What I'm Reading & Teaching in December

My school operates on trimesters rather than marking periods, and our new trimester started when we returned from Thanksgiving break. My units align with our trimesters it's been nice to start something new upon returning from break. 

The end of first trimester was a bit of a let down. Despite all of the supports I have built into the essay writing process, the quality of many students' essays did not match what I expected to see after two weeks of work and many, many small group writing sessions. Similarly, the quality of students' final projects was also disappointing despite the step-by-step brainstorming and templates provided for students. Many projects were submitted incomplete and some students just didn't turn in anything despite knowing it was one of two of their final grades for the trimester.

That said, it's likely no surprise that my October frustrations with teaching haven't magically disappeared, but I am continuing to hold fast to my plans of keeping activities shorter and simpler to match student skill levels and stamina, using reading sprints to break up independent reading time into more manageable time chunks for students, and taking the time to deal with even the small behavior issues to keep things from spiraling. To help myself focus on the positive and not feel totally overwhelmed by the negatives, I also set a goal of sending home two good news notes per class period each day. 

What I'm Teaching & Reading in November

The month of October is leaving me feeling a little frustrated. Too many students are still struggling with classroom routines. It's been more difficult to engage students in independent reading this year. I've done less choice writing than last year instead of more. There is never enough time to catch up students who are behind or need remediation. I could go on.

Instead I'm going to take some deep breaths and think about how to reset for the month of November. I know I  will need to do a review of expectations this week since Halloween was on Monday, students had off on Friday due to parent/teacher conferences, and we had a field trip on Thursday. 

As I plan my lessons for the month of November, I am going to continue to shorten the length of activities, knowing that this year's group of students doesn't have the same stamina as previous years. When we finish our novel unit and resume independent reading, I will use reading sprints to break up the chunk of time at the end of class I have dedicated to independent reading. Finally, I am going to make student behavior my priority and hold myself to having students reflect on their behavior during lunch, make their own phone calls home, etc. even though that means losing time to plan, grade, and create materials during the school day.

What I'm Reading & Teaching in October

Over one month of school is now in the books. I feel good to be back in the classroom and a little more of my enthusiasm for teaching has returned. Overall, I have another good group of students, despite some high energy, chatty students in my last period class. I did think I would be doing a little less material creation this year, now that I'm fully working my way through my curriculum for a third time, but I'm finding that my students' skills are not as developed as they have been in years past and many more students need additional reinforcement of texts and skills. I am finally able to return to working with small groups, so rotations have made a big comeback in my classroom

What I'm Reading & Teaching in September

I have mixed feelings about the end of summer and the start of the school year. On one hand, I had a pretty darn good summer and I'm sad to see it go. On the other hand, I really do love my job and I'm eager to spend a year with a new group of learners, reading and writing and growing together. I work at a small, unique school and I'm also excited about the positive directions we continue to move in.

What I'm Reading & Teaching in June

All things, good and bad, must come to an end, and that includes this school year. Like the past two years, there's been an intensity to this year that leaves me longing for summer and some time to decompress. 

Despite the challenges of teaching during a pandemic and being out for two extended absences because of Covid, there are things this year that I am happy about. I am pleased with the layers I've continued to add to my curriculum,  and the work I did to develop students' writing skills and love of reading. I hope to continue my progress with all of those things next year, but mostly I'm just hoping for a healthier school year.

What I'm Reading & Teaching in May

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.

What I'm Reading & Teaching in April

Spring is finally here, bringing warmer weather and more hours of daylight. I can feel the effects on my energy levels and students' as well. Once the mornings are a little less chilly, I'll start planning lessons that we can take outdoors again. 

The infographic project at the end of our "facing fear" unit went really well, and so did our personal narratives for some students. However, too many just aren't taking the revision and editing process seriously. Next year, I will have to work out how to spend more time working on making those changes in small groups. We just wrapped up our March Madness Poetry Tournament and our winner was "Water" by Rudy Francisco.

Right now, I'm coasting a bit through the start of our new unit on "dealing with disaster" because I've previously taught all of the shorter texts we start the unit with. I will have some work to do when we start our parallel novels at the end of this month. 

What I'm Reading & Teaching in March

For the shortest month of the year, February sure felt long. For me it was likely less because of teaching and more because of interruptions to my sleep thanks to my own children (I don't function well without a full night of sleep). I wasn't super productive during my time to work at work and ended up doing too many things at home. We also had parent conferences, a field trip, and a day off for President's Day thrown in there, so maybe part of the problem was never quite settling into a rhythm. Whatever the root of my February problems, I'm trying to reset my energy and focus for March.

