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.