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March 18 & 19 I wrote about my students writing about reading When Time Stops

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A meeting place for a world of reflective writers.

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About the Guide

The Guide to the Reading Workshop: Middle School Grades offers a comprehensive but concise introduction to:

the need for this series

research on what adolescent readers need

ways to launch and sustain independent reading

a big-picture introduction to the reading workshop

the architecture of minilessons

classroom management tips and strategies

levels of text complexity

conferring with readers and providing transferrable feedback

small-group work

writing about reading

practical help for book clubs

instructional Read Aloud

the special importance of nonfiction reading

supporting English learners in reading workshop

About the Units of Study for Teaching Reading, Middle Grades Series
We want our middle grades students to become flexible, resilient readers, we want them to have a toolkit of strategies for dealing with difficulty, and we want them to read broadly and deeply, alert to the intricacies of texts and to the power of language. To accomplish such ambitious goals, we need classroom structures and resources that support this kind of explicit teaching and learning. The reading workshop offers a simple and predictable framework for teaching strategies and for giving students feedback while they are in the midst of the ever-changing, complex reading work they will do across the middle school grades.

The Units of Study for Teaching Reading series saves teachers hundreds of hours of planning, freeing time for analyzing student work, working with individuals and small groups, and for studying with colleagues. The series provides teachers with the tools and support they need to move students quickly and efficiently toward grade-level expectations, while also helping kids become proficient, lifelong readers.

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A Guide to the Reading Workshop: Secondary Grades

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About the Guide The Guide to the Reading Workshop: Middle School Grades offers a comprehensive but concise introduction to: the need for this series research on what adolescent readers need ways to launch and sustain independent reading a big-picture introduction to the reading workshop the architecture of minilessons classroom management

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Reading for Empathy and Advocacy

About the Unit
The topic of social issues, the lens for reading in this unit, is a topic that matters greatly to the young human beings who enter our classrooms every day. In middle school, many kinds of issues start to weigh more heavily on students: relationship issues, school issues, and a growing awareness of larger societal pressures. There can be serious consequences to the spiraling troubles that surround middle school kids.

A recent Washington Post article titled "Does Reading Make You a Better Person?" concludes that the answer to the title question is "Yes!" Reading literature especially has proven to increase people's ability to empathize with others, and to be more socially aware. A driving force in this unit is the power of reading to transform how we see others and to show us new ways to be kind, to connect, and to stand up for what's right.
About the Units of Study for Teaching Reading, Middle Grades Series
We want our middle grades students to become flexible, resilient readers, we want them to have a toolkit of strategies for dealing with difficulty, and we want them to read broadly and deeply, alert to the intricacies of texts and to the power of language. To accomplish such ambitious goals, we need classroom structures and resources that support this kind of explicit teaching and learning. The reading workshop offers a simple and predictable framework for teaching strategies and for giving students feedback while they are in the midst of the ever-changing, complex reading work they will do across the middle school grades.

The Units of Study for Teaching Reading series saves teachers hundreds of hours of planning, freeing time for analyzing student work, working with individuals and small groups, and for studying with colleagues. The series provides teachers with the tools and support they need to move students quickly and efficiently toward grade-level expectations, while also helping kids become proficient, lifelong readers.

(click any section below to continue reading)

Purchase Recommendation and Options

The Middle School Reading Units of Study are sold as separate units suitable for grades 6-8. Visit UnitsofStudy.com/MSRUOS for suggested sequencing across grade levels. In addition to purchasing your individual units, be sure to order A Guide to Reading Workshop: Middle School Grades, which offers teachers and administrators a comprehensive guide to conducting reading workshop for middle school students.

Purchasing Options: Choose Social Issues Book Clubs with the Trade Book Pack if your library does not already include the read-aloud texts referenced in the Unit. If you do not need the trade book pack, purchase Social Issues Book Clubs without the Trade Book Pack (as shown here).

