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This is the book I use. It's a goldmine of strategies.
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas American Born Chinese by Gene L. Yang Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud Maus by Art Spiegelman Wonder by RJ Palacio Cut by Patricia McCormick Looking for Alaska by John Green To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson Monster by Walter Dean Myers
That's all I can think of right this second. This is my fourth year teaching (I teach English), and I found all of these valuable in one way or another.
There is no way Beloved is appropriate for eighth graders. Not only is the reading difficulty high, the content is way too mature. Please don't read Beloved with eighth graders!
Why does this need to be fiction? I've always taught The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass with eighth graders. They seem to get a lot out of it. We even have a nice conversation about the problematic introductions by white men trying to frame what Douglass has to say which seems to leave a big impression at my mostly-white school.
We started our course with Stephen King's On Writing, and it was really helpful in setting the tone for the class. This isn't a writing class, it's a class ON writing. What tools does an author use to say what he needs to say? We had lists and lists of rhetorical devices to go over each week, and in class we'd go over which one we saw in the book we were reading.
We practiced timed writings once a week and were graded on the AP scale.
I don't know if this helps, and I'm still taking my education courses, so I'm not a teacher yet. But hopefully it's a little help to you!
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/words/among-or-amongst
There is no difference; it is merely a matter of preference. When writing in English, if there are two equally acceptable forms, choose one and be consistent. Use the same spelling every time. This is true for spelling as well as grammar when grammar rules are equally acceptable.
I’m an ELA teacher, and second the advice you’ve already gotten. Being open with the school can help, and it won’t follow him past high school.
I skimmed and didn’t see anyone else mention this, but is there any evidence it could be his eyes? Tracking problems can cause some of the symptoms you described. I’ve had a student diagnosed with this and my husband has it, too. My husband is a programmer, so he basically reads for a living and yet he stumbles through a new picture book. He especially has a hard time on white text with dark backgrounds. It’s like his eyes literally can’t find/recognize text on the page. He reads slowly and isn’t great at oral reading.
My student’s core issue was that one eye wasn’t moving as quickly as the other. So his eyes had trouble making sense of the text as he read. The thing was, mom took him in to get his eyes checked and he had nearly perfect vision. She took him to a specialist who figured it out. They prescribed him glasses, but iirc they were specifically to help his slower eye gain strength.
One thing I’d suggest either way is trying out colored page screens and see if they help at all. They have some neat ones that don’t look conspicuously like a reading aide. Here are some from Amazon.
And even if he doesn’t have a tracking issue, these might help relieve some fatigue from reading slowly, which can help him later on, too.
The book Bringing Words to Life has been the best resource for me with teaching vocabulary. It's simple and practical, and my students catch on quickly. They actually use the words in their speech and their writing, so the transfer is visible and long-lasting, not surface-level.
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Here's the link to where you can buy it on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Bringing-Words-Life-Second-Instruction/dp/1462508162
There's a lot you could focus on, here. My ideas: Grammar
Vocabulary - books like 100 Words Every Middle Schooler Should Know
Sentence structure
Conversation: Socratic Seminar/Circles
Roots -- Latin, Greek -- medical terms, animal terms, lawful terms etc.
Creative writing (use as a tool to synthesize/identify success regarding all of the above)
Literary concepts that rely on short stories, short films, poetry and/or art.
There's definitely more, but I'll pause here.
Previous non-reading seniors have responded well to The Autobiography of Malcolm X. A part of it can be found here: http://www.lemars.k12.ia.us/webfiles/khorras/Reading/The%20Watson's%20Go%20to%20Birmingham%201963/My%20First%20Conk.pdf I'm currently reading Behind the Beautiful Forevers-about the slums surrounding the airport in Mumbai. It's beautifully written and relatable for those in poverty. Each chapter could be used as a short story. If you're looking for fiction, here's one of my favorites from another book where again, each chapter could make its own short story: http://www.napavalley.edu/people/LYanover/Documents/English%20121/English%20121%20Louise%20Erdrich%20The%20Red%20Convertible.pdf
Strunk and White's 'The Elements of Style' is a classics, no-nonsense guide to grammar. It is a very slim book with clear examples. Here it is in PDF form: https://faculty.washington.edu/heagerty/Courses/b572/public/StrunkWhite.pdf
Here are some online exercises that roughly follow Strunk and White: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/arts/exercises/grammar/grammar_tutorial/index.htm
Strunk and White's The Elements of Style or the MLA's MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. The former covers the mechanics of English; the latter covers mechanics and proper citation for text-based writing. I gravitate toward the MLA Handbook because I used it so much as an English major (writing concentration), but I think either would cover what you're looking for.