There were some positives in February. My students enjoyed our literature circles just as much as I did and since covid cases are way down, we are allowed to put student desks together again. That also means being allowed to pull small groups, which I've been struggling with not being able to do all year. Especially because I teach a 90 minute block, being able to pull different groups of students or have different groups of students work together throughout a class period is a must. 

What I'm Reading & Teaching in February

January was exhausting. The first week back from break was an emotional roller coaster of getting ready to go virtual and then not, due to a last minute health department decision. The following week was just weird, with anywhere from one third to one half to two thirds of my students out in each of my classes. It felt like those days just before schools closed down in March 2020 when I kept teaching to try to maintain a sense of normalcy, but it felt foolish with the number of students missing. The following weeks some students were back and others are out and the health department changed its guidance again. Now I'm trying to catch everyone up and still stay on top of everything and I'm just tired.

What I'm Reading & Teaching in January

Happy New Year! I’ve spent as much of my time as possible over the break not thinking about school, avoiding social media, and limiting my news intake so that I could actually try to relax during my time off. 

My school will return from break in person, continue to require masks, and hope for the best. Our students will continue to be seated 3 feet apart and while we have been instructed to put a pause on group work, we aren't yet reverting back to a standardized seating chart across class.

What I'm Reading & Teaching in December

My predictions about November being over in the blink of an eye were correct and now we're into December! Perhaps because October was a nightmare of a month for me (my entire household had Covid and I missed nearly 3 weeks of school), November seemed easy breezy in comparison. I also feel incredibly fortunate that my school has invested in building substitutes so my colleagues and I are not constantly covering classes the way I know so many other educators are right now. 

What I'm Reading & Teaching in November

Just when I though we were settling into routines, I had a nearly three week absence in early October due to Covid-19. Despite being vaccinated and being cautious as possible, the virus spread from my husband to one of my daughters to me and finally my other two daughters. Fortunately my husband and I had mild symptoms and my three daughters, all too young to be vaccinated, were asymptomatic. Teachers always joke that writing lesson plans is worse than calling out sick, but being sick, solo parenting while quarantining, AND writing lesson plans for 12 days definitely was a whole 'nother level of stress. We're gradually getting back in the swing of things at home and at school. This month will bring benchmark testing, the book fair, and Thanksgiving Break, and I feel like before I blink November will be over too.

What I'm Reading & Teaching in October

After a choppy start (we didn't have a full five day week of school until the fourth week of school), I finally feel like I'm settling into routines with my classes. What I'm most excited about this school year is how many students are excited about reading. Independent reading is now part of our daily routine at the start of class (I struggled to commit to that this year, but the start of class is what works best for me and the flow of my lessons). I have a variety of strategies I'm using to read the excitement of reading high and expose students to books from our classroom library they might want to read next. I am also slowly working toward my goal of connecting our independent reading with grammar and writing instruction, so far with great success.

What I'm Reading & Teaching in September

And just like that, school is back in session again. After a week of professional development (good, but still made my head want to explode. I'm back in the classroom with full classes of students for the first time in about a year and a half. 

I am feeling incredibly anxious about the health risks of being in a room full of students who are largely too young to be vaccinated. While, my school (and state) is mandating masks for everyone and students' seats are three feet apart, I worry that it will not be enough to prevent the kind of horror stories I'm hearing from teachers in the South and West who have been back at school for weeks now. 

What I'm Reading & Teaching in June

May was not much of a teaching month between administering our school's benchmark tests (NWEA's MAP testing) and then our states standardized tests. This lull in classroom planning and grading made May my best month yet for reading. But that doesn't mean nothing happened in my classroom! Students did finish up a crossover research and narrative writing assignment and will finish their last novel unit this week. I have just a week and a half of school left in June to squeeze in some reflective activities and some fun.

Reading in June

In May, I read everything on my May TBR list; I am finally getting the hang of creating a monthly stack of books I want to read without hesitation. I'm still working on balancing genres, but did pretty well with that this month too; I read six YA titles (one was a collection) and six middle grades titles (two were nonfiction and the other four were audiobooks). I'm almost a month ahead on my goal of reading 104 books for the year, so I'm feeling pretty good about that too.

