July 30, 2015

Building A Classroom Library: Recommended Titles, Authors & Genres

It's all about the books! Middle school and high school English Language Arts teachers discussed students' favorite reads, building, organizing & managing a classroom libraries, and matching students' interests. Read through the chat for ideas to implement in your own classroom.
This week's #2ndaryELA Twitter chat was all about the books. We chatted about our students' favorite reads, building, organizing & managing our classroom libraries, and matching students' interests. The highlights are below.
Recommended Genres: science fiction, fantasy, dystopyia, pop fiction, graphic novels, sports related, mysteries

Recommended Authors: Sharon Draper, Michael Vey, Mike Lupica, John Green Green, James Patterson, James Swanson

Recommended Titles: Thirteen Reasons Why, Speak, Divergent series, If I Stay, A Fault in Our Stars, Into the Wild, The Hunger Games series, Fish in a Tree, One For the Murphys, The Giver, Touching Spirit Bear, Drums Girls & Dangerous Pie, The Pearl, The Outsiders, And Then There Were None, The Great Gatsby, Fahrenheit 451, Wonder, Legend. The Maze Runner, The Hobbit, The Land of Stories series, The Westing Game, Duck Dynasty books, Rain Rein, Secret Hum of a Daisy, Counting by 7s, Stella by Starlight, Absolutely Almost, Michael Vey, HIVE series, Eragon series, The Stranger, Unwind series, Challenger Deep, Life as We Knew it, Shatter Me series.
It's all about the books! Middle school and high school English Language Arts teachers discussed students' favorite reads, building, organizing & managing a classroom libraries, and matching students' interests. Read through the chat for ideas to implement in your own classroom.

Get books on the cheap from: garage sales, used stores, thrift stores, discount tables at book stores, ask friends and family, Scholastic warehouse sales, First Book for Title 1 schools, Half Price Books, Amazon, Scholastic Book Club, garage sales,  student donations, Donors Choose, Ebay, Alibris.

And check out the Booksource app for managing check-in/check-out of books from your classroom library.

Hope you'll join us next week, Tuesday August 4th at 8pm EST to discuss the ELA classroom organization. The questions for next week's chat will be posted here on Sunday. If you missed Tuesday night's chat, scroll down and read the whole thing below.


July 27, 2015

On My Bookshelf: Prom by Laurie Halse Anderson

In Prom by Laurie Halse Anderson, Ashley just a “normal kid” trying to make it to graduation while avoiding detention and her vice principal, but somehow gets roped into helping plan senior prom with her best friend Natalie after a teacher embezzles all of the prom funds. Ashley's witty, dry sense of humor puts an entertaining spin on teenage drama. Read on for more of my review and ideas for classroom application.
Plot: Ashley just a “normal kid” trying to make it to graduation while avoiding detention and her vice principal Mr. Gilroy. She is hoping to move out of her parent’s house, a constant madhouse with her taxi driver father, bus driver mother, three younger brothers, and another sibling on the way, and move in with her sometimes flaky, sometimes reliable boyfriend, TJ.  To add to the drama, it turns out that the teacher helping with prom embezzled all of the funds and the students have about a week to pull something together. Ashley, who doesn’t even plan on going to prom, gets roped into helping out by her best friend and next-door neighbor, Natalie who is obsessed with prom. 

Why I liked it: You can’t help but love a book set in your own city. Prom is set in Philadelphia, my hometown. Though Ashley’s high school is a fictional one, other elements of the setting, like the 32 bus route, Ashley’ mother’s route, are real (the 32 goes through my neighborhood). Ashley and the supporting characters are realistic. Her parents and brothers and their antics are a constant source of humor, and Ashley has a witty, dry sense of humor, which is punctuated by the author’s writing style (sometimes chapters are just one sentence long for emphasis).  It was a great book to listen to on audio.

Classroom application: This would be an easy, light read for the end of the school year, particularly for seniors who could directly relate to Ashley’s issues. Prom would be a great mentor text for working on voice as so many of the characters have distinct dialogue. Students could also craft their own narratives focused around a prom or school centered issue, something relevant to their own lives, like prom being canceled, getting dumped before prom, being in danger of not graduating, trying to avoid serving detention, etc. Students could focus the plot on their character’s attempts to solve their problem.   

If you are interested in purchasing a copy of Prom 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.

Going Back to School with Stations

Use stations to set a tone of active learning and get students up and moving on the first day of school. Here's a look at my six stations, some of which included group tasks while others included independent tasks.
There are teachers out there who are masters of the lecture. They can stand and deliver for an hour without blinking an eye. I'm not one of them. 

