March Madness in the Classroom

Happy Friday everyone,

While I love being in the classroom every day, reading and writing alongside 8th graders, it’s been incredibly inspiring to connect with fellow educators this month — first at the Michigan Reading Association’s annual conference and then yesterday at NJCTE’s spring conference. (Welcome to all of the new subscribers!)

As we look ahead to the spring and summer, please don’t hesitate to reach out with questions, ideas, feedback, etc. In the meantime, here’s what I’ve got planned for our upcoming “March Madness” unit:

1. The Vision: We’re going to celebrate “March Madness” (which kicked off earlier this week) by comparing and critiquing a variety of things, including books, authors, characters, poems, short stories, short films, songs, etc. We’re also going to have fun debating restaurants/cuisine, sports/athletes, products/games, TV shows/movies, etc. as we “hit” all of the awesome verbs — defend, support, evaluate, analyze, judge, justify, compare, contrast, critique, create, convince, argue, collaborate, etc. There are four key tasks: daily "match-ups,” a series of WRAP prompts, a group bracket, and an individual review. Let’s go through them one at a time.

2. Daily “Matchups”: The plan is to put two texts “head-to-head” each day (or at least, every other day). For example, last week we discussed and debated “We Real Cool” and “Nothing Gold Can Stay,” two iconic poems. Here’s the template I created to help students analyze each poem, practice writing a compare/contrast “thesis”, and then defend their claim (which poem is superior and why). *Feel free to change the “categories” listed in the middle column, and you can use this template with any “matchup,” whether it’s two short stories, songs, short films, superheroes, etc. This week, we’ll look at two more poems (“Dreams” by Langston Hughes and “The Rose That Grew From Concrete” by Tupac Shakur) before watching a couple of short films — would love to know some of your favorites!

3. WRAP Prompts: For the new subscribers, we start each class period with our Read and WRAP (write, reflect, analyze, participate) routine. And here are a few WRAP prompts that fit with our “March Madness” theme:

   1. “Final Four”: First, list four of your favorite books (or author or character) of all time. Then, write one strong sentence (or perhaps more), revealing your “winner” (the best of the four) and explaining why.

   2. Character and/or Book Battles: In this WRAP prompt (featured in Just Read It), students pick two characters or books to go “head-to-head” in a literary matchup. Students can create their own categories, or we can assign them. Note that the final task, where students defend their selection, can easily be dressed down as a brief, handwritten response or dressed up as a typed, multiparagraph response.

      

   3. Check out this Instagram post for even more possibilities.

4. Group Bracket: We started this project last week, and students are seriously invested already. We started with this brainstorm activity. From there, students worked in groups to:

   1. Decide on your overall topic. (For example, what is the best GAME of all time?) Consider: What do all of your group members have in common? What topic would interest all of you?

   2. Decide on the four sub-topics or "regions" of your bracket. (For example, video games, board games, “recess” games, and puzzle games.)

   3. Decide on the 16 "teams" for each region of the bracket.

   4. Make sure the #1 seeds in each region are strong and then place the remaining teams in the bracket. (Here’s a great bracket template you can copy and share with students.)

   5. Determine how you plan to select the winner of each match-up. What categories, criteria, process, etc. will you use?

   6. You will end up writing about each “team” in your Final Four – what was their “path” to the Final 4? Who’d they beat, and why?

   7. And then, you will debate and decide on your CHAMPION, creating either a presentation and/or podcast episode.

5. Individual Review: Along with the group bracket project, students will also write their own review, inspired by the NYT Learning Network’s “My List” contest. We won’t start this until the following week, but we used the brainstorming session (linked above) to begin thinking about potential topics.

6. Article of the Week: As we think about the “ugly” side of March Madness, I’m also excited for us to read and discuss this AoW: “The Price We Pay Betting on Sports.” After an initial annotation and discussion, here’s how students will respond to the text.

7. UPDATES & REMINDERS:

   1. If you check out the “Related Resources” on the right-hand side of this page, you’ll notice free excerpts (Introduction + Chapter 1), an hour-long webinar, and this brand new discussion guide for my book, JUST READ IT: Unlocking the Magic of Independent Reading in Middle and High School Classrooms. If your school, district, or organization is planning a JUST READ IT book study or would like for me to deliver a keynote address and/or lead a PD session/workshop in 2025 or 2026, please reach out. I love connecting with fellow educators and supporting/strengthening your team’s literacy efforts.

   2. We wrapped up our PIES and Interview Projects. Both projects turned out wonderfully, so please reach out if you have any questions!

   3. We ran out of time to enter the official contest, but I highly recommend checking out the NYT Learning Network’s “How To” writing contest along with the student winners. Saving this for next year (it’s the perfect tie-in to our PIES Project), but our students just wrote their own “How To…” in 100 Words last week. Here’s the task: Step 1: Read some of the award-winning essays, written by students across the country. There are other professional examples here, including: “How to Recommend a Book,” “How to Memorize Shakespeare,” “How to Keep a Goldfish Alive,” “How to Survive a Shark Attack,” and many more. Step 2: Write a concise “How To…” paragraph (inspired by your PIES project or on a topic of your choice). Aim for exactly 100 words.

   4. Students also completed a short and sweet Trimester 2 reflection last week — feel free to modify for your crew. (And be sure to check out the monthly and quarterly independent reading reflections in Just Read It — don’t forget the code RAVEN25 for 25% + free shipping.)

   5. Anyone teaching Greek/Latin roots or confusing word pairs? Last week, after reviewing our current list/set, students used at least five of them in a “How To…” poem or infomercial. Highly recommend!

   6. Grateful for this SLJ review of Just Read It and for every one of you who has purchased a copy, spread the word in your school/district, facilitated a book study, shouted out Just Read It on social media, shared an online review, or sent me a kind message or email. It means more than you know.

Wishing you a wonderful weekend, and as always, happy reading,

Jarred