I love a lot of things about books, obviously. But one thing I especially love is the way a novel can provide an accessible, relatively safe entry point into a difficult topic. This year, I added Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely’s acclaimed novel All American Boys to the eighth grade English curriculum at my school…. Read more »
Posts Categorized: Posts with specific prompts or suggestions for specific assignments, units, and books
Read Alouds: Fall 2015
This past week, a service day and some standardized test taking interrupted our regular school schedule, so I didn’t get to teach my normal classes for a couple of days. When the schedule got back to normal, I wasn’t at all surprised by the question that many of my students asked: “Are we doing read… Read more »
Middle School Girl Culture Mini-Course
Now that I’ve made it through the first week back from spring break, I’m finally getting around to writing about something that happened just before vacation: a two-day “Middle School Girl Culture” mini-course that included a successful Skype visit and other fun events. My friend and colleague Maureen and I led a course for fifteen… Read more »
Short, Fun Projects to Energize Student (and Adult) Writers
I’m working my way through the first seasons of Dr. Who, and last night I watched an episode called “The Girl in the Fireplace.” In that episode, the Doctor passes through time windows to 18th century France to protect a young woman being stalked by extremely creepy looking clockwork droids. For the Doctor, only a… Read more »
How Structured Writing Assignments Can Unleash Creativity
In July of 2011, I was beginning the third semester of my MFA program, and I had some very definite goals. I was going to start a new teaching job, so I knew the first few months of the school year would be especially busy. To make the beginning of the year more manageable, I… Read more »
Drawing to Learn: Visual Projects in the English Classroom
Recently, I got the chance to visit middle school English classes at another school as a professional development opportunity. It was really helpful to step outside of my day-to-day routine, see what other teachers are doing, and then reflect on my own practices. One teacher gave me some great ideas about independent reading projects. She… Read more »
8th Grade Dystopian Unit
Teaching middle school English often feels like a juggling act. It’s hard to make time for everything that falls within the realm of “English” when I only have each group of students for 40-45 minutes most days. And it’s especially hard to make sure that students are reading independently when we have an ambitious list… Read more »
Celebrating Banned Books Week
It’s Banned Books Week, a time to celebrate the freedom to read! For the past few years, I’ve talked with my students about book banning at some point in the year, but this is the first time I’ve remembered the official week and commemorated it on time. Yesterday, I introduced Banned Books Week to my… Read more »
CHAINS and FORGE: Historical Novels that Pass the Student-Interest Test
The English and social studies curricula at my school are integrated, so I end up teaching a lot of historical fiction. It isn’t always easy to find a book that’s firmly grounded in a historical time and place and well-written and engaging for middle school readers. But Laurie Halse Anderson’s Chains and Forge are all… Read more »
CAPTURE THE FLAG: Another Great Read Aloud
I don’t know how Kate Messner does it. She just keeps coming out with new books of so many different kinds: realistic middle grade, dystopian middle grade, picture books, chapter books, books for teachers, and now the first mystery in a three-book series. I really enjoyed Messner’s new adventure-mystery Capture the Flag. She sets up… Read more »
LIAR AND SPY: An Excellent Read-Aloud Novel
I love to include read alouds in my middle school English classroom. That usually means choosing an effective read-aloud novel, reading somewhere between five and fifteen minutes per class, and giving students some time to discuss their reactions and predictions as we go. I find that read alouds increase students’ enthusiasm about books and lead… Read more »