I don't want to be the center of attention all of the time. I want my students to be working as hard as I am (and trust me, if you are lecturing, they are not working hard at all). And frankly, it's boring for both me and my students.

That's why at the start of last school year I decided I was not doing it. I would not stand in front of the room, introduce myself, review the syllabus, and click through my first day PowerPoint as I had for the past five years.

Instead, I would do stations. Stations?! On the very first day of class?! While it might seem crazy, I wanted students to see from day one how they would be working in my room. They would be out of their seats, engaged in learning, collaborating with classmates.



July 26, 2015

#2ndaryELA Twitter Chat Topic: The ELA Classroom Library

Brynn Allison, The Literary Maven & Kristy, 2 Peas and a Dog are hosting #2ndaryELA on Twitter every Tuesday evening from 8 - 9 PM EST. #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, July 28, our #2ndaryELA chat will focus on the ELA classroom library.

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 are the most popular reads in your classroom library? (titles, genres, etc.) #2ndaryELA
8:15 Q2: Where do you get your books from? (other than what your school provides) #2ndaryELA
8:25 Q3: How do you ensure that your books match student interests and reading levels #2ndaryELA
8:35 Q4: Do you allow students to take books home? What is your system for managing that #2ndaryELA
8:45 Q5: How do you have your classroom library organized? Is it easy for students to self select?#2ndaryELA

The Directions:
1. Log into Twitter on Tuesday from 8-9 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 10 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:

July 23, 2015

Classroom Environment: Inspiration For Your Secondary ELA Classroom

Most teachers see their classroom as their second home and want it to feel that way for their students too. In this #2ndaryELA Twitter chat, middle school and high school English Language Arts teachers discussed the must haves in an ELA classroom, decorating, showing off student work, desk arrangement, and room inspirations. Read through the chat for ideas to implement in your own classroom.
Week 2 of #2ndaryELA Twitter chats did not disappoint. 25+ middle school and high school English Language Arts teachers from coast to coast and (and even Puetro Rico and Canada!) spent an hour chatting about the must haves in an ELA classroom, decorating, showing off student work, desk arrangement, and room inspirations.

My favorite idea for decorating with student work was shared by Pittsburgh teacher John C. Danchisko (@mrdanchisko), who said "We create #bucketlists 1st week and I hang those ASAP. must contain 5 selfless acts. Shows good in all. Introduces carpe firm." Love, love, love it!

Take a peek into the classrooms of 25+ secondary English Language Arts teachers for decoration ideas, desk arrangements, how to showcase student work, and technology must haves.
Hope you'll join us next week, Tuesday July 28th at 8pm EST to discuss the ELA classroom library (books! books! books!). The questions for next week's chat will be posted here on Sunday. If you missed Tuesday night's chat, scroll down and read the whole thing below.


July 20, 2015

On My Bookshelf: Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilber

In Eat, Pray, Love, the author and narrator, Elizabeth Gilbert is on a yearlong trip to Italy, where she will learn Italian and experience pleasure, India, where she will stay at an ashram and learn to be close to God, and Indonesia, where she hopes to find balance in her life. Read on for more of my review and ideas for classroom usage.
Plot: The author and narrator, Liz Gilbert is on a yearlong trip to Italy, where she will learn Italian and experience pleasure, India, where she will stay at an ashram and learn to be close to God, and Indonesia, where she hopes to find balance in her life. She has recently suffered a bad divorce and is heartbroken over the relationship that followed it and with an advance on the book she will write as she travels, she hopes to regain some of herself as she eats in Italy, prays in India, and loves in Indonesia.

Why I liked it: The idea of taking a year off to focus on yourself and do the things you’ve always wanted to do is inspiring and certainly thought provoking: What are the things I want to do just for me? What would I do with a year dedicated to myself? The information Gilbert provides about yoga and meditation was interesting to me since those are unknowns for me. Since I listened to this on audio, I sometimes found myself zoning out when Gilbert shared lengthy, spiritual moments. My favorite “character” from Gilbert’s travels is “Richard from Texas,” who she meets at the ashram from India. Richard from Texas delivers hilarious lines and is always telling it like it is at the moments Gilbert needs to hear it most.

Classroom application: While I would not use this as a mentor text because of its religious segments, it would be a good pick for students who enjoy memoirs or are interested in travel and different cultures.

If you are interested in purchasing a copy of Eat, Pray, Love 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.

Thinking About Going Back To School: My First Lesson in the ELA Classroom

In this writer's workshop, students will examine and annotate coming of age poetry. Students will then use these mentor texts as models to brainstorm, draft, and revise their own coming of age poetry. This lesson would be ideal to start the year as it allows you to get to know your students and build community in your classroom as students share memories and their writing.
I used to begin each year with short stories and teach basic literary terms: plot, setting, mood, character, tone, voice, point of view, etc. The short stories were classics, ones that the students and I both enjoyed, such as “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell, “Thank You Ma’am” by Langston Hughes, and “The Black Cat” by Edgar Allan Poe. There was nothing wrong with what I was doing. It worked.