The Book Thief and Milkweed are better stories.
The Diary of Anne Frank, The Hiding Place, and Man's Search for Meaning are better history.
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is even more frustrating than Life is Beautiful because at least Life is Beautiful didn't excuse the Germans for standing by while their government murdered ~20 million people.
You may find something interesting in here.
Poetry? How about a month on Carol Anne Duffy's collection "The World's Wife." It's AMAZING. Each poem is written from the POV of a female character in literature or a character/author's wife. Check out "Medusa," or "Little Red Cap" to start.
What about Mark Twain? There are deaths here and there but Huck Finn, Tom Sawyer, Connecticut Yankee, and pretty much everything else he wrote is fairly lighthearted. I've taught The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg, which is a long short story/borderline novella about a con man who tries to erode the morals of an "incorruptible" small town, and it was pretty successful. You can get it for free Project Gutenberg. Perhaps Roughing It would be a good replacement for Into the Wild, specifically?
Peter Smagorinsky's Teaching English By Design was a resource I found invaluable back when I was learning how to plan lessons, and trying to understand backward design and why one should bother w/ it.
This template has been an absolute godsend (I stumbled across it online a few years ago, unfortuantely I can't remember where I first encountered it, but I do know this version is a modified version of that original template anyway. I tweaked what I found slightly until it met my more specific needs.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tzy5VBb3MyJ4DXeWaBmFPddIvjfTgJ-x3ViPj8N5xWA/pub
Also, here's another link, this time to a full UBD unit (designed for grade 12) This includes rationale, daily outlined plans, and fully fleshed out extremely detailed lesson plans for a few days during the two month long unit. Hope this helps a bit. https://www.academia.edu/28833055/UBD_Conceptual_Unit_Grades_11_and_12_The_Individual_and_the_Cultural_Environment_Featuring_The_Awakening_by_Kate_Chopin
When I am in the swing of using plickers, probably a couple times per week. I haven't used it often recently b/c we were wrapping up a unit but I usually ask comprehensive questions or review (multiple choice) after a reading such "Which of the following from the text supports that Romeo is dramatic.
There are lots of ways you can use it. A math teacher I work with has them answer questions on an entry activity and then uses a couple of the questions (the students won't know which) for plickers as a review.
You can also try kahoot as another method for exit tickets.
Have you tried novel engineering?
Have students identify any and all problems within a text (I have them list on post its on the board, or if you have access to technology, padlet.com)
Then have students work in groups to develop a solution for a problem in the text and create a prototype of that solution.
For example, my 8th graders did this for Animal Farm. Here is a padlet the entire class recorded problems (I assigned each group a couple of chapters to search for problems):
https://padlet.com/whelehonc/animalfarm5
Then groups could pick any problem in the text. Some prototypes they created were one group created a tool the animals could use to build the windmill (the tools the animals had access to were for human use, so they made some that could be used with hooves).
Once they have a sketch of their solution, I give them materials to actually build the prototypes (ask parents to donate materials like old egg cartons, wire hangers, cardboard, etc).
They then present to class for feedback and then make modifications.
Google novel engineering. This website gives some planning sheets you could use during the design phase:
https://schoolpartnership.wustl.edu/programs-services/novel-engineering/
This book will be your bible when it comes to lesson planning. Anything you don’t know, it will help you with! This really helped me In student teaching, which I just finished! https://www.amazon.com/dp/0761160914/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_21G3BBC12Q8ZB5CXFANK?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
Wow thank you for your advice, I really appreciate that. I shall note them down at once.
Are you using any tables/forms that might be useful in this case that you are currently using for your classes? Are there any writing practices that you would suggest to your class for the sake of improving their writing in general?
Question though, which Hacker book on grammar are we talking about? https://www.amazon.com/Bedford-Handbook-Diana-Hacker/dp/0312419333 is the one I found on Amazon, and I'm just not sure if that's the one you are talking about.
Check out the Facing History and Ourselves website. Their program changed me as a teacher. You will find their Choosing to Participate unit within their Holocaust and Human Behavior program useful.