Here's what I'm hoping to read this month:

1. The Edge of Anything by Nora Shalaway Carpenter (young adult)

2. Walls by L. M. Elliott (young adult)

3. Terraform: Building A Better World by Propaganda (poetry)

4. The Antidote by Susan McCormick  (young adult)

5. A Sea of Troubles by Elizabeth James and B H James (professional development)

6. The Revelation by Jared B. Sharpe  (young adult)
7. Blended by Sharon Draper (middle grades)

8. The Line Tender by Kate Allen (middle grades)

Teaching in June
My students just finished their final novel of the year; they had a choice between two parallel novels, Life As We Knew It and The Dead and The Gone, both by Susan Beth Pfeffer. Because of all of the testing in May, this novel unit was much less structured than the whole class novel or literature circles I did with students earlier in the year. We had a lot of informal whole class discussions about the two books because although the characters and specifics of the plots are different, the general events and issues are similar enough. Students enjoyed getting to hear about what was happening in the other book and comparing the characters' experiences.

To wrap up the novels, students will have a short and creative assessment that will hopefully be the perfect mix of structured and open ended. I'll ask students to focus on the thoughts the main character is having in the final chapter of the book. Students will choose three key words or phrases to represent the character's thoughts and then pull three pieces of evidence from the text to support those choices. Students will also add at least three images to reinforce the key ideas and text evidence. To support my special education students and lower level readers, I created a word bank of key words they could choose from. This is my first time using an assessment like this, so I'm hoping it is something that students will be successful with and not something that turns out to be much more difficult for students than I intended.

Despite all of the challenges in teaching and learning this year, I want students to reflect on everything they've accomplished this year and give me feedback so that I can make changes for next year. After grades are in, I'll have students complete an anonymous survey about their favorite unit, assignments, and books as well as the structure of my class and classroom. The other reflective activity I'm trying out this year is for students to create a virtual portfolio. They'll choose four of their assignments to show off, write a reflection paragraph, and then decide who they'd like to share their portfolio with. If the idea goes well this year, I would love to build it up next year into an in person event for families to attend (I can remember doing something similar as a sixth grader).

Each year, students are given a summer reading assignment, so I'll be previewing Harbor Me by Jacqueline Woodson, the novel students will be reading as rising seventh graders, and passing along Look Both Ways by Jason Reynolds to my incoming sixth graders. The "work" attached to reading is to send me an email reflecting on the character and conflict and making connections with the book. I also ask students to answer some fun questions about themselves. The summer assignments are not graded, so I like the email format which doesn't make a big show of who turned it in and who didn't. It is also a great way to preview students' writing skills and start connecting with students before the school year begins.

On the very last day of school, I've set up a summer themed mini-Olympics, similar to what I did the day before winter break. Students will create teams and compete in six rounds of activities, some are word or logic puzzles and others are games on Kahoot!, Quizziz, and Blooket. Since some of my students are remote and some will be in person, I'll use breakout rooms on Zoom to allow students to work together. And that'll be a wrap for the 2020-2021 school year!

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What I'm Reading & Teaching in May

After another month of virtual teaching, I thought I would feel more comfortable and settled into a routine, but instead I find myself feeling more bored and frustrated. There's only so much shaking things up I can do while still feeling connected with my in person and online students. There's also so many aspects of teaching that are just more complicated with some students at home and some in the classroom. 

The good news is that there's only a little over a month of the school year left. The bad news is that next year may not look much different, but I can't process that right now, so I'm trying to actively ignore it. At this point though, I've taught in person, virtually, and hybrid, so whatever next year brings can't be more challenging. I've also got a repertoire of activities and lesson materials for all three scenarios, so next year will not be me recreating the wheel, maybe just fine tuning the spokes. 

Reading in May

In April, I read 9 books, six of those were young adult and the other three were middle grades (and all of those were audiobooks). This is the fewest number of books I've read in a month so far this year and I can't pinpoint why. I still averaged about 2 books a week, keeping me on track to reach my goal of 104 books by the end of the year, and worked through most of the titles on my April TBR list. However,  this month I want to be more conscious of what I am spending my time doing when I could be reading. I may be able to sneak in some reading time in class during independent reading time. Here's what I am hoping to read:

1. Women Who Dared: 52 Stories of Fearless Daredevils, Adventurers, and Rebels by Linda Skeers (children's biography)

2. The Radium Girls by Kate Moore (middle grades nonfiction)

3. Girls Who Looked Under Rocks: The Lives of Six Pioneering Naturalists by Jeannine Atkins (middle grades/young adult biography)