Companion Resources

Read-Aloud Texts (included in the Trade Book Pack bundle)
The Social Issues Book Clubs recommends the following read-aloud texts, which are included as mentor texts in the bundle with trade pack.

"My Side of the Story," First French Kiss

"Inside Out," The Circuit

Independent Reading for Students:
The following TCRWP Classroom Libraries shelves were curated to specifically align with this unit.
A Guide to Reading Workshop: Middle School Grades
In addition to purchasing your individual units, be sure to order A Guide to Reading Workshop: Middle School Grades, which offers teachers and administrators a comprehensive guide to conducting reading workshop for middle school students.

Supporting Materials

Recorded Webinar: View Now!

Getting Started with the Middle School Reading Units

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About the Unit The topic of social issues, the lens for reading in this unit, is a topic that matters greatly to the young human beings who enter our classrooms every day. In middle school, many kinds of issues start to weigh more heavily on students: relationship issues, school issues, and a growing awareness of larger societal pressures.

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Carmen's book about speaking up as an Upstander!

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Carmen's book about speaking up as an Upstander!

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1. Teacher Research Grant
2. Graduate Student Teacher Research Grant

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54th Annual Conference Virtual Seminars VSLA Virtual Seminars Leadership Programs Membership Why Join? Chapter Leaders Membership Refund Policy Newsletter Archive Sign Up Here! Member Log In Virginia Readers' Choice Program Got IT?

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Educational Leadership  Article I co-wrote about Teacher Research.

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Educational Leadership  Article I co-wrote about Teacher Research.

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February 2021 | Volume 78 | Number 5 Making Professional Learning Stick Pages 66-69 Sally Donnelly and Megan McCormick Teacher research clubs can help teachers engage in specific problems of practice-and have fun in the process. You know that feeling when you have a conundrum in some aspect of your teaching and it just nags at you?

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Improving Cornell Notes With Sketchnoting Techniques

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Author Melissa Stewart taught me how to do this.

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Author Melissa Stewart taught me how to do this.

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The Sibert Smackdown is an activity intended to build enthusiasm for the Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal , which is given each year as part of the American Library Association's annual Youth Media Awards. It focuses on picture books because they are more manageable to read in a school setting.

Here's how it works. Students in grades 3-8 read the nonfiction picture books on your class's Mock Sibert list. You can use the list I've compiled below or you can create your own list. My list includes titles that have strong kid appeal, will promote good discussions, and can be used as mentor texts in writing workshop. They reinforce the research techniques and craft moves included in most State ELA standards.

by Kelly Starling Lyons

by Loree Griffin Burns

Will some of these books be named on Monday, January 25, 2021, when the Sibert Medal committee announces its winner and honor titles at the ALA Youth Media Awards ceremony? Who knows, but I do have a pretty good track record.
You may also want to consider titles on the Mock Sibert list created After reading your Mock Sibert titles, students choose their two favorites and use , which you can download from my website, to evaluate and compare the books before they vote. The worksheet features a kid-friendly version of the criteria used by the real Sibert committee.
, which includes picture books as well as middle grade titles. The last time I looked, they hadn't posted this year's list yet, but keep checking the link.
I And I'd recommend reading , which describes how some educators have modified or enhanced the Sibert Smackdown! in the past. It's so important to create learning experiences that are perfect for your particular students.

I'd love to hear how your students are progressing, and so would other participating teachers and librarians. Please use the Twitter hashtag #SibertSmackdown to share what you are doing.

Happy Reading!

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The Sibert Smackdown is an activity intended to build enthusiasm for the Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal , which is given each year as part of the American Library Association's annual Youth Media Awards. It focuses on picture books because they are more manageable to read in a school setting.

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This video shows what made the Famous Four famous. There statue is shown in the Homecoming book.

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17-min video of MLK I Have a Dream Speech

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17-min video of MLK I Have a Dream Speech

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I shared this TV interivew with John Lewis with my students so they could hear him explain the importance of reading these books.