I am in the end of the unit right now. I like to connect to Viktor Frankl's closing in Man's Search for Meaning. Specifically, I adore his explanation of building a Statue of Responsibility on the West Coast to compliment the Statue or Liberty on the East Coast.
Good luck!
There's no way they should reread Beloved yet.
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass would be my first choice. Jefferson's Sons by Kimberly Brubacker Bradley would make for some amazing discussions.
For reluctant readers, graphic novels are amazing (Maus by Art Spiegelman and American Born Chinese by Gene Yang are two of my favorites). The Book Thief is a little more challenging, but it is beautiful and popular with teenagers. My students also love The Hunger Games.
If you have time, read "The Writer's Journey" by Christopher Vogler. He's a Hollywood script doctor who uses the hero's journey to make stories more universally appealing. Really interesting and easy to pick some anecdotes from the text to use in class.
Here's a cool story I just read that is pretty heartwarming but still shows in a very serious light what it was really like during the Holocaust: http://www.hfcsd.org/ww2/Interviews/GEORGE%20GROSS/george%20gross.htm
You might also think about incorporating some stuff from The Diary of a Young Girl--there's a lot of really profound, hopeful thoughts in there.
I teach in alternative education so there are things that have worked.
I recently got this book, which is full of awesome ideas: https://www.amazon.com/Reading-Strategies-Book-Everything-Developing/dp/032507433X
Other things that work:
- Your district's elementary reading software (we use Lexia)
- Vocabulary instruction. I use quizlet others use kahoot, both work. To prepare for the formative assessment I will do shades of meaning or vocabulary trading cards.
- Provide a reading purpose (a question to guide their annotations)
- Dyad reading. Wow, do they hate it but it works. This works best for literature.
- Partner reading. They also hate this. This works best for longer readings and nonfiction.
- Graphic organizers to gather textual evidence and write summaries.
- Writing, like actually writing. Turns out it is really hard for students to gain certain reading skills and recognize certain moves writers make if they are not themselves writing.
Mostly I cannot stress enough that students need the opportunity to engage in productive struggle with a text. So often we see kids struggle and step in and do the work for them, or we let them skip words. This doesn't work. Encourage students to ask questions and take breaks (but not quit) when they get frustrated.
I used to teach struggling readers in high school (reading at 1-4th grade reading level). there are a number of resources available. My kids loved these short little books that were all true stories edited by Sandra Heyer. For some reason, they didn't like fiction but loved the true story apspect.
You should get Grammar to Get Things Done. It approaches grammar instruction in wholly new ways, and it is written in a way to help you get a handle on what you need and what your students need.
It's very much versed in the power inequity created by prescriptivist language structures.
It has lots of interesting, meaningful activities in it you can do with your students surrounding small usage/mechanical concepts.
I was introduced to this book in a master’s teaching course, and while the class was helpful, this book was the golden goose for me. Like Strunk & White’s Elements of Style, I often return to this book just for my own pleasure, but both offer great insights into the practical application of grammar and usage rather than rote rules. I keep a copy on my classroom desk: https://www.amazon.com/Garners-Modern-English-Usage-Garner/dp/0190491485
Hi, I’m an old teacher trainer for “English teachers” in Japan, many of which got the job because they come from an English speaking country, not because they have a formal background in language education. Cool!
Anyway; get yourself a copy of Paul Nation’s “What should every EFL teacher know? ASAP, and start cracking through it. It’ll give you about 40 techniques to start helping your students, while developing a competent, functional understanding of language acquisition. He’s not a salesman or offers some sort of patreon, he’s a language educator with years in the field. This book simply happens to fit you and others quite well.
Hello, I'm a bot! The movie you linked is called How Did You Get Here?, here are some Trailers
I typically end up having the kids read the play in class, and then show various versions as we go. I try and use a theatrical version alongside the reading so they can see what they just read played out, but then I always show the Luhrman version. It's so good, and it makes them react and think. They either love it or hate it, but they all have an opinion, and they all watched.
Here's the theatrical version I used most recently
The Manga Classics versions are the best graphic novel versions I've ever seen.
The modern English translation is fantastic: https://www.amazon.com/Manga-Classics-Juliet-Modern-English/dp/1947808222
There's also a free teacher's guide for it.
