May 15, 2022

What I'm Reading & Teaching in May

With state testing behind us, this month we're in the midst of our final novel unit and ending with some creative writing assignments and projects.

With each new month this school year, I feel like I've tried to convince myself that things are going to be better: I am going to have more energy, be less tired, and be more on top of things. It's probably not a surprise to you that I'm still waiting for that to happen, and I have no hopes that May will be the month that it does. I know I have been fortunate compared to the behavior issues and coverage shortages that so many teachers have faced this year, but I still can't wait for the school year to end in June. What I planned on  teaching in May remained much a mystery until late last week and we're already halfway through the month at this point.

Reading in May
Last month I read 11 books. Similar to last month, many of them were combination read, part physical book, part Kindle, and only one of them was an audiobook. Not my best month, but not my worst month and I surpassed the 8 books a month I need to read to stay on track with my goal of 104 (2 books a week) books for the year.

With state testing behind us, this month we're in the midst of our final novel unit and ending with some creative writing assignments and projects.

Here's what I'm hoping to read in May:
White Fang by Jack London
Words on Fire by Jennifer Nielsen
Becoming Maria: Love and Chaos in the Bronx by Sonia Manzano
The Grand Escape by Neal Bascomb
7 Good Reasons Not to Grow Up by Jimmy Gownley
Focused by Alyson Gerber
Redwood and Ponytail by K.A. Holt
The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise by Dan Gemeinhart

With state testing behind us, this month we're in the midst of our final novel unit and ending with some creative writing assignments and projects.

Teaching in May
At the start of the month we finished up state testing. In addition to using the grammar and writing spiral review I created last year, I created several new activities to help students feel confident heading into testing (none of which included killing students' spirit by having students work through released tests).

I used a lesson on multiple choice question strategies to help students eliminate answer choices. Students used the guided notes they took during the lesson to complete a question trail activity that included questions that reinforced the strategies and allowed students to apply the strategies to practice questions. We spent some time looking at prompts from released items and practiced pulling out the writing task so that students could start off a thesis statement. 

We read a released passage, reviewed the scoring rubric used, and then students did a gallery walk of released writing samples. Students gave feedback (negative and positive) on the pieces and scored them using the official scoring rubric. Later I revealed the scores and feedback the samples actually received. Students evaluations were pretty accurate. Students who finished the gallery walk early tried to unscramble the pieces of a sample TDA essay into the correct order.

The day before testing we reviewed the format of the test, the type of questions and amount of reading and writing students would encounter each day. We also played some review games to practice some of the ELA terminology that appears on standardized tests. I made this Kahoot! years ago, but this Quizziz is new.

Students started reading their choice of parallel novels, Life As We Knew It or The Dead and the Gone, during that week of review, but we didn't start digging into the books until the following week. I didn't dedicate a lot of time to this novel unit in past years, so I've been creating a balance of skill based and text based activities as we go. I've also incorporated a lot of opportunities for group discussion as that always helps to draw students in who may not be where they should with their reading. 

Some of the skill based activities we've done include a character "hunt, writing "who am I?" character descriptions, and creating conflict pie charts to represent the characters' struggles. These activities students have done with groups of students reading the same books, but students have also worked in mixed groupings with students who are reading the alternate title. Those assignments ask students to do close readings of previously read chapters and make connections with nonfiction articles on a variety of topics related to both books, such as disaster preparedness, intermittent fasting, rationing, Victory gardens, and the barter system. 

I'll be wrapping up this novel unit in a few ways. First, students will have a quiz that asks them to reflect on the character at the end of the novel. Second, we'll circle back to the "Where I'm From" poem students wrote about themselves at the beginning of the year, but this time students will write from a character's perspective. You can find my resources for the assignment I used at the beginning of the year here; I tweaked the brainstorming and template a bit this time around so it is easier for students to incorporate details from the novels. Finally, students will be creating a game board connected to the novel they read. 

That project will carry us into June. After students submit their projects, we will be able to spend one or two of those days after grades are due actually playing the games. My last day with students isn't until June 9, so I'll hopefully be back at the end of this month to share what else we'll be doing those last days of school.

With state testing behind us, this month we're in the midst of our final novel unit and ending with some creative writing assignments and projects.


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