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I shared this TV interivew with John Lewis with my students so they could hear him explain the importance of reading these books.

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The author virtually visited my school and taught our MSers about HBCUs.

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The author virtually visited my school and taught our MSers about HBCUs.

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Participants ADD their Reading Notebook HERE!!

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Participants ADD their Reading Notebook HERE!!

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Thanks for being BRAVE!

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5-min video to inspire things to add to an Identity Web

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5-min video to inspire things to add to an Identity Web

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When Time Stops Video: Viewed to Practice Making a Reading Notebook Page

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When Time Stops Video: Viewed to Practice Making a Reading Notebook Page

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Foreword by Terrence J. Roberts, PhD.

A Letter to Readers

Acknowledgments

An Introduction to Social Comprehension and Strategies to Prepare You for the Work Ahead
Chapter 1: Exploring Our Identities
Lesson: Affirming Our Identities: Identity Webs
We introduce the elements of our own identities (such as sister, athlete, bilingual, reader) and look for connections to or wonders about the identities of others.

Lesson: Placing Ourselves in the World: Stories of Our Names
Using a mentor text, we write the stories of how we got our names, how our names make us feel, and our experiences with our names.

Lesson: Journeying into Our Family Histories: "Where I'm From" Poems
We use the structure of a "Where I'm From" poem to share our family histories, storied objects, and moments.

Synthesis: Making Thinking Visible
Chapter 2: Listening with Love
Synthesis: Making Thinking Visible
Chapter 3: Being Candid
Lesson: Seeing Our Own Bias: Drawing Activity
We learn about how bias works, and we use an activity to help us see some of our own bias and brainstorm how we can confront it.

Lesson: Understanding Microaggressions: Poem Analysis
We analyze examples of microaggressions to understand what they are and how they affect people, and we look for microaggressions in our own lives.

Lesson: Refusing to Let Others' Biases Define Us: Identity Statements
We assert who we are with confidence. We recall labels others have tried to put on us, reject those labels, and choose how we define who we are.

Synthesis: Making Thinking Visible
Chapter 4: Becoming Better Informed
Lesson: Understanding How Our Identity Affects Us: Our News
We identify what is happening in our world-personal events, news stories, media-and consider how our identity shapes what we give our attention to.

Lesson: Moving Beyond Our Initial Thinking: Mini-Inquiries
We use a mini-inquiry to learn more about a topic and examine how new information changes our perspective.

Synthesis: Making Thinking Visible
Chapter 5: Finding Humanity in Ourselves and in Others
Lesson: Broadening Our Ideas About Who We Are Responsible To and For: Our Universe of Obligation
We consider who we feel responsibility to and why. We also consider how that responsibility can change in certain situations.

Lesson: Understanding Others' Perspectives: Intent Versus Impact
We work to understand two sides of a divisive issue by listening to both perspectives.
Chapter 6: Facing Crisis Together
Suggested Resource Stacks

References and Inspiration

This book is based on the idea that we can develop skills and habits to help us comprehend social issues and participate in relevant, transparent conversations. Social comprehension, like academic comprehension, is how we make meaning from and mediate our relationship with the world. We understand that the meaning making, or socialization, is learned, not inherited. Each chapter in this book includes lessons and/or practical help for students to learn and engage in a targeted social comprehension concept. Our thinking will change often as we practice being more socially literate citizens of the world, so we allow for and model the same for our students as we construct comprehension and cultivate our empathy together. The "At First I Thought . . . Now I Think" journal page in this introduction gives you and your students a tool to reflect on how the experiences in the lessons are affecting your outlook. In the work of social comprehension, we want to be as transparent as possible and make our thinking visible.

The final chapter of the book addresses how we, as educators, can continually refine our own approach to this work. If we are going to be on the front lines of helping children make sense of the news they bring to school and the curriculum the world keeps handing them, we must have a strong foundation of social comprehension in place. If we can commit to approaching this work as the lead learner, teaching with curiosity and modeling vulnerability rather than rigid certainty, we can build habitats of trust where kids (and adults) participate in a learning discussion, and where expression, identity, and social literacy matter.

