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 [...]
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, [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]