4. What Kind of Girl by Alyssa Sheinmel (young adult)

5. The Obsession by Jesse Q. Sutanto (young adult)

6. Yesterday is History by Kosoko Jackson (young adult)

7. Five Total Strangers by Natalie D. Richards (young adult)

8. Be Dazzled by Ryan La Sala (young adult)

Teaching in May

May has just barely started and I know it is going to be a whirlwind. So many teaching days are lost to testing: first our school's benchmark (MAP)  testing and then state standardized testing (the PSSAs). As we continued with our dealing with disaster narrative, I debated moving into a historical fiction narrative piece (students research a disaster to be at the center of their narrative) or our final novels of the year (parallel novels Life As We Knew It and The Dead and The Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer), and decided to do both at the same time. My periods are currently 80 minutes long, so we spend the first half hour dedicated to activities connected to our parallel novels, the second half hour on developing our narratives, and then the final twenty minutes of class reading.

Our narratives are still in the development stages. Students picked a natural or manmade disaster to be the focus of their narrative and then researched the disaster as well as its setting. I provided students with two lists of disasters as a starting point, but they could choose other topics with my approval. Incorporating a real disaster allows students to practice their research skills at the start of the writing process and practice MLA formatting for a bibliography at the end of the writing process. Once students have a grasp of what happened during the disaster and where it occurred, they create the main character for their narrative. Students have a choice of basing the character off of a real person involved in the disaster or starting from scratch. Finally students will map out the plot of their narrative, making the connection between the disaster they researched and the character they created. Before we start drafting, we'll work on writing dialogues and hooks. After drafting, we'll work through revisions focused on adding figurative language and imagery.

We just started our parallel novels last week. Both center around the disaster of an asteroid hitting the moon, knocking it closer to Earth, but have two different settings and protagonists. Miranda is a white high school sophomore living in fairly rural Southeastern Pennsylvania and Alex is a Puerto Rican high school junior living in New York City. As students started reading the first few chapters of their books, they explored nonfiction texts and media about asteroids, the relationship between the Earth and the moon, and the likelihood of a disaster like the one depicted in the novels actually occurring. Now that students are a few chapters in, they are tracking changes that have happened in the character's personal lives as a result of the disaster as well as changes that have happened in the larger world around them. Assignments like these allow students to discuss in groups of other students reading the same text, but we can also share out as a whole class and make connections between the two books. I am keeping the assignments are generic as possible so I can utilize them for both novels. Over the next two weeks, I will work in some grammar review using examples from the books. I haven't decided yet on a final project, but will try to work in something fun and creative after testing ends.

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What I'm Reading & Teaching in April

This week is my Spring Break and after a full month of hybrid teaching, I just barely made it. While I am overjoyed to no longer be spending my days alone in my classroom, it is a serious struggle to balance the needs of students in person and online. I never feel like either group is getting enough of my time and attention. Strategies I used for collaboration when my students were 100% virtual now have to be tweaked to accommodate social distancing in the classroom and avoid feedback issues from students being on Zoom in the classroom.

The stress and exhaustion of teaching this past month meant that I spent most evenings lying on the couch with a book. I read all but one title on my March TBR list and a total of 12 titles, bringing my total reads for the year up to 32. A tough month for teaching turned into a great month for reading.

Reading in April

In March, I read 12 books: 2 adult titles (one was a memoir), 6 young adult titles, 3 middle grade titles (all of those were audiobooks), and 1 poetry collection. The rest of this week will hopefully be filled with more reading. Here's what I'm hoping to read:

1. Where It All Lands by Jennie Wexler (young adult, available July 2021)

2. Within These Wicked Walls by Lauren Blackwood (young adult, available November 2021)

3. Cool for the Summer by Dahlia Adler (young adult, available May 2021)

4. That Way Madness Lies edited by Dahlia Adler (young adult)

5. Amelia Unabridged by Ashley Schumacher (young adult)

6. You've Reached Sam by Dustin Thao (young adult, available November 2021)

7. Enduring Freedom by by Trent Reedy and Jawad Arash (young adult, available May 2021)

8. The First Rule of Punk by Celia C. Pérez (middle grades)

Teaching in April

Leading up to spring break, I kicked off our final unit focused on the theme of dealing with disaster. After an introduction to man made and natural disasters as well as disaster preparedness, students chose a disaster to research and analyze its impact on humans. This is the first project of the year where I chose students groups; they did get to rank their topics and indicate if they wanted to work alone or in a group of two or three. Coordinating group work was tricky since some students were at home and some were in the classroom and that changed halfway through the week. Presenting was also tricky since my students at home often have difficult hearing my students in the classroom. My solution was to have the in person students sit right next to our classroom microphone and speak directly into it.