The Leonardo DeCaprio version is honestly the best. But you might also look into a graphic novel version of the play? This is definitely a text that you will find plenty of multi-level resources for.
Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare Classics Graphic Novels) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0763668079/ref=cm_sw_r_awdo_navT_a_3GR0EBKHW2SSFR89T5EA
34??!! Holy shit! Our contract is a max of 28 (middle school). I’d be spending all my time on crowd control.
Could it work to have multiple groups/trials? Multiple students for each role (co-counselors)? I remember that our final assessment piece was a short essay that each student had to write using text evidence to prove their claim (guilty/not guilty).
There are also some Scholastic Scope magazine play versions of the story. Students could take roles and then you could compare the different genres- play vs short story (that’s a CCSS standard at my grade - 8th). And various short films to compare story to: http://www.openculture.com/2016/01/three-animated-adaptations-of-edgar-allan-poes-tell-tale-heart.html. There’s even a Simpson’s episode that references it!
You might think about The View From Saturday, which would fit in with either week 3 or 4. It addresses things like diversity(the characters all have different religious/cultural backgrounds and it gets discussed a lot), how different peoples' perceptions change situations, plus you learn a lot of interesting random facts because the main characters are a Quiz Bowl team and their coach.
You could suggest to her to try Duolingo. I have had some students who have tried it and they had lots of positive things to say about it.
Here is a link for the English courses:
My local Nextdoor is crawling with families looking for childcare and tutoring, especially now that we're approaching summer. If you're not on yet, you'll need an invitation from someone in your area.
Bonus--Your neighbors' drama will always be entertaining.
I looked at using it but decided it wasn't worth the hassle and ended up creating a Facebook Template handout instead. Here's a .docx download for it, and you can tweak the page how you see fit: http://www.filedropper.com/facebookcharacteranalysistemplatemoreplot
There are two others that I know of, ProWritingAid and Microsoft Editor. The full version of Microsoft's Editor is free if your district has a 365 subscription.
Most of what I've put up have been things I cut up from magazines or printed out myself. (Recently used Rasterbator and like it quite a bit, especially if you can find high res images to use it with.) Usually I focus on pictures along with articles I found interesting or add some cool flair to my walls, as well as images from my favorite artists, musicians, films, authors, etc. Use it as an opportunity to create talking points with your students and share what you're passionate about.
You could check with your librarian and see what they do with old magazines in your media center, might not be a bad resource for you!
You can choose videos that connect to whatever content you are teaching. It grades automatically and exports grades to your Google Classroom. One of the few free sites to do this. It only does this if all questions are multiple-choice or true/false. Teachers have already created questions for most videos you will find. You can edit what others have done or write your own new questions. You can even edit the length of the video if you only want a certain section. I delete open response questions when I don't want to grade anything, although grading on the site is easy. Choose option to not let students skip ahead. Their help center has excellent explanations on how to use the site and you can find some on Youtube. The free subscription is very good. I like the site so much I'm paying for a subscription. You can create folders for different classes to organize your videos.
Hello, I'm on the same page as you! To teach R&J I'm actually using this program called Edpuzzle (linked here: https://edpuzzle.com/home)
My students' reading levels are pretty low and I cannot trust them to understand it reading indepedently (even in modern English).
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My game plan is to have my students watch each scene, and Edpuzzle creates activities around the Youtube clips by having it automatically stop to answer a question before moving forward. You can also add notes and recordings of your own voice explaining. The students can't finish the video or complete the assignment until they answered all of the plugged in questions.
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Hope this helps!
Just finished that unit. I found it a bit tricky because we use an abridged version of The Odyssey, so there are quite a few gaps. Basically, I taught them about all of the steps and used The Hobbit as an example. (They read it last year.) as we read The Odyssey, we identified scenes that correspond to the Hero's Journey and plotted them on a chart. We skipped quite a few steps since we read excerpts. Finally, I had the students write about personal "journeys," linking specific events to steps in the HJ. To make it more "epic," I told them to describe their obstacles as mythological beasts and their friends/family as supernatural guides.
If you're allowed to show movies, Labyrinth parallels the Hero's Journey pretty closely. There's also a Ted-Ed video that I found useful in introducing the concept. http://ed.ted.com/lessons/what-makes-a-hero-matthew-winkler Edited for typo
This is an ad, right? You’re involved with this company. Seems disingenuous not to mention that.
