag #2ndaryELA in the search bar. Make sure to click “All tweets.”
3. Introductions are for the first 5 minutes.
4. Starting at 8:05 (@literarymaven or @2peasandadog) will post questions every 5 minutes using the format Q1, Q2, Q3, etc. and the hashtag #2ndaryELA.
5. Respond to questions using the format A1, A2, A3, etc. with #2ndaryELA.
6. Follow any teachers responding and who are also using #2ndaryELA.
7. Like and respond to other teachers' tweets.

You can schedule your responses to the questions ahead of time using a scheduler like TweetDeck or HootSuite (but don't forget to use A1, A2, etc. and #2ndaryELA). Links are encouraged, so be sure to use a link shortener like tinyurl, bitly, goo.gl or ow.ly Just visit one of those links and paste your long link to shorten it for Twitter. Using images is also encouraged when relevant.

New to chats? Here are the rules:
1. Stay on topic & stay positive!
2. Please do not post or promote paid products unless specifically asked.
3. If you arrive late, try to look through other posts before beginning.
4. Feel free to just read, like, and/or retweet.
5. Always use our hashtag #2ndaryELA, including in your replies to others.
6. Make sure your twitter feed is set to public. (Also keep in mind that Twitter is completely public – that means students, parents, and administrators can and will read what you tweet.)

Be sure to spread the word to any teacher friends who might be interested in joining us as well. We look forward to chatting with you Tuesday evening!
Get caught up on past chats here: