Poor President Trump!
Pour on Those Tweets and We'll Pore Over Them

Oh no!  Our Dear Leader is being trolled by some no-account novelist (fake writer!) over his misuse of the word pour in a recent tweet.  How unfair of Rowling to expect a busy man like the President to worry over niggling things like grammar and proper usage when communicating his profound thoughts to the waiting world, 140 characters at a time.

And here's the lesson, boys and girls--good editing skills are a necessity for us mere mortals.  Great and Powerful Men, like OZ and Trump, may not have to worry about problematic homophones, but the rest of us do, lest our readers think us uneducated and careless.  Being able to carefully edit one's own writing for mechanical and usage mistakes is a vital skill that all language arts students must master. 

Revision is an important part of the writing process (a step that most students, I find, hate) that will improve the focus and organization of any piece of writing.  Editing is the final polishing of the gem--checking for all the little surface mistakes that invariably surface.  Revision is certainly the more important of the two, because that's about content; however, readers are very likely to judge writers harshly on surface mistakes because they're easier to identify and smirk at (as opposed to the deeper problems of focus and organization, more difficult to identify clearly, which is why less effective writing teachers focus over much on surface errors and not of the deeper problems). 

So, how to help your writing students become better editors?  To begin with, they need to know the applicable rules for spelling, punctuation, grammar, usage, and so forth.  This means direct instruction of the incredibly boring minutiae of language, but there's no getting around that.  Our modern word processors do an amazing job of pointing out many errors, but that's no substitute for careful editing.  Then practice: Purdue OWL offers some great on-line instruction and practice; editing classmates' writing is also a good exercise.  Students need to get into the habit of reading their work slowly, word for word--they know what they meant to say, but do the words on the paper actually say that? 

And as for Mr. Trump's particular error: mixing up similar-sounding words is a common error.  English has a great number of homophones and homographs, and it takes direct instruction to make writers aware of them.  Take a look at this workbook of homophones and see if it might fit your instructional needs (click onto image):

Geez, I hope there are no errors in this post--that'd be ironic, huh?

The Game's Afoot!
Engaging Young Readers with Mysteries

 

There's nothing like a good mystery to pull a reader into the story.  A whodunit encourages close reading for clues, inferring significance, recognizing character motivation, and hypothesis development and testing.  All while engaging young readers with a compelling story.  By choosing classic mystery novels, you immediately increase the complexity and rigor of the selection. 

My colleague has great results reading Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None with her advanced 8th graders.  The reading level is well within the abilities of upper middle school and the kids really seem to enjoy it.  And you have the added bonus of leading students on to her other novels, or have reading circles choose another of her novels to follow up.

And of course, there's the grandmaster of all detectives, Sherlock Holmes, who's been quite popular in the movies and on TV lately.  I've had great success with The Hound of the Baskervilles--my students really enjoy trying to figure out this moody and atmospheric whodunit.  The reading level is more demanding than Christie but still accessible.  Of course, you may need to provide some background info on Victorian England, but this might be useful if you segue into another British novel like The Time Machine.  If you're intrigued, check out my study guide by clicking onto the image below:

A fun extension activity might be to group students and give them an unfamiliar object, then ask them to glean what information they can by applying Holmes' deductive technique.

Want to really challenge your kiddos?  Give them Edgar Allan Poe's Murders in the Rue Morgue--a bizarre account of mayhem and monkey business in Paris.  Shorter than a traditional novel, Rue Morgue presents high school students with complex language and inexplicable clues, neither of which is enough to stump the remarkable Auguste Dupin, the very first literary detective.  Here's a link to my study guide:

 

 



Are you already planning your reading program for the up-coming school year?  Fire your students up about reading by introducing them to some of the greatest classic mysteries on your classroom shelf.

Sad Monsters Are Sad
Classic Horror in the Classroom

Most of us like a good scare; I find this to be true of my middle school students.  Many of them are reading Stephen King and Clive Barker on their own; the zombie-themed Enemy series by Charlie Higson and The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey are popular young adult fare, so why not incorporate the genre into your reading and literature curriculum.

One interesting theme to explore with students is the plight of monster--a pitiable figure, as characterized by Mary Shelley in the classic Frankenstein.  He just wants to be loved by his creator, who's a total dick to the anguished creature.  Granted, it's a tough read (Shelley's prose is pretty turgid and the level of sentimentality is cringy), but older, proficient readers can tackle it.  Another compelling classic is Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde; the writing is better and will generate great class discussions about the nature of good and bad.  Talk about complex texts!  They also present excellent opportunities to compare the original texts with popular movie retellings.  Click onto the image below for a potential study guide:

If you're willing to slog into murkier candidates, how about Lovecraft's Reanimator?  A novella separated into six mini-chapters, it's more gruesome and vivid than Shelley's and Stevenson's classics (I had one child opt out because it was just too scary for her), which might well improve interest and compliance in your audience.  Much like Frankenstein, the mad scientist is caught off guard by the consequences of his attempt to play God.  I use it as an exercise in getting students to locate and elaborate on textual evidence (a skill most lacking in their essays).  Check out my study guide:

Get your kids reading and thinking in the coming school year with a dose of good old fashioned horror!