It looks like it’s “free for now.” For those interested in a truly free (and open source) option, check out http://twinery.org/.
Have you tried Animoto? Kids at my old school used it all the time, and it was definitely accessible for middle schoolers; a second grader might need a little help, but probably not much.
Do you have 1:1 devices in your school? If so, I have found the chrome extension https://hypothes.is/ to be incredible. You can digitally annotate any text with your class. Have students pose questions and other students help answer them. They can post pictures, and respond to other comments too. While you can follow the dictates of the curriculum for annotating you can also allow them to perhaps post relevant memes, or interesting questions that turns the annotation into a class discussion that everyone can contribute to at the same time. I have found students really enjoy it and I do too. It also helps that you can easily access each students annotations for the semester and per article in order to tell how well they are doing and progressing.
One site I haven't seen mentioned here yet is https://hypothes.is/
Especially as students get older and more able to discuss and analyze texts it is a fantastic, simple tool. Students can add it as an extension in their Chrome Browser and then you can look at absolutely any article or text on the internet and the students can annotate it collaboratively. They or you can ask a discussion question and other students can reply. It is also really easy to see each individual student and all of their comments so you can grade based on their interaction with the text. Of course, all this only works if each student has access to a device, although maybe pairs would work too. Insert Learning is a similar extension with more functionality but much slower.
Another really helpful tools for something like a novel study is using Google Docs. Create a two-column table and put important passages in one side and then on the other side students can add definitions to difficult words, background info they research, comments, and a section for discussion questions. That way the whole class can collaborate on building knowledge around a text and sharing their ideas.
Not a problem! There's not much text on the Banksy section, but feel free to duplicate and revise as you see fit!
I googled literary periodic table and found a fee ideas: https://www.amazon.com/Periodic-Table-World-Literature-Chart/dp/0756057507
https://www.google.com/amp/s/ebookfriendly.com/literary-periodic-tables-elements/amp/
This book on Madame Wu, Chinese-American physicists is great! https://www.amazon.com/Madame-Wu-Chien-Shiung-Physics-Research/dp/981436892X/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1612797929&sr=
I second this! I was gifted a book about first year teaching, and it's been so helpful in terms of handling both the academic and emotional aspects of teaching when starting out. I highly recommend it! Here's a link: https://www.amazon.com/First-Year-Teachers-Survival-Guide-Ready/dp/1119470366/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=first+year+teacher+survival+guide&qid=1618849641&sprefix=first+year+teacher+survival+&sr=8-3
Recycling and pollution always seem to be a hot topic for this age which is always great to see!
I read parts of You Are Eating Plastic Every Day (https://www.amazon.com/You-Are-Eating-Plastic-Every/dp/0756562295) which caught their attention but I don't think was enough.
Reel wheels
DEWENWILS Extension Cord Reel with 25 FT Power Cord, Hand Wind Retractable, 16/3 AWG SJTW, 4 Grounded Outlets, 13 Amp Circuit Breaker, Yellow, Black, UL Listed https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07RVF386D/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_W1ZT4G4JDN834S5JKX02
Here's a free one from Penguin. I've had good results from using some of their other ones. You can buy others on Amazon (free for Kindle).
Purchase I Read It but I Don't Get It by Cris Tovani!!!!!!!!!
I wish Reddit would let me put this in large font.
They don't like reading because they're not good at it! This book addresses motivation, and gives you lesson and talk strategies to help get kids into reading and figure out what reading skills they need to work on. I read it on my own during my student teaching and refer back to it constantly. Hands down, the most useful teaching book I've ever read.
Also, her writing style is nice and makes for easy reading. I read the whole thing in two or three days. Bring along a pencil and page markers to mark the stuff you're going to want to go back to.
Amazon link here.
Here it is on Amazon Prime: https://www.amazon.com/Focus-Pocus/dp/B00CHHTAAU/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=brain+games&qid=1567479521&s=instant-video&sr=1-2
It used to be on Netflix, but season 2 is no longer up.
First off: congratulations on the class.
Here is an anthology used for college-level creative nonfiction classes. It is far-reaching and provides many opportunities for anchor texts, model works, and examples of literary non-fiction.
While not strictly a form of journalism, creative non-fiction can also delve into memoir (Didion, Satrapi, Eggers) too.