- Introduction

A sense of urgency for pedagogy rooted in empathy and humanity is palpable in communities around the world. But how can teachers actualize such instruction and make it accessible to students? Where is the professional development teachers yearn for to facilitate important, and at times, challenging conversations? Being the Change is the resource every educator needs right now! Against a socio-politically charged backdrop where tensions run high, Sara is a beacon of light who offers practical, compassionate guidance that makes it possible to do the work of social comprehension. The journey to accomplishing this isn't linear; it is messy, tangled, circuitous. But Sara provides a pathway for teachers and our students. She offers a sustained, clear voice that reminds us of why this work is necessary and how it can look in our classrooms. Being the Change is invaluable to all educators as we work to empower our students as change-makers who positively influence the world.

- Sonja Cherry-Paul

****

Sara Ahmed is the ultimate upstander; she cares enough to confront. Her gentle and wise voice is a model for how to be in this tumultuous age. She shares text sets that ask big questions and resist simplistic answers. She invites teachers and students to address tensions in today's classrooms and examine bias in their thinking. Being the Change offers practical tools for building a classroom community that is inclusive, candid, and caring. This book is a treasure.

- Penny Kittle

****

What an incredibly powerful, practical, beautiful book. As I read I could not help but think how this book has the potential to radically change conversations in classrooms (and larger communities) around compassion, listening, empathy, and knowing. It is books like these that heal. It is hope and possibility and humanity within these covers.

Perhaps the greatest compliment I could give is that as I read, the teacher in me itched to get out of this room and into the presence of kids- to experience these lessons in real time, to hear children's stories, to dig into this work because for the first time I feel capable. This book is a roadmap with an entry point all of us can access and guidance through the most challenging places we could go. I don't feel afraid of what could happen, I feel energized about what Sara has taught me I can help happen.

I could not help but think of the million and one ways I could use Sara's thinking and teaching, to engage in this work whole heartedly from the moment children step through the doors.

- Kristi Mraz

****

In her book, Being the Change, Sara K. Ahmed offers us not only the roadmap of how to create and maintain components of meaningful social change within our instruction but also the necessary tools for us to navigate the hard conversations we invite in and those we have not had the courage to have...yet. By centering her book on developing the identity of the very children we teach, she gives us invaluable tools to navigate the hard topics that are constantly surrounding our learning community. While she writes in her book that there is no magical formula for making the world a better place, within the pages of this book and in her willingness to help us grow not just as educators but as human beings with her impactful lesson ideas, she has given us something near magic. A resource to be used in every school, this book will leave a trail of change for a better world in its wake if we let it.

- Pernille Ripp

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Being the Change is based on the idea that people can develop skills and habits to serve them in the comprehension of social issues. Sara K. Ahmed identifies

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Teachers College Reading and Writing Project website

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Teachers College Reading and Writing Project website

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Cultivating Meaningful Learning Communities through Literacy

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YOU ARE INVITED TO JOIN ME:
I plan to read two books by
Christina Soontornvat who won two Newbery Honors in 2021 for the children's books A Wish in the Dark and All Thirteen: The Incredible Cave Rescue of the Thai Boys' Soccer Team.

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I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson

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Stamped by Jason Reynolds and Ibram Kendi

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Culturally Responsive Teaching

A multicultural collection of books can reflect students' lives, reveal other experiences, and help students expand their thinking.

©Shutterstock/Rawpixel.com

Students in classrooms across the United States are a reflection of the diverse people, perspectives, histories, and values in our society. Yet if we were to take an inventory of classroom texts, curricula, and literacy materials across classrooms settings, we'd find that these instructional materials do not reflect the diversity of our students, let alone the diversity of our society.

