Happy New Year, everyone! Welcome to a new year with Ethical ELA. As I mentioned in an August post, I took on a new teaching schedule this year: four classes in junior high and two classes at DePaul University. I thought, within these two part-time …
This is the fourth and final list of “Ten Books Loved by 7th Grade Readers.” I asked 7th-grade readers to tell me about a book they read this school year that they “loved” and was worthy of recommending to other teen readers. They obliged, writing …
This is the third of four book lists: “Ten Books Loved by 7th Grade Readers.” I asked my 7th-grade readers to tell me about a book they read this school year — a book they “loved” and worthy of recommending to other teen readers. The …
This is the second of four lists of “Ten Books Loved by 7th Grade Readers.” We began the school year in mid-August with a quest to uncover all the books can do for our lives with daily choice reading. In mid-November, I asked students to tell …
In the last week, I’ve had texts, emails, and social media posts asking for book recommendations. My sister was looking for book ideas for a teen girl in a family she’s sponsoring for Christmas. A colleague was looking for ideas for her junior high daughter’s …
“I would like to compliment Johnny on an unexpected phrase that was, actually, kind of dark. When your narrator said, ‘I had this desire to kill,’ I was like disturbed but intrigued,” said Paul. “Yeah, I know. Dark. I like exploring the dark side in …
It’s 5:35 on Tuesday night. I am in a room of pre-service English teachers — some a semester from student teaching, some two. The class is the teaching of English: methods. I start class with a mid-term Google survey. I ask students to take a …
On September 30th, Kylene Beers posted a memo to teachers on Facebook with advice on how we can talk to administrators about the value of independent reading programs. She includes three research articles that teachers could share with principals. Then, she goes on to say …
Silence. Seven seventh grade readers are sitting together at the center of the classroom revisiting the scene in The Outsiders where the greasers are getting ready for the rumble. It’s their first fishbowl, and they are the fishes. As the fishes reread and formulate their responses, twenty-two …
“Hi, how are you?” I ask as a student takes a seat beside me. “Fine. You?” he says averting my eyes and looking at his biography narrative lit brightly on my computer screen. We’re sitting in a dark corner of the classroom to discuss the …