Consider spending a day on roman-à-clefs (Kerouac) as well.
Given the chance to build this class from scratch, I would start by giving students examples of fact-heavy reportage and allow students to identify constituent elements (tropes, writing style, structure, tone) of how those compare to the creative non-fiction. Specifically, how A passage from Thompson’s Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail compares to a contemporaneous article from the Washington Post. Alternatively you can have students compare David Foster Wallace’s essay on Roger Federer to a passage from the sports page about the tennis great winning a major.
What’s fun about this is that you have so many opportunities to make it unique.
What’s scary about this is that you have so many opportunities to make it unique.
those are great practice scores! I think you should be just fine, just remember to mentally prepare and no problem
if you're still worried, I'd suggest reading a practice book- I used this one and it was pretty helpful
Theres an essay by Ellen Sussman in the collection "Breakfast on Mars" called "Break the Rules" that is both about the value of rule breaking in writing and breaks the rules.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0096QZ82O/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_fvMBFbY3P3YKG
I imagine the Binti series by Nnedi Okorafor could lead to a lot of rich discussions. They are more novellas than short stories, and fit into sci-fi/ Afrofuturism genre. You could really dig into themes related to the future of humans, what it means to be human, the role of culture and tradition in a futuristic society, and free will vs. destiny.
https://www.amazon.com/Binti-Complete-Trilogy-Nnedi-Okorafor/dp/0756415187
Kids are definitely still reading! As YoungAdult_ mentions, they might not be engaged with the assigned readings; however, I would argue that's always been the case for some students. On the other hand, I've found during the last couple years that fewer students (particularly the boys) are reading magazines and comic books, but instead are becoming increasingly interested in books like this. Still, this is only my experience and certainly doesn't apply to all students.
I haven’t read it yet, but this one seems to be the one I’ve heard the most good things about. Language at the Speed of Sight: How We Read, Why So Many Can't, and What Can Be Done About It https://www.amazon.com/dp/1541617150/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_ltoXDbS0TFR6Z
I absolutely loved the graphic novel - you can get it in 3 different language options - original/plain/quick
Great way to engage students with a play that was meant to be SEEN.
https://www.amazon.ca/Macbeth-Graphic-Novel-Plain-Text/dp/1906332045
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there's a teacher set you can get with it too - some good activities. I don't have my work laptop on me now to send you samples though.
THE COMPLETE MAUS. Can’t recommend this enough - but it does take a good amount of time to do it right.
Also, much shorter:
Letters to Survivors by Gebe
French political/societal commentary about a family in a bomb shelter.
This could be done easily in a few days. Fits with any post-apocalyptic sci-fi stuff, but also great for teaching irony. Could easily pair well with Lord of the Flies, 451° F, and even Animal Farm for reasons which may become evident when you finish the book.
I’m using it this year as my intro text for my graphic novels class as well as in my sci-fi class.
I read it straight through in about 40 minutes, and it is easily in my top 3 graphic novels.
https://www.amazon.com/Teaching-Frankenstein-Cautionary-Viktor-James-ebook/dp/B07H3BQ4DT
This is the link to the US market. It’s free to download based on the region you live in. You just have to find it in your market. Sadly, amazon doesn’t auto adjust it. But that link will work if you live in the US. The other was for Canada.
While Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices is a great collection, there are a lot in Google images that you could look at. Give them a few minutes to partner and practice, then present slowly and clearly.
There's an absolutely phenomenal book called The Boys Who Challenged Hitler] that is an absolutely stunning nonfiction book for young readers. It's classified as YA, but I'm sure your middle-schoolers can handle it. It's riveting, gorgeously written, and highlights an incredibly important and not-often-discussed part of the Nazi resistance.
I might recommend a book called <em>The Elements of Academic Style</em> by Eric Hayot
The chapter called The Uneven U really goes into detail on the mechanics of academic writing. It shows students how to analyze and understand the structure and purpose of their sentences, paragraphs, and papers.
Other than that it seems like you have some very interesting things to read and discuss!
Are you speaking about On Writing? If so--
I actually have four assignments, one for each part of the book, but I only ask my kids to do the first two (the third and fourth were a bit redundant). Send me a pm with your email address and I'll send them to you!
I don't teach 9th, but these are the ones taught by fellow teachers that I know of in that grade (there may be others I'm forgetting).
