Summer break is running out for many school districts around the county, and teachers are slowly starting to get back into planning mode. For secondary ELA teachers, that means digging out the short stories they will be teaching this year. Many teachers use short stories to teach Reading standards with the idea that students can […]
Katie Sluiter
Katie Sluiter is currently an 8th English teacher in West Michigan. She has taught middle school, high school, and community college and has her Masters Degree and is currently working on her doctoral degree in Teaching English. Her writing has been featured on Writers Who Care, The Nerdy Book Club, and Dr. Bickmore's YA Wednesday. She is a member of the National Council for Teachers of English (NCTE), the Michigan Council of Teachers of English (MCTE) and ALAN (the Assembly on Literature of Adolescents of the NCTE). She is a National Writing Project participant, has presented at both state and national conferences, and has been published in the Language Arts Journal of Michigan multiple times.
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Ditch the Summer Reading Requirements
Everywhere I turn I see another summer reading requirement: logs, papers, projects, lists, grade-level requirements, and on and on from Pre-K through 12th grade. I get requests from people for things like, “my son’s AR level is a 5, do you have suggestions for summer reading?” or “We are revamping our summer required reading list, […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Celebrate Pride With Your Classroom Library
Each month, I put up a “Featured Books” display in my classroom library focusing on national awareness or celebrations that take place during that month. For example, National Mental Health Awareness Week takes place in October, so I feature books in my display that deal with mental health issues. June is Pride month, and what […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Bringing Climate Change into the E/LA Classroom
English/language arts students have the privilege of being “transported across the globe, back in time or into the future” as they read poems, plays, novels, and articles because classrooms are “spaces of discovery, possibility, and participation where students learn to empathize with experiences of people like and unlike themselves” (Beach et al, 2017). These students […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
YA Books for Mental Health Awareness
October is Mental Illness Awareness Month. October also happens to be National Bully Prevention Month with the 11th being National Depression Screening Day. (World Suicide Prevention Day was September 10) To honor this, my Classroom Library display and all my book talks for the month focus on mental illness, wellness, ways the brain […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month with Book Talks
Over the past five years, I have built my classroom library from just 104 books to over 1100 high-interest young adult literature spanning from realistic fiction to nonfiction to fantasy & sci-fi to historical fiction. While I routinely do Book Talks each week–among other things–to get kids interested and engaged with my classroom library, I […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
180 Days: Writing and Reading Maps and Mentors for A Year in ELA
As an ELA teacher, I do a lot of reading. During the school year I try to read as much Young Adult Lit as possible so I can share it with my 8th graders, but during the summer I read more adult titles and I try to squeeze in at least one professional title. Last […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Teaching Immigration Empathy: Why Refugee by Alan Gratz Should Be Added To Your Curriculum
It’s summer vacation which means that most of the Secondary ELA groups I am in on social media are full of teachers asking for recommendations for books to add to their curricula. I am a big believer in the power of books to change hearts and minds, so my suggestions lean toward YA literature that […]