Join the Great American Read!
A Powerful Tool to Inspire Readers of all Ages!

PBS has come out with a great list of America's 100 most beloved novels--how many have you read?  Take the quiz!  And you and your students can vote on your favorites.  But the real gem here for teachers is the great video of brief interviews with readers--ordinary and famous--that creates real excitement about reading these novels and how they impacted other people's lives.  Plus, it would be easy to break the 2-hour video up into short 3-5 minute segments to show to class.  Too bad that the contest is running mostly over the summer vacation, but nonetheless, this is a great resource!

Check it out: http://www.pbs.org/the-great-american-read/home/

Don't Get Caught Flat!
Reading Scores Continue to Stagnate

A recent article in The Atlantic, "Why American Students Haven't Gotten Better at Reading in 20 Years," caught my eye and got me to thinking about reading instruction in my classroom.  According to the most recent report card from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, reading scores continue to remain flat despite the haranguing of legislators, the scapegoating of District administrators, and the consternation of overworked teachers.  The money, the pedagogical fads, the constant testing, the sticks and carrots--none have had any significant impact as evidenced on the NAEP graph:

The Atlantic's article suggests that schools and teachers focus too much on isolated comprehension skills and not enough on content; in other words, if students do not have background in what their reading, or if the content of comprehension practice texts varies randomly, then readers are unable to fill in knowledge gaps.  "Daniel Willingham, a psychology professor at the University of Virginia who writes about the science behind reading comprehension [...] explained that whether or not readers understand a text depends far more on how much background knowledge and vocabulary they have relating to the topic than on how much they’ve practiced comprehension skills."

One suggestion, then, is to center instruction around content domains--Colonial America, the Civil War and Reconstruction, Great Depression and New Deal, etc., spending a semester or even the whole year on a limited topic; each grade level would be responsible for a specific domain.  Pretty cool idea, but this is 'Murica and we're not going to let any centralized gubment tell us what to teach!  Thematic units, either designed by textbook companies (yuck) or teachers are one way to increase depth of knowledge.  It's a fair amount of work locating complementing informational and literary texts: primary sources, historical documents, essays, prose fiction in varied genres, but doing so provides an immersive reading experience that is likely (so the research says) to be more effective in promoting literacy. 

Such a thematic approach leads into The Atlantic's next point: developing readers must wrestle with grade-level, complex text that challenges them.  New words, complicated syntax, novel ideas--it's ok to struggle.  That's where learning happens.  "Timothy Shanahan [emeritus professor at the University of Illinois and the author or editor of over 200 publications on literacy] cites recent research indicating that students actually learn more from reading texts that are considered too difficult for them—in other words, those with more than a handful of words and concepts a student doesn't understand. What struggling students need is guidance from a teacher in how to make sense of texts designed for kids at their respective grade levels—the kinds of texts those kids may otherwise see only on standardized tests, when they have to grapple with them on their own."  The teacher's role then becomes one of guide, helping students navigate unfamiliar and rocky terrain. 

At the middle and high school level, language arts teachers and social studies teachers (science teachers, too?) could work together to craft thematic units and select complementing texts, sharing the responsibility for building knowledge and crafting authentic opportunities for applied literacy.

Throwing my own two-cents' worth: suggestions a for civil rights unit, developing historical knowledge and empathy for the plight of the oppressed in Jim Crow America.  First, Billie Holiday's extraordinary "Strange Fruit":

You'll have to copy & paste the links for the resources below (I can't see to work out how to hot link them--sorry):

 

 
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Unsung-Heroes-More-Non-Fiction-Readings-from-the-Civil-Rights-Era-819934
 
 
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Black-Voices-pre-Civil-Rights-Era-reading-practice-with-objective-assessments-295418https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Non-Fiction-Readings-from-the-Civil-Rights-Era-texts-Objective-Assessments-297522








 https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/To-Kill-A-Mockingbird-objective-assessment-and-instructional-notes-293640

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Their-Eyes-Were-Watching-God-study-guide-and-objective-assessment-293794

Show Your True Colors!
Paint a Chalk Wall and Inspire Your Students

 I have had such a fun time with our hallway chalk wall--a great outlet for my creative side.  At the intersection of two wide hallways (interior), there was a large expanse of emptiness, and I thought, what can I do with this space?  I didn't want to paint a mural--I wanted something I could change with the seasons and what we're currently studying.  What I found was chalkboard paint! 

I tried both the Rustoleum and the Valspar, and liked the Valspar better--it seemed to cover better.  I needed three coats in order to get a smooth, uniform surface.  One can ($10) gave me two solid coats for a 6' x 6' area.   I use the regular sidewalk chalk you find at Michael's.

I usually do two boards every month or so.  Last month I did a Martin Luther King Jr quote for Black history month: 

 

I use an old-fashioned overhead projector since I have 0% artistic talent.  I copy an image onto transparency film (I still have a box of it from the bad old days, pre-computer document reader).  Here's my colleague working on her history quote board:

 

 

Great fun!   And the kids really seem to respond to it.  Pro tip: situate your chalk wall in an area where the kids are not prone to rubbing against the wall.  Here are some more examples: