One Classroom Activity for Next Week
Building community with food-focused personal narratives
Good evening everyone,
At some point, I imagine I will be able to articulate how I am feeling — how many of us are feeling — in this moment. Tonight, however, is not that night. Instead, I wanted to do what I have done so often for the past decade — share a bit of my classroom with all of you. Hope that’s okay.
As always, please let me know if there’s anything I can do to support you and your students. I look forward to connecting with many of y’all next week in Boston (see my schedule below). We’re going to need community now more than ever.
For this update, I wanted to focus on one thing you and your students can do next week as we prepare for Thanksgiving — read and write food-focused narratives/memoirs. (Be sure to check out the last update for a full recap of what we’ve been up to, including our culminating essay and approach to vocabulary.)
Put simply, students will write their own food-focused narrative after reading and analyzing several mentors/exemplars. The goal is to celebrate our writing and one another during a class potluck before Thanksgiving break. I say this all the time, but I still believe it: it is an incredible honor and privilege to read and write alongside our young people every day. One that I will never take for granted.
Wondering where to start? Print out a bunch of these essays and let students read them aloud — in groups or as a class:
Here’s what I wrote last year: “So Long, Nashville Hot Chicken.”
I love this personal essay from Kwame Alexander along with “Fish Cheeks” and others from this Common Lit text set
The History of Popcorn and Why Candy Corn Deserves Our Respect (some students enjoyed writing about the “history” of a specific food/dish)
“Everything I Know About Writing a Novel I Learned from Watching British People Bake”
Then, here’s a quick graphic organizer to help students with their analysis of one (or more) of the above mentor texts.
From there, give students time to brainstorm. Here are several food-focused questions for y’all to consider. Last year, I had students pick 3-5 questions in advance (from my list or self-generated) to ask a classmate in a casual “interview.” One student would be the interviewer, the other the interviewee (and then they’d swap). Before starting their draft, I have students submit a brainstorm doc (here’s what mine looked like). And once students get their topic “approved,” here are the expectations for the final draft. And here are some of the finished products from last year’s group.
Again, there’s no “perfect” way to run this mini-unit. Adjust as needed (and save for December if you’re lacking the bandwidth to get to it before Thanksgiving). Again, reach out with questions, and if you decide to give it a shot, please be sure to share some of your writing with me!
A few final reminders before bedtime:
Here’s my NCTE schedule for next week. On Friday (11/22), I’ll be in conversation with Kwame Alexander from 9:30-11:00 followed by my first ever book signing at 11:15 (Corwin Booth 323). And on Saturday (11/23 — 8:15 am), I’ll be chatting with two of my favorite humans, Nic Stone and Dashka Slater. Please shoot me an email or text if you’ll be in Boston so that we can catch up. It’s been way too long.
I recently recorded a webinar that outlines my Read & WRAP framework and general approach to the ELA block. You can check it on Corwin’s YouTube channel here.
I was honored to join Natalie Daily, Stephanie Wilson, and Amy Hermon, the incredible host of the School Librarians United podcast. You can listen to our conversation here.
JUST READ IT is officially (or perhaps unofficially?) an Amazon Top New Release and Corwin bestseller. Thanks again to everyone who continues to support the book and spread the word. I am appreciative of every Instagram post, every comment, every email, and every book review. This book continues to find readers because of y’all. You can order on Amazon or here (use the code THANKS30 for 30% + free shipping.) Corwin has also shared an excerpt from the book; check out Chapter 1 here.
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.
In solidarity,
Jarred