But then last summer, I attended the Philadelphia Writing Project, part of the National Writing Project. One of the key texts we read was Teaching for Joy and Justice by Linda Christensen (which I highly recommend) and it go me to thinking, what am I teaching for? Am I teaching so that students will learn these literary terms? Will it matter ten or twenty years from now if they can define tone? Am I teaching so that students will know the classics? Will it matter ten or twenty years from now if students read all 26 pages of “The Most Dangerous Game?”

I decided that the answer to both was no. I was teaching so that students could develop into strong, confident readers and writers and be prepared for whatever might be ahead of them in life. And as a ninth grade teacher, I was teaching so that my students would be engaged, so they would want to and continue to come to school (research shows that ninth grade is a pivotal year for success in and graduation from high school and I primarily teach ninth grade).

In this writer's workshop, students will examine and annotate coming of age poetry. Students will then use these mentor texts as models to brainstorm, draft, and revise their own coming of age poetry. This lesson would be ideal to start the year as it allows you to get to know your students and build community in your classroom as students share memories and their writing. So last year I decided to begin the year with a writer’s workshop using coming of age poetry as mentor texts. In a writer’s workshop, students write on a topic of their choosing with heavy emphasis on the revision process. Coming of age is a relevant, high interest topic for 14 and 15 year olds, and poetry is a shorter, more accessible text. Struggling readers are not immediately turned off and its length lends itself to multiple readings, annotation, and close readings. I teach students who read three or four or sometimes five levels below their grade level so I don’t want them to shut down before I can begin to build their skills and confidence as readers.

The two poems I chose to use in this unit were "Hanging Fire" by Audre Lorde and "What For" by Garrett Longo. "Hanging Fire" is one of my all time favorite poems to use with ninth graders, especially African American girls, because the content is so relatable for them. "What For" is a very different perspective (six year old, Hawaiian narrator) but has great imagery. As students do a close reading of and annotate each poem, we discuss the poet's use of repetition, imagery, strong verbs, and specific nouns. As mentor texts, both of these poems include all of the elements we discussed and that I eventually asked students to include in their own writing.

In this writer's workshop, students will examine and annotate coming of age poetry. Students will then use these mentor texts as models to brainstorm, draft, and revise their own coming of age poetry. This lesson would be ideal to start the year as it allows you to get to know your students and build community in your classroom as students share memories and their writing.
After reading, the fun began! We brainstormed different age-related memories, first independently and then shared them whole class to spark students who might be struggling with ideas. Students selected their best ideas from their lists and began drafting their poems. I asked my students to complete their drafts for homework, but this year I will give them more time in class to work on it to ensure that all students have a draft to bring to the read-around the next day.

A read-around is just what it sounds like. Students sit in a circle and go around the circle reading their writing as other students give them feedback. Ideally every student will share what they have written, but last year I had many students who didn't because they were nervous or unprepared. You can allow students to select someone else to read their poem for them if that makes them more comfortable. You may need to model the type of feedback you would like students to give so that the comments are meaningful. Based on this feedback from peers, students then complete another draft of their poem. Often they hear interesting or effective things their peers have done in their poem and want to emulate some of those techniques. The read-around is just as much about being heard as it is about hearing others.

In this writer's workshop, students will examine and annotate coming of age poetry. Students will then use these mentor texts as models to brainstorm, draft, and revise their own coming of age poetry. This lesson would be ideal to start the year as it allows you to get to know your students and build community in your classroom as students share memories and their writing.
Finally, students complete a final draft of their poem. Students are graded based on their inclusion of the elements focused on in the mentor texts: repetition, imagery, strong verbs, and specific nouns. If students have all of these elements, they receive full credit and if they do not, they rework their poem until they do. If this sounds like I am going "too easy" on the students, remember what I'm teaching for. I'm teaching for my students to become strong, confident readers and writers and for engaging my students in learning. You can check out this lesson in full here.

I'd love to hear what you are thinking about starting the year with. Leave a comment and share what your first lesson will be and why.

For more Back to School ideas and resources:

July 19, 2015

#2ndaryELA Twitter Chat Topic: ELA Classroom Environment

Brynn Allison, The Literary Maven & Kristy, 2 Peas and a Dog are hosting #2ndaryELA on Twitter every Tuesday evening from 8 - 9 PM EST. #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, July 21, our #2ndaryELA chat will focus on the ELA classroom environment.