The week that followed I had originally planned to focus on Ray Bradbury's short story, "There Will Come Soft Rains," but instead decided to continue our focus on poetry (you can read all about our March Madness Poetry Tournament here) and spend the week before break focused on poetry centered around Hurricane Katrina. The poems “After the Hurricane” by Rita Williams-Garcia and "Watcher: After Katrina, 2005" by Natasha D. Trethewey both focus on events after the hurricane as their titles suggest. Since my students were born several years after the hurricane hit, I use a mini documentary featuring spoken word poet Shelton Alexander and his experience at the Superdome to help build background knowledge before digging into the poems. We discussed tone, point of view (speaker), repetition, and structure (traditional versus free verse), most of which was a review from earlier studies of poetry. Students were very engaged with the topic and next year I'll add in opportunities to learn more about the disaster.

When we return from break, we'll continue our focus on real disasters with an informational ready about the Boxing Day Tsunami titled "Mammoth Shakes and Monster Waves, Destruction in 12 Countries" by Brenda Z. Guiberson. I tried out having students create visual summaries (sketchnotes) with this reading last year and will likely do that gain this year as well as practice identifying cause and effect text structure. I'll also use a jigsaw activity to help students write a text dependent analysis since this is a longer reading. You can read more about how I use jigsaws here and more about my process for practicing text dependent analysis here.

Then I'll move on to imagined disasters with "There Will Come Soft Rains" by Ray Bradbury, focusing on personification and how setting impacts plot. I haven't explicitly taught students the part of the plot diagram so I'm hoping to work that in here this year. I also have to think about how I'll revise some of the activities I used last year with this short story. I used skits to help students understand the relationship between setting and plot and also allowed students to create a skit to summarize the story after we finished reading. I'm not quite sure how that type of movement and student interaction would work while social distancing.

Following reading that short story, I'm debating moving into a historical fiction narrative piece (students will research a disaster to be at the center of their narrative) or our final novels of the year (parallel novels Life As We Knew It and The Dead and The Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer) or maybe both. I'd like to have students try out the format of the books (dated journal entries) for their own narratives, but might also want to to work through just the narrative writing first since it involves research as not to have to many different pieces within my lessons. I also need time to plan out this final novel unit since I only taught one of the two novels last year and need to decide how I'll handle the student choice this year.

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What I'm Reading & Teaching in March

February seemed like one long snow day with lots of headache about the return to in person learning. We started back in person with a hybrid model in mid February, but just had our first full week last week due to snow, parent conferences, and President's Day. Lesson plans got shifted around quite a bit as a result of the weather, but we did finish our literature circle novels on time just with fewer discussion and activities than I had originally planned.

I didn't read all of the books on my February TBR list, but I did read 10 books keeping me on track with my goal of reading 2 books a week (and a total of 104 by the end of the year). I'm now up to 20 reads so far for 2021!

Reading in March

In February, I read 10 books, matching pretty much what I read in January: one young adult title, two middle grades, three adult, and four audiobooks (two of those were young adult, one was middle grades, and one was a nonfiction young adult adaptation). Some of what I read was on my TBR, most of them weren't, but I am pleased with the mix. Several of the titles on this month's to be read list are repeats from the past two months, so I can work on clearing off my bookshelves. Here's what I'm hoping to read:

 

1. Tiny Pretty Things by Sona Charaipotra and Dhonielle Clayton (young adult)

2. Black Bottle Man by Craig Russell (young adult)

3. We Are Lost And Found by Helene Dunbar (young adult)

4. Dominicana by Angie Cruz (adult)

5. High School by Tegan and Sara (memoir)

6. The Devil's Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea (nonfiction)

7. i am the rage by Martina McGowan (poetry)

8. Tiny Pretty Things by Sona Charaipotra and Dhonielle Clayton (young adult)

Teaching in March

To wrap up the trimester, students will be creating an infographic based on a topic from their literature circle novels. This is my first time doing a project like this, but I think I've structured it for student success. We'll kick off the project by doing a gallery walk (digitally) of sample infographics. Students will examine the layout and design strategies, thinking about what is effective or not, and what they might want to imitate in their own. Then students will choose a topic from a list of topics connected to their literature circle novels. 

