Recapping Week One and Previewing Week Two in our ELA Classroom
Happy Saturday everyone,
In this week’s newsletter, I’m going to recap the first week in our 8th grade classroom and look ahead to week two. Let’s get right to it. (But first: 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.)
Student Interest Survey and Student Reading Attitude Survey: Adminstered last week. Excited to review results and responses — will share with y’all soon!
“The Books That Made Me” and “Best 9” Graphics: Students are finalizing their visuals on Monday. Then, I will print them (and hopefully get them on our bulletin board before back-to-school night on Thursday).
“This or That?” Debate/Discussion: This was a great way to get students moving, talking, and writing from the jump. Students LOVED this activity (and we’re all excited to jump into our first in-class debate in the weeks ahead).
Sticky Note Posters: This activity also went over extremely well. We had powerful conversations around the following prompts (and got students up and moving):
Respect means . . .
In order to make our classroom great, I plan to . . .
Dr. Amato can help us succeed by . . .
I read to . . .
Connections Challenges: I touched on this in last week’s newsletter, but here’s a great blog post full of helpful tips and links for those looking to bring Connections into your classroom.
Core Values: Shout out to The Broken Copier for sharing the activity and slide deck! Another enjoyable leson.
Looking ahead, on Monday we’ll dig into our first “Article of the Week” — “If You Know What ‘Brainrot’ Means, You Might Already Have It.” The following week, we’ll read “Let Kids Get Bored. It’s Good For Them” (AoW #2) and then “Stop Multitasking. No, Really — Just Stop It” (AoW #3). Here’s an AoW refresher from last fall), but feel free to reach out with any questions you may have about how I approach the AoW. Additionally, here are some other AoWs to consider:
“People Who Read Books Live Almost 2 Years Longer, Study Finds”
“Among many U.S. children, reading for fun has become less common, federal data shows”
“How to be a Better Reader” (I think I’m going to save this one for January 2025 but it’s also a great one to start the year with…)
We’ll also begin writing our “Ten Things” Personal Essay, inspired by this letter from Jason Reynolds. Students will write their own version, which can be framed as a letter to me, their classmates, their younger/future self, and/or a specific person in their life. A slight tweak this year: I’m going to set guidelines for three of the 10 items.
In one of their 10 items, I want students to examine their relationship with technology and social media. Healthy or unhealthy? Has brain rot set in? How many hours per day? How do they feel about their tech/social media use? What joy does it bring? What benefits does it provide? Any drawbacks?
I also want students to reflect on their reading identity. Possible questions (from JUST READ IT) include (*these questions also work really well as WRAP prompts):
Who am I as a reader? What and why do I read? How would I
characterize my reading identity?
Who am I as a writer? What and why do I write? How would I
characterize my writing identity?
When and where do I prefer reading? What is my ideal reading
environment? When and where am I most relaxed and comfortable?
Are there are any specific places that come to mind?
When and where do I prefer writing? What is my ideal writing
environment? When and where am I most relaxed and comfortable?
Are there are any specific places that come to mind?
What individuals shaped the reader, writer, and person I am today?
What literacy experiences/memories (positive or negative) stand out
in my life?
How have I changed (perhaps evolved or regressed) as a reader and
writer? Why?
How would I describe my relationship with reading and writing?
What role do they play in my life?
Why are reading and writing important to me?
Finally, I want students to discuss their top core value(s) from our in-class activity (shared above) and why it is important to them.
The other 7 items in the essay/letter are entirely student driven! And one final note — I’m planning to incorporate a mini-lesson or two on figurative language so that students can take their final drafts to the next level.
Will probably save our “Email Etiquette” assignment for later this month: In their first official email of the year (after a brief email etiquette mini-lesson), students will share a bit about their reading journey and goals for the upcoming school year. Possible questions include: What should I know about you as a reader and writer? What book(s), author(s), and/or genre(s) are you most excited to read this year? What reading goals do you have for yourself? How can I best support you as a reader and writer? In your opinion, what makes a successful ELA class? What suggestions or ideas do you have?
Hoping to find time for our Luca Scene Analysis soon (perhaps on the day our students take their first NWEA/MAP assessment): What makes a good story? That’s one of the questions we will explore throughout the year. Students will jot down their responses before walking around the room, sharing with classmates and adding to their lists. Then, we’ll debrief and watch one of my favorite scenes from Luca. With just one clip, we were able to review character, conflict, plot, setting, theme, dialogue, repetition, and more. Last year, students had a blast working in groups to create posters analyzing each literary element. You can check out a few examples here.
UPDATES & REMINDERS:
Project LIT Book Club Nomination Process: You can check out our complete list of titles here. Now, we need your help! What middle grade (MG) and young adult (YA) books should we add to our collection?! What books are super popular with your middle and high school students? What books would y’all like to read, discuss, and celebrate together as a local chapter and/or national community? NOMINATE TITLES here! (More info to come soon!)
FREE LITERARY PEP RALLY WITH KWAME ALEXANDER: I felt like that needed to be in all caps, right? Join Kwame for a FREE Literary Pep Rally on September 17 at 1pm EST/ 10am PST. This 25-minute special event will celebrate the launch of Kwame's new book, Black Star, with a read aloud, special guest appearances, exciting announcements, and Q&A time. The Literary Pep Rally is free, but registration is required - grab a spot for your classroom today! And then be sure to book your spot for October 29, when Kwame will be joined by the one and only Jason Reynolds. (Bonus: Use the code PROJECTLIT50 for a $50 discount!)
Project LIT Community: As a reminder, you can check out all of our 23-24 Project LIT selections (along with all of our previous picks) in one place. You can check out many of our graphics and links here. Thanks again to Rebecca A. for creating this fantastic slideshow, featuring all of the YA titles sorted by genre, to help students find their next read. And here are the most recent MG titles in one place (thank you, Stephanie!). If anyone decides to create additional Project LIT resources — please pass them along so that I can share with our community!
JUST READ IT has been out in the world for six months, and 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 RAVEN25 for 25% + 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 workshop/PD session in 2024 or 2025, please reach out! Shout out to the PGCPS and LCPS educators I had the honor of meeting earlier this month. (Look forward to seeing many of y’all in Boston for NCTE’s annual conference in November!)
Wishing you and your students a wonderful week ahead. I know that we continue to teach and live in an incredibly difficult time; please reach out if there’s anything I can do to support you and your students. And, as always, happy reading,
Jarred
