Weekly Update
Greek + Latin Roots, Poetry Prompts, Engaging Grammar Instruction, Book Recs, Author Interviews, and Much More
Happy Sunday everyone,
I’m getting ready to head over to The Curious Reader later this morning, where I’ll be chatting with fellow educator Oona Abrams about all things Just Read It. (New Jersey readers, would love for you to swing by! We’ll be there from 12 to 1.) Then, it’s back in the classroom for one more week before a much-needed and long-overdue spring break. I’m excited to share what we’ve been up to, so let’s get right to it.
Greek/Latin Roots + Poetry: To help students review our latest set of roots and celebrate National Poetry Month, I set aside time for students to write a poem that included at least five roots. Students could write anything they wanted, but to provide a little structure for those who needed it, I provided two possible prompts: “How to _______” and “Introduction to ______.” The responses were incredible. Students LOVED the opportunity to be creative. I did, too. You can check out my example here. And here are a few student poems. (Would love to see what y’all come up with this week!)
Here are four more poetry-focused WRAP prompts to share with students this month (or anytime), including the character biopoem, haiku, acrostic, and sonnet.
Independent Reading + Grammar: As you can see from the first two items, I love being able to kill two birds with one stone. Here’s another example from last week: Following our independent reading, I designed WRAP prompts that helped students review key grammar concepts. For example, I had students find examples of simple, compound, and complex sentences in their IR books. I also had students write original sentences about their books using specific punctuation, such as a semicolon, colon, apostrophe, ellipses, hyphen, and dash. (I also write about this in Just Read It. Reach out if you have any questions!)
What I’m Reading: My goodness, There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension by Hanif Abdurraqib checked every box. After finishing the book earlier this week, I found myself reading every interview with the author (including the Book Page cover story). Up next is Stephen King’s On Writing, which I’m reading after ordering a copy for a student. (How cool is it that she wanted to read it?!) Other 2024 reads include: Hello Beautiful, Tomorrow X3, Tom Lake, The Deal of a Lifetime, Play Like a Girl, Swim Team, A Rover’s Story, The Probability of Everything, Rez Ball, Divine Rivals, The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains, Filterworld, and Stolen Focus.
Two more titles that I’ve read (or re-read) recently: Long Way Down and Romeo and Juliet. I’ve written a bunch about our experience with both texts in previous newsletters, but please reach out if you have any specific questions. Happy to answer them in future updates. One of my classes wrote incredible continuations last week; here’s one example. They also spent a class period working in groups to identify major similarities and differences between the two texts and then writing an introduction to a literary analysis essay.
Author Interview: This interview with the brilliant Elizabeth Acevedo is a few years old now, but it obviously holds up wonderfully. (I’m excited to get to her adult debut, Family Lore, at some point soon. Let me know if you’ve read it! And speaking of YA authors moving into the adult space, who has read an advanced copy of Jeff Zentner’s latest, Colton Gentry’s Third Act? It publishes later this month.)
In more author news, I’m thrilled to share a special offer & invitation for our Project LIT family: Save $50 off registration for Kwame Alexander's April 30th Author Study event -- a celebration of National Poetry Month and the 10-year anniversary of The Crossover (which was also the first ever Project LIT selection)! Kwame will be joined by two special guests: hip hop educator and poet Toni Blackman and award-winning picture book author Sue Fliess. This is a 45-minute online event where students can learn from Kwame and his guests about the magic of poetry as a writing spark, with opportunity for students to ask questions and interact with the authors. You can reserve your class's spot now at AuthorStudy.com using the code PROJECTLIT50 for $50 off the price of one registration. Registered attendees can pay online by credit card, debit, Paypal or Google Pay through the Eventbrite system. Pay by check and ACH options are also available - please first complete this form and the event organizers will be in touch regarding next steps.
NYT Podcast Contest: I don’t think if I’ll have time to get into this with my students, but it looks like a fantastic opportunity. And be sure to check out the winners of the NYT How To Contest along with the Open Letter Contest and 300+ prompts for argumentative writing.
Article of the Week: Our science teacher is having students complete a “Genius Hour” project (which is awesome), so for next week’s AoW, I’m going to have students find a credible article related to their topic. Be sure to check out previous updates for our full list of AoWs (typically, every student reads and responds to the same text).
10. A few final updates & reminders:
Just Read It Book Club: Join the fun here!
ICYMI: a new Jason Reynolds video, “The Power of Narrative.” You can check out the full transcript and unit plan here (and if you have only have a couple of minutes, be sure to jump ahead to the 32:00 mark for a special shoutout…)
April Reading Reflection: Here’s the full WRAP prompt (along with some examples from our classroom).
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 and an Amazon Top New Release! 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. 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.
If your school, district, or organization is planning a JUST READ IT book study or would like for me to deliver a keynote address or lead a workshop/PD session, please reach out!
As always, thank you for reading and sharing. Wishing everyone a wonderful week!
Happy reading,
Jarred