Happy March everyone,
Anxiously awaiting the arrival of spring here in New Jersey…and wishing all of you a wonderful week ahead. Excited to share what we have going on in our classroom over the next few weeks — as always, please reach out if you have any questions!
Weekend Thread: “Independent reading is an essential practice if we are serious about nurturing a generation of readers, writers, and leaders; if we are serious about educating the whole child; and if we are serious about centering students in our classrooms and schools.” You can check out the entire thread here, and of course, order JUST READ IT via Corwin’s website (try using the code LEAPYEAR for 29% off + free shipping) or Amazon.
March Madness in the Classroom: I also put together an Instagram post highlighting many of the activities and resources from last week’s newsletter. One that I definitely plan to incorporate this month: “Shot Clock” Book Talks. Students will have 24 (NBA rules) or 30 (NCAA rules) seconds to deliver a “slam dunk” book talk of their favorite all-time read.
Wrapping up Romeo and Juliet: Even if you don’t read R&J with students, I think you may find some of the following activities:
Sonnet #1: Students will work in groups to write an epilogue for Romeo and Juliet, using the prologue as inspiration. (Reach out if you’d like to see some student examples!)
Sonnet #2: I highly recommend this one, even if your students aren’t reading R&J. For this assignment, students will write a sonnet about LOVE (love of a person, food, sport, hobby, season, pet, family, place, etc.) or HATE (envy, heartbreak, grief, pet peeve, etc). (Again, reach out for examples — I have several from last year ready to share with my current group.)
One-Pager: Again, this works with any text, whole-class or independent reading. For this assignment, the outside border will include four key Quotations (include page number + brief analysis), the inside border will feature key themes & symbols, and the eight interior boxes/panels will demonstrate understanding/analysis of the following: Summary; Character; Setting; Conflict; Plot (Pivotal Scene 1); Plot (Pivotal Scene 2); Writing Style & Author’s Craft; Critique. Will be sure to share finished products next week!
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” (a nice activity before “Pi Day” this week) before writing a two paragraph analysis here. This was an awesome way for us to prepare for our upcoming mock trial, where Friar Laurence will be charged with involuntary manslaughter.
Returning to our Independent Reading: As we move into our mock trial and final projects this week, we’ll return to independent reading with three of my four sections. (Students enjoyed the whole-group experience but I know they’re excited to dig into their own books again.) The fourth group, my last period of the day, is going to listen to Long Way Down together before returning to their own books. Cannot wait to see what connections they make between the two texts! 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!)
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.) And here is Reynolds on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon last month. (I just watched the 6-minute clip again. Jason is an absolute treasure.)
Novels in Verse March Madness: Shout out to Mr. Billotti for creating this incredible resource. “It's a 2024 Sweet 16 poetry bracket with poems from MG and YA Novels in Verse! Thought it'd be a good way to also introduce kids to new books along the way!” It is, indeed. Thank you again, MB! (And if any of you decide to add more poems from MG or YA novels in verse, be sure to send them my way so I can include them in the next update.)
Poetry Madness: As I posted in last week’s update, here’s my tentative game plan for our “Poetry Madness” later this month (I’ll be starting this on 3/19).
Select 16 poems to read, discuss, analyze, debate, etc. with my 8th graders. (I may end up narrowing this down to 8 poems if 16 feels too time-consuming…)
I will create 8 “head-to-head” matchups, with students completing a graphic organizer and selecting a winner (here’s what I created last year). The 8 “winning” poems will advance to the Elite 8, then to the Final Four, and finally to the Championship Game, where we will ultimately select a champion.
Share your favorite poems to read with middle and/or high school students here! And check out some of our favorites from last year here.
Book Club: Let me know if you’re planning to read The Mona Lisa Vanishes or The Probability of Everything with your chapter/book club. Our copies just arrived (we received a local mini-grant enabling us to purchase 25 copies of four recent Project LIT picks), and we plan to read both this spring.
Article of the Week: See below for a running list of articles we’ve read this year. (And as we close out the second trimester in two weeks, I’m planning to have students complete an in-class writing assessment similar to what they will see on the NJSLA in early May. Students will read two or three texts on the topic of facial recognition (connected to our technology debate and discussion last month) and then write an analytical essay. I’m still finalizing the specific texts and tasks, but if you’re interested, you can check out my super early (and rough) notes here.)
“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:
Check out this Instagram post — would love for you and your students to join the fun and share photos of your favorite “book stacks” (the Just Read It poster is optional, of course.) I know it means the world to the MG and YA authors who are featured. (Be sure to tag @projectLITcomm on Instagram if you do — and stay tuned for another giveway…)
“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 (books about basketball, graphic memoirs, novels in verse, one-word titles, etc.) over on Instagram. Share your suggestions here!
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. Book promotion falls entirely on the author, and as a full-time teacher and dad, there aren’t enough hours in the day for me to mess with the TikTok and Instagram algorithms. (I felt very defeated after finishing Filterworld last week.) And if you have a minute, a positive review on Goodreads or Amazon would be greatly appreciated.
As always, happy reading,
Jarred