Week 9 Update
November's Food Lit Unit, Article of the Week ideas, Book Recs, Ind. Reading Activities, and more
Happy November everyone,
Lots of goodness to get to, so let’s jump right into our weekly update, which includes some of our regular items along with lots of quality book recommendations as we get closer to finalizing our 23-24 Project LIT Book Club picks:
What is bringing me joy ? (Shout out to Maggie Smith for the inspiration.)
My son requesting — rather, outright demanding — that we stop at the public library on our way home from school. Takeout Thai food. All the Halloween festivities. Our Saturday hike at a nearby mountain. Sandwiches from a local deli. Baking pumpkin bread. Lots of quality playground time. Slow Sunday mornings.
“Friday Five”: As I mentioned in last week’s update, I love having students share their quick thoughts on five topics/questions to close out the week. A few examples as we head into November: five books you’re grateful for, five authors you’re grateful for, top five Thanksgiving dishes (mains, sides, and/or desserts), five people you’re grateful for, etc.
November’s Food Unit: I’m planning to start our “food-focused narrative” mini unit next week (we’re finishing up our Night study this week — more on that below), and here are some resources and ideas I’ve compiled. Let me know if there’s anything you’d add or recommend!
I love this personal essay from Kwame Alexander along with
“Fish Cheeks” (and others from this Common Lit text set)
There’s so much to dig through in this “Food Memory Narrative” blog post from Moving Writers.
This was the most beautiful review of a blender I’ve ever read.
After reading several mentors, students will brainstorm, draft, and eventually publish a food memory narrative of our their own. I’m hoping we’ll have time to put together a class cookbook, as well.
Another writing option for students could be some sort of “food history.” For example, the history of hot chicken in Nashville is fascinating.
The goal is to celebrate our writing (and one another) during a class potluck brunch during the week of Thanksgiving.
Other resources I’ve bookmarked recently include:
Student poems inspired by “Good Hotdogs” by Sandra Cisneros
57 YA novels about food
35 Best YA books about food
“Everything I Know About Writing a Novel I Learned from Watching British People Bake”
Article of the Week. I broke down our AoW process/protocol in previous updates (Weeks 3 and 4), and moving forward, I’ll keep a running list of articles here:
“Let Kids Get Bored. It’s Good For Them”
“Stop Multitasking. No, Really — Just Stop It.”
“Where Are the People of Color in Children’s Books?”
“Autumn Splendor: Why Do Leaves Change Color in the Fall?”
“Why is it fun to be frightened?”
“Listening to Taylor Swift in Prison”
Here’s Kelly Gallagher’s running list of AoWs for the 23-24 school year
Project LIT Book Club Reveal: Thanks to everyone who has nominated titles over the past two months. The goal is to announce or “reveal” 23 MG (middle grade) and 23 YA (young adult) books in December. These books will be added to our Project LIT Community collection (which you can view here).
Potential MG titles include: A Rover's Story, A Work in Progress, Freewater, Frizzy, Hoops, Nic Blake and the Remarkables, Swim Team, The Door of No Return, The Probability of Everything, Thirst, Simon Sort of Says, Mascot, Mexikid, The Labors of Hercules Beal, The Marvellers, Maizy Chen's Last Chance, and many more.
Potential YA titles include: Accountable: The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives it Changed, All My Rage, Chaos Theory, Heartstopper. I Must Betray You, Me (Moth), Promise Boys, The Weight of Blood, Victory. Stand! Raising My Fist for Justice, Warrior Girl Unearthed, and many more.
As we work to finalize our lists (23 MG and 23 YA titles) over the next few weeks, continue to NOMINATE TITLES here. 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?
Looking for more book club ideas and inspiration? Check out this slideshow, which includes more highlights from the early days of Project LIT Community. I also created a Long Way Down educator guide during the pandemic, which is available for purchase here. If you end up buying the guide, feel free to reach out via email if you have any questions!)
Independent Reading Possibilities: In my upcoming book, Just Read It: Unlocking the Magic of Independent Reading in Middle and High School Classrooms (available for pre-order soon), I share dozens of post-reading prompts and possibilities to hold students “accountable” with killing their love of the book. This applies to students’ independent reading selections or required whole-class reads. For example, my 8th graders recently finished Elie Wiesel’s memoir, Night. One task was an abbreviated book review, where students practiced writing an objective summary (focusing on character, conflict, setting, etc.) followed by a concise critique. This assignment also works well if/when students are reading self-selected books (and the mini “posters” make for a great bulletin board idea). Another task was the…
100-Word Memoir: Students completed 100-word poems for each chapter/section of Night along with one culminating poem that captured the essence (theme, mood, imagery, character transformation, etc.) of the entire memoir. *Note: We didn’t require that students stick to exactly 100 words, but the goal was to keep each “poem” to no more than one page. Here’s a student example.
Night Post-Reading Tasks: After developing a topic/question and tentative thesis statement last week and gathering their evience, students will spend the next few days writing an in-class essay. I’ve been super proud of their work throughout the unit and cannot wait to see what they write this week.
Please do not hesitate to reach out with any questions or ideas. Sending lots of love to you and your students during these heavy times, and as always, happy reading.
Jarred