Of Mice and Men, Fahrenheit 451, Fences, Lord of the Flies, A Separate Peace, Things Fall Apart, On Writing Well, as well as some analysis of Virginia Woolf's short stories.
I teach at a rural school in Colorado. When I arrived at the district, there was ZERO curriculum for middle or high school English. So I was given the freedom to create whatever curriculum and use whatever texts I like. Here is the breakdown I went with: 9: Animal Farm, Flowers for Algernon, All Quiet on the Western Front, Romeo and Juliet. 10: Fahrenheit 451, poetry unit, class selected Shakespeare, and literature circles (student selected, small group project). 11: Joy Luck Club or Things Fall Apart, Of Mice and Men, class selected Shakespeare, and Catcher in the Rye. 12: The Great Gatsby, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Maus, and a poetry unit.
I made these decisions because I was TRYING to create a diverse curriculum of reading, but unfortunately selected almost exclusively male authors-- ooops. I've only briefly had to fight parents / community over Malcolm X and Maus.
Malcolm X was challenged because they thought it would agitate racial tensions or something? I don't know, it was a weak argument that didn't last long, especially since we only have 2 African American students in our school.
Maus was fought on the grounds that it was a comic book and therefore had no place in education. After having the complainers actually pick it up and read it, they dropped their complaints though.
Oh (sorry for potato quality, on phone riding shotgun to NYE), "On Writing" is a short story that sometimes appears in "Big Two-Hearted River". It works great as an intro to Hem's philosophy of writing, and if you like art, gets into Impressionism & Cezanne. I use a PowerPoint of Cezanne's art, some of which Nick Adams mentions in "On Writing" and I help the students visualize Impressionism and the Iceberg Principle.
Oh, Hem also shows up in an episode of Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, but there's very little in that about writing, if I remember.
I'd like to counter this proposal and suggest that The Elements of Style has done much more harm than good over the years. Here is a good exploration of why: http://chronicle.com/article/50-Years-of-Stupid-Grammar/25497
Great list! A few more:
-The Readers Digest Illustrated Reverse Dictionary
-The Describer's Dictionary by David Grambs
-The Emotion Thesaurus by Angela Ackerman
-Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg
-Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
Can't agree stronger. Great book, we used this in a few of my college level classes too. Still have my copy, years later.
Another good supplemental book to have them look at is Stephen King's "On Writing". It's not so much a teaching tool as it is a good insight into the craft from a name they will recognize/respect.
When kids can’t read by Kaylene beers.
This was a required textbook for my reading in content area class and it is really so helpful to new teachers or teachers seeking ideas
https://www.amazon.com/When-Kids-Cant-Read-Teachers/dp/0867095199/ref=nodl_
Just to add on to this, I taught Canterbury Tales using an excellent graphic novel adaptation.
https://www.amazon.com/Canterbury-Tales-Seymour-Chwast/dp/1608194876
The Peter Ackroyd translation is also pretty good if you want just the text.
I did a similar unit with Beowulf where we read selections from two different graphic novel adaptations and explored the different approaches the writers and artists took in them.
I've been meaning to order this book: I've been playing around with the ideas from Steve Peha that I've been able to find online. I have a pdf of chapter 8 (punctuation) from his book--if you want to PM me, I'm happy to share! Haven't had a chance to implement much, but it's definitely gotten me thinking!
https://www.amazon.com/Be-Better-Writer-School-Anyone/dp/0997283106
I use Goodreads Listopia sometimes. I also grab a copy of every anthology I can get my hands on, especially those that are organized thematically. Retellings is awesome, and I have totally exploited it for my AP literature classes.
Try the Shakespeare's Star Wars books. Alll the same tropes and language as well as lol the correct formatting. Only difference is its Star Wars. I did it with my 9th graders but it can work with older kids too. https://www.amazon.com/William-Shakespeares-Star-Wars-Doescher/dp/1594746370
I've been working with a similar student in the 7th grade and I have been using 180 Days of Reading for 5th Grade. I like it! It's very manageable for a daily assignment and the questions are varied enough to cover pretty much everything. [I teach SpEd so it's understood that we don't work on grade level. I don't know if you have the same liberty in your class.]
I found 180 Books of Reading for Third Grade on Amazon. I recommend this one personally.