For each topic, I curated four sources (three readings and one video) that students can use to collect information for their infographic. Students will spend two days researching and then create a rough draft in Google Drawings or on paper. Before students create a final draft, I'll give students a day to play around with a few different tech tools and choose the one they feel most comfortable with. I'm planning on two days for creating the final draft, but will also set up a platform for students who finish earlier to share and give feedback to each other.

This project will span the last week of Trimester 2 and the first week of Trimester 3, which will give me a little break from grading new student work and time to finalize student grades for Trimester 2. I made the mistake of assigning an essay at the end of Trimester 1 and had to quickly get them all graded before report cards. 

After finishing up the infographic project, we'll have two weeks to get started on our "Dealing WIth Disaster" unit before spring break. Last year I started with a research project, but I'm not sure how I feel about doing two projects back to back. Instead we may read a nonfiction piece focused on the Boxing Day Tsunami, "Mammoth Shakes and Monster Waves," and Ray Bradbury's short story, "There Will Come Soft Rains," which was a big hit with students last year. I'll also kick off the unit with an introduction to the types of disaster, both weather related and accidental/caused by humans.

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What I'm Reading & Teaching in February

2021 is off to a good start for reading and teaching. I didn't read all of the books on my January TBR list, but I did read 10 books keeping me on track with my goal of reading 2 books a week (and a total of 104 by the end of the year.

In my ELA classes, we wrapped on the nonfiction section of our "Facing Fear" unit with a crossover between an informational essay and a research essay. This was the second major writing piece my students have worked through this year and I used parts of the structure of the first one, a text dependent analysis essay, since that one was so successful. We kicked off literature circles last week.

Reading in February

In January, I read 5 physical books and one e-book, and listened to 4 audiobooks. I wanted to be more intentional about reading more nonfiction and adult titles, but the second adult nonfiction title I intended to read was a little too dry and serious for my current reading mood and really created a reader's block for me, so I think I'll let those intentions go this month. Here's what I'm hoping to read in no particular order:

1. Tiny Pretty Things by Sona Charaipotra and Dhonielle Clayton (young adult)

2. Black Bottle Man by Craig Russell (young adult)

3. We Are Lost And Found by Helene Dunbar (young adult)

4. Dominicana by Angie Cruz (adult)

5. Cilka's Journey by Heather Morris (adult)

6. Roughhouse Friday by Jaed Cohen (memoir)

7. High School by Tegan and Sara (memoir)

8. The Devil's Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea (nonfiction)

9. Luck of The Titanic by Stacey Lee (young adult, available 5/4)

Teaching in February

The month of February is dedicated to the literature circles we kicked off this week. We started the anchor text for our literature circles, Freak The Mighty, the week before that. I'm playing an audio version of the book for students at the start of class to give myself a little breather between classes and the novel serves as a common text I can use for examples so that all students can understand (plus it's a great story that fits with our theme).

On day one of literature circles we used Freak The Mighty to practice selecting discussion passages and developing discussion questions, the two tasks students must complete to prepare for literature circle discussions (discussion are every other day and we alternate bringing a passage and bringing questions). Students also joined a Google Classroom specific to their book title (I find it easier to organize things that way) and reviewed their reading calendar for literature circles.

Moving forward this unit has a four day structure that repeats. On day one, I introduce or a review a skill from earlier in the year and students complete a short writing assignment focused on that skill. At the end of class they read and select a passage for the next day's discussion. My skill introduction or review is done using a NearPod that usually includes a short video explaining the skill in focus, a matching activity, and a short quiz.

On day two, I hold live discussions with each group. Group members share the passage they picked out and other group members respond to it. When students are not working with me, they are reading and answering questions in an online discussion group (a Google Doc shared with students in other classes who are reading the same title). As students share their passages, I use the "Save The Last Word For Me" strategy, letting all other group members share their thoughts before the student who selected the passage shares theirs. The questions in the online discussion groups are a mix of generic novel questions and text specific ones that I pulled from guides or created myself.

On day three, we play a quick review game focused on the skill from day one and complete a creative assignment focused on that skill. At the end of class they read and develop two questions for the next day's discussion. I rely on premade content on Quizziz and Kahoot! for the review games and edit them as needed. The creative assignments have all come from this list of ideas so far.