Multiple studies have shown the power of using multicultural texts to address critical topics in classrooms-not only for students of color but for all students. Rudine Sims-Bishop provides a pedagogical basis for this in relation to literature as windows, mirrors, and sliding glass doors. She maintains that literature can serve as a mirror to those whose lives are reflected in texts that are read in the classroom. When students read about the lives and experiences of others, texts serve as a window.

Don't Forget About Sliding Glass Doors

Ideas of representation and cultural awareness are central to the concept of windows and mirrors, but critical reflection and thoughtful action are central to the idea of literature as a sliding glass door, a concept similar to windows in that both present different experiences, but sliding glass doors also can represent a change in perspective about the possibilities in the real world that a particular text helps the reader to consider.

For example, Nancy Johnson, Melanie Koss, and Miriam Martinez discuss a student who read Wonder, a young adult novel about a boy with unsettling facial abnormalities, and wrote in his journal, "Yesterday when I was at the grocery store with my mom I saw a man with no arm. I looked away and then I thought of Auggie. I looked the man right in the eye and smiled. He smiled back." Through such sliding glass door experiences, changes can happen in the minds and hearts of students, teachers, and thus the world.

Incorporating This Idea in the Classroom

When bringing the concept of literature as windows, mirrors, and sliding glass doors into the classroom, it's imperative that you truly value the lives and experiences of all students. The goals are to validate students' identities through providing mirrors, to develop their understanding through providing windows, and to show them how they can be changed by literature through providing sliding glass doors.

Examine texts: Consider the texts in your classroom library and the books you use as mentor texts for teaching English language arts standards or content area topics. Do they mirror your students' lives? Do they reflect a diverse society?

Be mindful: Many texts represent diverse people and contexts, but have negative or deficit stereotypes. Bena Hefflin developed guidelines for selecting quality multicultural children's literature, and Eliza Braden and Sanjuana Rodriguez provide questions for teachers to examine texts with Latino families and stories of immigration that reflect real experiences.

Share various perspectives: It's important to share books from diverse perspectives. Texts that portray different family structures, young children that live in different places, and families that have different norms are affirming for students, especially those whose lives are not typically reflected during learning experiences.

For example, is a popular children's book about two cousins, one in Mexico and the other in the U.S., who write to each other about their daily lives. The Great Big Book of Families is a colorful book that describes different families across the world. Reading books about diverse families and home situations is important-doing so provides a window into different family structures.

Another way to share various perspectives is through content area literacy. Due to the lack of time to teach social studies and science, there has been an increased focus on this in elementary classrooms. Typically, standards and curriculum present historical accounts and scientific innovations from a predominantly Eurocentric perspective, limiting the understanding and reflection that literature as a sliding glass door provides.

When sharing the story of Christopher Columbus, for example, it's important to be honest about history by layering the common narrative with his diary and the perspective of the Taino natives-a good example of this is found in the book .

And when discussing the civil rights movement, the common narrative of Rosa Parks refusing to get out of her seat because she was tired is a deletion of important facts. Using supplemental sources to show that Parks and other activists had attended the Highlander Folk School to learn how to protest and resist oppression can lead to a change in students' perspective-a sliding glass door.

Use focused activities: When reading texts that present students with a sliding glass door, how do we engage them in rich, meaningful discussion? Discussion protocols such as QuICS or Sentence-Phrase-Word help students reflect on larger themes while focusing on individual words or events. QuICS is a reading response in which students record their initial thinking about a story by noting Questions, Interesting points, Connections, and Surprises. Sentence-Phrase-Word leads students to discuss why a particular word, a phrase, and a sentence from a text stood out to them.

In addition, small-group engagements such as literature circles or Socratic seminars provide opportunities for students to focus on critical questions and unpack deeper meanings of the texts that represent sliding glass door perspectives.

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Opening Up New Perspectives With Literature

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A multicultural collection of books can reflect students' lives, reveal other experiences, and help students expand their thinking.