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 makes your classroom appropriate for and appealing to secondary ELA students? #2ndaryELA
8:15 Q2: What are the “must haves” in your classroom? (furniture, decor, materials, etc.) #2ndaryELA
8:25 Q3: How do you showcase student work and evidence of learning? #2ndaryELA
8:35 Q4: How do you arrange your desks? Why does that work best for you and your students? #2ndaryELA
8:45 Q5: Share a picture of your classroom or one that inspires you. #2ndaryELA

The Directions:
1. Log into Twitter on Tuesday from 8-9 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 10 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:

July 15, 2015

Reflecting on Last Year: Successes & Struggles

As you prepare for next school year, it is worth it to spend time reflecting on the previous year. In this #2ndaryELA Twitter chat, middle school and high school English Language Arts teachers discussed successes, struggles, good reads, and valuable resources from last year. Read through the chat for ideas to implement in your own classroom.
The results are in! Our first #2ndaryELA Twitter chat was a success. Almost 20 middle school and high school English Language Arts teachers spent an hour chatting about successes, struggles, good reads, and valuable resources from last year.

Some highlights:

Suggested Reads for Students: Of Mice & Men, The Outsiders, And Then There Were None, To Kill A Mockingbird, One for the Murphys, Out of My Mind, Prisoner B-3087, The Diary of Anne Frank, The Poisonwood Bible, Touching Spirit Bear, The Giver, Freak the Mighty, The Fault in Our Stars, The Hobbit

Suggested Reads for Teachers: Teaching for Joy & Justice by Linda Christensen, Teach Like A Champion by Doug Lemov, anything by Kelly Gallagher, Teach Like a Pirate, Well Spoken, In the Best Interest of Students, Notice & Note

Technology to Check Out: Google Classroom, Google Drive, Subtext, Membean, Class Dojo, Turnitin, Kahoot!

Hope you'll join us next week, Tuesday July 21st at 8pm EST to discuss the ELA classroom environment. The questions for next week's chat will be posted here on Sunday. If you missed last night's chat, scroll down and read the whole thing below.

July 14, 2015

On My Bookshelf: Gap Creek by Robert Morgan

In Gap Creek by Robert Morgan, young Julie Harmon works “hard as a man” and her family depends on her to do so. At just seventeen she marries and moves down into the valley of Gap Creek, where perhaps life will be better. Read on for more of my review and ideas for classroom application.
Plot: Life just gets harder and harder for Julie. She lives in the mountains of North Carolina with her parents and siblings in the late 1800s. The novel begins with the death of her younger brother and is closely followed by the death of her sickly father. During her father’s illness and after his death, most of the hard labor falls on Julie as her mother is ill and her other sisters are more feminine. When she marries Hank, she is excited to start a new life where at least she will be working for herself, but the hardships continue. The man she and her new husband are living with dies and the two live in fear of being put out of his home by his heirs. There is ice and a flood, the chickens are killed by a mink, Hanks loses his job, Julie butts heads with her mother-in-law, near starvation causes the pre-mature birth of Julie’s baby and its eventual death. Julie’s belief in God and her hard work ethic are the only things she has going for her.

Why I liked it: The novel reveals Hank and Julie’s relationship from its start until about a year and a half into their marriage. Both are young, Julie not even seventeen, when they marry, and it is interesting to see how they grow and mature.

Classroom application: This novel or even just a chapter of it could be used as a fiction pairing in an American History course. The novel depicts pre-industrial life around the turn of the century (late 1800s into early 1900s). While North Carolina is not part of the Western frontier, the challenges Julie and Hank face are similar to those faced during Western expansion.

If you are interested in purchasing a copy of Gap Creek 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.

July 12, 2015

#2ndaryELA Twitter Chat for MS & HS English Teachers

Brynn Allison, The Literary Maven & Kristy, 2 Peas and a Dog are hosting #2ndaryELA on Twitter every Tuesday evening from 8 - 9 PM EST. #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.







Looking for the recap? Click on the image below.

On Tuesday, July 14, we will host our first #2ndaryELA chat reflecting on last school year.

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 is something you will definitely being doing again this year because it was such a success last year? #2ndaryELA
8:15 Q2: What is something you want to change or improve upon from last year? #2ndaryELA
8:25 Q3: What was your biggest instructional challenge last year? Were you able to overcome it? How? #2ndaryELA
8:35 Q4: What was your favorite text you read last year with your class? Why? (nonfiction, fiction, poetry, play, etc.) #2ndaryELA
8:45 Q5: What was an invaluable resource you relied upon last year? (book, article, blog, type of technology, etc.) #2ndaryELA

The Directions:
1. Log into Twitter on Tuesday from 8-9 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 10 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!