On day four, I hold live discussions with each group. Group members share the questions they developed. When students are not working with me, they are reading and responding to their peers' answers from day two in their online discussion group.

The four day rotation has been pared down from my original expectations of what we'd be able to work through in a day, just changed again thanks to two half day snow days, and will likely shift again as I continue to see what works virtually and what will work when some students are hybrid next week. This week I'm planning on trying out Jamboard to close out each class with a quick reflection on what students read that day. It's a fine balance of using resources I've previously used and tools that the students are already familiar, and finding new ways to engage students. I haven't decided yet how I'll wrap up our literature circles: an essay, a project, or both.

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What I'm Reading & Teaching in January

Happy new year! 2020 was a wild year and I'm interested to see how this one will turn out. More than ever this past year, books were my escape. I didn't meet my reading goal last year, but I've set my goal again at 104 books, which is 2 books a week or about 8.5 books a month. I don't usually set teaching goals, but I put a few measures in place before winter break began to make sure I'm starting off the year by offering even more support to students who are struggling.

Wednesdays are our asynchronous days, and I've set up parent meetings to check in with the parents of students who are still struggling with virtual learning or whose performance has declined. I host office hours two days a week (it's a mandatory part of my teaching schedule) and I sent out Google Calendar invites to those students who are still struggling with virtual learning or whose performance has declined to encourage them to attend my office hours.

Reading in January

Much of my reading is in the form of audiobooks and those I select based on what is available through the Libby app, but I also have stacks of physical TBR piles I'd love to work through. Since my audiobooks are primarily fiction middle grades and young adult titles, these physical books include adult and nonfiction titles to help balance things out a bit. Here's some books I'm hoping to read this month.

1. Tokyo Ever After by Emiko Jean (young adult, available May 2021)
2. Hurricane Summer by Asha Bromfield (young adult, available May 2021)
3. A Woman of No Importance by Sonia Purnell (nonfiction)
4. How to Think Like Shakespeare by Scott Newstok (nonfiction)
5. White Rage by Carol Anderson (nonfiction)
6. The Challenging Riddle Book for Kids by Danielle Hall (nonfiction)
7. Writers on Earth by Elizabeth Kolbert and Write the World (nonfiction)
8. Tight by Torrey Maldonado (middle grades)
9. To Night Owl From Dogfish by Holly Goldberg Sloan & Meg Wolitzer (middle grades)

Teaching in January

I use the Collections curriculum for sixth grade and we'll be finishing up the "Facing Fear" collection (themed unit) when we return from winter break. We worked through some of the fiction and poetry pieces from the collection as well as a nonfiction piece and a video text before the break. The nonfiction piece and video introduce students to the science of fears and phobias and we'll continue that focus with a few more nonfiction pieces the first week back from break. You can read more about how I make the most of the Collections curriculum here.

By week two of January, we'll be ready to synthesize all of those nonfiction readings on fears and phobias in an essay. My students are constantly writing text dependent analysis responses of various lengths, but I try to balance that throughout the year with at least one essay of each of the three types of writing: informational, argument, and narrative. This essay will satisfy the informational type, but also allow students to practice research skills. Students will include information from their readings about fears and phobias and do some additional research about a phobia of choice.

Having my students pull information primarily from texts they've already read produces better quality writing. Students are already familiar with the information and are better able to put it into their own words. This is especially helpful for my special education students. I also provide a list of websites for students to use as a starting point for their research to ensure that my students are able to find quality information about their phobia of choice. Having students write from sources and limiting their research also makes the writing process less drawn out. We can go from selecting a topic to formatting a bibliography in about two weeks.

By the final week of January, we'll be ready to kick off our literature circles connected to the "Facing Fear" collection. Students have a choice of reading one of six novels:

1. On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer
2. Maybe He Just Likes You by Barbara Dee
3. Black Brother, Black Brother by Jewell Parker Rhodes
4. The Only Road by Alexandra Diaz
5. A Good Kind of Trouble by Lisa Moore Ramée
6. Under A Painted Sky by Stacey Lee

The literature circles will span four weeks with each week focused on a different literary skill: character, conflict, point of view, and plot. Students will engage in skill based writing and activities each week and participate in discussions with their literature circle group twice a week. I'll draw many of the activities from this list of ideas that have worked successfully in the past.

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