I like having my 12th graders read the first chapter of this book: https://www.amazon.com/Macbeth-True-Story-Fiona-Watson/dp/0857381601 It gives historical context and talks about the witchcraft in the play. Beyond that, I second the idea of watching, not just reading the play. Also, check out Folgers Shakespeare Set Free for other activities.
You don'the scaffold the first read through of the text. You let them read it silently perhaps noting their questions and unfamiliar words. Then you backfill rather than scaffold their questions to help with their general understanding of the text before proceeding into a closer second read. When I have a moment I can send you a sample lesson plan of a close read of a poem that I did my masters program in reading education if you'd like to see it. In the meantime, here's the resource the program used to teach close reading: https://www.amazon.com/Close-Look-Reading-Teaching-Students/dp/141661947X
Teach Like a Pirate: Increase Student Engagement, Boost Your Creativity, and Transform Your Life as an Educator sounds perfect for what you're asking. It's not English-specific, but everything Burgess suggests works in the English classroom. I first started implementing some of its strategies last year, and in our school's end-of-year student survey, 100% of my students said that I "make learning fun," so it certainly did something for me!
Although I teach a HS elective World Literature class, some of the stuff in "Other Voices, Other Vistas" could work. I especially like the works from Japan. http://www.amazon.com/Other-Voices-Vistas-Stories-America/dp/0451528409
How about reading Sophie's World? It's a decent novel with philosophy lessons built in. The book is aimed at younger readers, but IIRC the philosophy is explicitly taught in bite-sized chunks for young thinkers.
Shakespeare Set Free. Seriously. This is the best resource I've ever owned, for anything, as an English teacher, hands down.
If you're thinking about moral dilemmas and ethics, try http://www.philosophyexperiments.com/. Tons of great stuff there.
If you want a broader dose of philosophy, I recommend Michael Picard's This is Not a Book, which is divided into the four main branches of philosophy and has easily digestible (1-2 pages) sections on major philosophers and history of ideas. Works great as a handout resource.
It might not be appropriate for your students (I read them in a college sociology course) but you might find valuable material in Grassroots Resistance: Social Movements in 20th Century America and Origins of the Civil Rights Movements if you haven't already. Depending on the level of your students they might be good resources for your projects as well (as a junior in high school I could've handled exerpts from these books, and enjoyed them). There's some interesting angles on the Civil Rights movements and social movements in general that deviate from the usual focus on individual leaders and give some insight on unique social/cultural factors that shaped these movements.
I'm not a teacher and I'm only subbed here in tribute to my incredible ELA teachers... but thought I'd chime in as this is one of my favorite topics to study!
I love this version right here; it's a song by the Alan Parsons Project. I love the animation in this video.
There's also this version, though it's on Amazon. If you can do a little Google-fu and find it uploaded online somewhere, it's good - my kids enjoyed it and laughed at some of the over the top acting.
Yes, yes, yes. We have 30 minutes a day for D.E.A.R. time, and students can choose any book they want to as long as they read. Teachers must also read.
If you're interested in this topic, I recommend The Book Whisperer. It's a very compelling read, and definitely changed what my school thinks about reading. She also discusses a lot of the studies that have been done about independent reading.
Get the Shakespeare Set Free book on Hamlet. It has great lessons, and if you have enthusiasm, the kids will start to catch on. Also, you don't have to teach every scene. It is unlikely that the entire play was performed on stage in Shakespeare's time, and directors cut scenes and lines from plays all of the time, so you can do it too. I only have 8 class periods to fit it in, so I'm only teaching the RSC's key moments. Finally, I want to express that it is ok to have a tough go of it the first time you teach a Shakespeare play. Don't give up. The first time I taught a Midsummer Night's Dream, it was a mess. The second time through rocked!
Theory Into Practice: An Introduction to Literary Criticism gives guided questions of readings to help understand each school of thought. Each school gets its own chapter with historical background and examples.
This book got me though my undergrad.
I don't know what you're aiming for, but the IB curriculum at my school uses How to Read Literature Like a Professor. It's not as regimented as a "This is marxism, this is psychoanalysis, this is new, etc." type book, but it's very accessible and very useful for teenagers.
Maybe you can incorporate a mandala-maker app into whatever final project you decide on, since Jung was interested in mandalas and drawing his dreams and daydreams (The Red Book).
Google Play has a free mandala-maker app.
I would like to know what literature you used to match what archetypes. Would you be willing to share?