Weekly Update: Embracing the Madness

Book and Character "Faceoffs," Author Spotlights, Poetry and Novel in Verse Brackets, Musical Matchups and Lit Playlists, and much more

Happy March everyone,

Lots of good stuff in this week’s newsletter as we get ready for March Madness. As always, feel free to tweak or modify as you see fit, and be sure to reach out with any questions or suggestions.

1. Character Faceoff: In this WRAP prompt (featured in Just Read It), students pick two characters to go “head-to-head” in a literary matchup. Students can create their own categories, or we can assign them. Possible categories include name, approximate age, hometown, friends and family, best attribute, toxic trait, talents and interests, pet peeves, core desire, and core fear. Some responses have a clear right/wrong answer while many encourage students to make creative inferences. Ultimately, students will choose a “winner” and write a strong paragraph explaining why _________ is the superior character.

2. Book Faceoff: Similarly, in this WRAP prompt, students 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. However, be sure to encourage students to come up with their own categories, as well. Note that the final task, where students defend their selection, can easily be dressed down (as a brief, handwritten response on the bottom or back of the graphic organizer) or dressed up (as a typed, multiparagraph response). This activity also makes a great display; we can post the completed “Book Faceoff” posters on our classroom and hallway bulletin boards.

3. Author Spotlight: While I’ve never created an “Author Madness” bracket, it could be fun to create a “Sweet 16” Bulletin Board with 16 of our classroom or library’s favorite authors. Students could then work individually or in groups to create a poster for one of the authors. Guiding questions include:

   1. Who is the author of your current read?

   2. Is there an “author bio” featured in the book? If so, what can you

      learn from it?

   3. Now, using your computer, can you find the author’s website? If

      so, take a few minutes to browse. Then, record some of your major

      findings and takeaways.

   4. What other reliable sources (interviews, articles, videos, podcasts, etc.)

      can you find to learn more about your author? Continue to take notes.

   5. Using your research notes, create an “Author Spotlight” poster (digital or by hand). Feel free to include the following: name of author, location (where they grew up and/or where they live currently), books written, primary genre(s), awards and accolades, fun facts, inspirational quotes, helpful links (their website, articles, essays, interviews, podcasts, videos, etc.), and at least one photo/headshot.

4. 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.)

5. Poetry Madness: As I posted in last week’s update, here’s my tentative game plan for our “Poetry Madness” later this month:

   1. 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…)

   2. 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.

   3. 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.

6. Musical Matchup: I don’t think I’ll have time to get to this one, but I think students would enjoy putting two of their favorite songs head-to-head in a musical matchup. And speaking of music, here’s another WRAP prompt from Just Read It that you can always save for the spring:

   In the “short and sweet” version, students spend five to ten minutes curating a playlist inspired by a specific character and/or book. For example, what songs could you picture Josh Bell listening to before a basketball game? What songs would you include in a Fahrenheit 451 or Romeo and Juliet soundtrack? Of course, while students are working on their lists, be sure to pull up YouTube and play some of their schoolappropriate selections. Suddenly, everyone is singing aloud and analyzing lyrics and requesting the next song. Our classroom is alive.

7. “This or That?” I typically start the year with a “This or That?” debate/discussion but it also works well here in the context of March Madness. Here’s what I wrote in the fal: To help build community (and to help students brainstorm possible topics for their “10 Things” letter), we had a lot of fun debating the following: beach or mountains, breakfast or dinner, Disney+ or Netflix, pizza or tacos, standalone book or series, cake or ice cream, and many more. Students circled their answers first and then moved to one side of the room before engaging in a spirited discussion. *Note: This would be an awesome “icebreaker” activity for a Project LIT meeting, too.* After debating each “this or that?”, students returned to their seat and wrote one strong paragraph: Pick one of the categories above and write a persuasive paragraph (i.e. why fall is the best season, soccer is better than football, tacos are better than pizza, etc.)

8. I’m also excited to check out the Smash Boom Best podcast. Lots of classroom possibilities here, even if it’s just using some of the debate topics as discussion starters…

9. 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.)

• “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?”

• “The Spooky Science of Fear”

• “Listening to Taylor Swift in Prison”

• “Food and Memory”

• “Oxford’s Word of the Year is….Rizz”

• “How to be a Better Reader”

• “A.I. Poses ‘Risk of Extinction,’ Industry Leaders Warn.”

• “Should we scoff at the idea of love at first sight?”

• Here’s Kelly Gallagher’s running list of AoWs for the 23-24 school year

10. UPDATES & REMINDERS:

    1. 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…)

    2. “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!

    3. 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!

    4. Let me know if you’re planning to read The Mona Lisa Vanishes or The Probability of Everything with your Project LIT chapter. Our copies just arrived last week!

    5. 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 this week.)

    6. If you have a minute, a positive review on Goodreads or Amazon would be greatly appreciated. Thank you, Carriann, for writing this review: “As a high school English teacher, I’m always looking to improve from year to year. This book gives SOLID strategies, prompts, and ideas for encouraging students to become lifelong readers. Isn’t that what it’s all about? This book has earned a place on my desk with my other favorite go-to teacher books.”

    

    Have a wonderful week, and as always, happy reading!

    Jarred