Weekly Update
Book Recs and "Faceoffs," Poetry Madness, Romeo and Juliet, Long Way Down + Jason Reynolds, and much more
Happy Sunday everyone,
A cold, rainy weekend here in New Jersey but a much-needed four-day weekend is right around the corner. Excited to share our game plan for the short (yet inevitably very long) week, so let’s get right to it.
Book of the Week: I am halfway through Johann Hari’s Stolen Focus, and the book is littered with sticky notes. Cannot wait to share extended thoughts, but my immediate takeaway is this: I’m even more convinced that we should be providing students with daily opportunities to unplug, refocus, and get lost in books of their choosing. (And if you’re in a school where adminstrators doubt the value of independent reading, this book may help you make your case.)
“READ WIDELY, READ OFTEN” campaign: To help students find their next read, we’ll continue to share book recommendations across a whole bunch of categories over on Instagram, including basketballl books, books with green covers, duologies, and graphic novels. Share your suggestions here! And be sure to enter our Instagram giveway.
March Madness in the Classroom: I enjoyed watching the opening rounds of the NCAA Tournament this weekend, and I’m excited to lean into the Madness over the next few weeks. Here are two specific ways:
Book Faceoff: For this week’s WRAP prompt, students will pick two books to go “head-to-head” in a literary matchup. Possible categories include character development, plot, writing style, “binge-ability”, and emotional impact, but I plan to have students come up with their own categories, as well. Here’s a graphic organizer that I put together to help students dig into this task; would love to see what y’all come up with!
Poetry Madness: We’ll analyze four poems this week. Two head-to-head matchups. Here’s the graphic organizer we’ll use. The poems? “Introduction to Poetry” vs. “How to Eat a Poem.” And then, “We Real Cool” vs. “Nothing Gold Can Stay.” *Time permitting, I may have students write their own “Introduction to ______” poems about a subject/passion of theirs.
Speaking of poetry…be sure to share your favorite poems to read with middle and/or high school students here! Here are a few reader suggestions — thanks to everyone who has already competed the Google form!
"Rat Ode" by Elizabeth Acevedo (paired with her introduction where she shares her interaction with her professor that inspired this "clap back")
Crossing by Jericho Brown. Anything by Clint Smith, Warsan Shire, or Rudy Francisco. Good Bones by Maggie Smith. You Get Fat When You're in Love by Jose Olivarez. *Note from Jarred: I love teaching Clint Smith’s poem, “Something You Should Know,” and having students write their own versions…
"Failing in the Presence of Ants" (Gary Soto), "You Love a Thing" and "Absolute" (Jacqueline Woodson)
My poetry playoffs are during April, and we always do spoken word poetry videos. The kids get so into them. Some of my favorites are Rudy Francisco--anything by him; Shane Koyczan-To This Day; Maya Mayor-Perfect; and Dear Basketball-Kobe Bryant.
I love showing the video of Harry Baker reciting Paper People & A Love Poem for Prime numbers. Also, To This Day by Shane Koyczan.
Sharing Romeo and Juliet highlights: Even if you don’t read R&J with students, I think you may find value in some of the following activities:
Sonnets: Students worked in groups to write an epilogue for Romeo and Juliet, using the prologue as inspiration, and then wrote an indvidual sonnet. After a gallery walk, where we viewed some of the most memorable examples from last year’s group, students wrote about LOVE (love of a person, food, sport, hobby, season, pet, family, place, etc.) or HATE (envy, heartbreak, grief, pet peeve, etc) or perhaps a combination of the two (love & hate). Please reach out if you’d like to see some student examples; they’re excellent!
One-Pager: I couldn’t be more pleased with how our one-pagers turned out. Be sure to check out last week’s update for a full description.
Assigning Blame: Who do you find most at fault for the tragic deaths of Romeo and Juliet? Students worked in groups to develop their “Blame Chart” before writing a two paragraph analysis here.
Mock Trial: Super proud of our students’ performance in our mock trial last week. We had a team of lawyers charging the Friar (the prosecution), a team of lawyers defending the Friar, a judge, a bailiff, a juror, and a host of witnesses (students who came to the stand and answered questions from the point of view of the nurse, Lord Capulet, Friar John, and Friar Laurence himself). Be sure to check out this video for inspiration, and again, reach out if you have any questions.
Long Way Down + Romeo and Juliet: As I mentioned last week, one of my ELA sections started listening to the Long Way Down audiobook together last week, and they are hooked! I’ll definitely be revisting this LWD unit plan ($), as well. (If you’re planning to teach Long Way Down this spring, perhaps during National Poetry Month, don’t hesitate to reach out!) And speaking of Long Way Down, I highly recommend this 2018 conversation between Jason Reynolds and Trevor Noah. (I even write about this interview, particularly Reynolds’s distinction between literature and literacy, in JUST READ IT.) We also watched this video, where Jason Reynolds introduces the novel in verse.
And here’s a new Jason Reynolds video that you’re going to love: “The Power of Narrative.” You can check out the full transcript and unit plan here. Already thinking of how I plan to incorporate this video into our May/June plans…
NYT Learning Network Contest. What’s bothering you? Who could do something about it? What could you say to them that would persuade them to care, or to make change? And … what if we all read your letter? How could you make us care too? These are some of the questions we’re asking you to ponder for our new Open Letter Contest. And here are 300+ prompts for argumentative writing.
Article of the Week: See below for a running list of articles we’ve read this year.
“Your Face May Soon Be the Ticket. Not Everyone is Smiling.”
Here’s Kelly Gallagher’s running list of AoWs for the 23-24 school year
UPDATES & REMINDERS:
Project LIT Book Club: 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 images 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 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 is officially out in the world! You can order here (try using the code LEAPYEAR for 29% off + free shipping — if it doesn’t work, try using RAVEN25 for 25% + free shipping.) Corwin has also shared an excerpt from the book; check out Chapter 1 here. Thanks again to everyone who continues to support the book and spread the word. So grateful for every post, every comment, every email. If your school, district, or organization is planning a JUST READ IT book study, please reach out! Would love to be involved in anyway that I can. And if you have a minute, a positive review on Goodreads or Amazon would be greatly appreciated.
As always, happy reading,
Jarred