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Revolution book talk by BLF grant winner Jason Kaye

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Revolution book talk by BLF grant winner Jason Kaye

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How Books Save Lives: Daphne Russell Is Transforming Literacy with Her Introspective Reading Method

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A 12th grader considers planning a piece of writing.

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A 12th grader considers planning a piece of writing.

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A 12th grader revising a draft with consideration to speaker, occasion, audience, and purpose. 

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A 12th grader revising a draft with consideration to speaker, occasion, audience, and purpose. 

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A 9th grader considers progress made as a reader in the first semester and sets goals for the second.

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A 9th grader considers progress made as a reader in the first semester and sets goals for the second.

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A 9th grader imagines a final writing project of multiple genres for the 180 Days book project

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A 9th grader imagines a final writing project of multiple genres for the 180 Days book project

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The Crossover | Official Trailer | Disney+

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A poetry bracket to help students compare/analyze and connect to spoken word poems

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A poetry bracket to help students compare/analyze and connect to spoken word poems

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Conference Questions for independent reading

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Conference Questions for independent reading

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What Students Are Saying About Reading for Fun

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We asked teenagers: When was the last time you read a whole book? Here is what they told us.

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The data show teens are reading less but these teens have a different story

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Colleges say they see a drop in students vocabularies but Colorado students buck the trend.

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Deb Bass O'Brien: Creating a Middle School Culture of Reading

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Deb Bass O'Brien: Creating a Middle School Culture of Reading

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Jasmine Bazemore...reinvigorating reading in high school

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Jasmine Bazemore...reinvigorating reading in high school

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Teach Writing as a Process Not Product by Donald Murray

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Teach Writing as a Process Not Product by Donald Murray

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Murray Teach Writing as a Process Not Product

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Self-evaluation for teachers in a workshop model 

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Self-evaluation for teachers in a workshop model 

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Analyzing writing craft in independent reading

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Analyzing writing craft in independent reading

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HS book clubs created by teachers in Anaheim, CA with Kelly Gallagher

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HS book clubs created by teachers in Anaheim, CA with Kelly Gallagher

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The NAME Game: How Idris Became Eddie, and Why It Matters

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Writer's Notebook Advice (for students and teachers)

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Writer's Notebook Advice (for students and teachers)

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I use this when I book talk "Punching the Air" by Ibi Zoboi & Yusef Salaam

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Vocabulary in context from You're Breaking My Heart by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich

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Vocabulary in context from You're Breaking My Heart by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich

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tracking vocabulary in You're Breaking My Heart by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich

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tracking vocabulary in You're Breaking My Heart by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich

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This video was presented to the class in draft form, where students suggested changes and Robyn made them. As someone who never liked English (and is a math major), Robyn said she found the process of creating with technology (and daily writing in class in her notebook) to be truly transformative in her understanding of writing.

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"Form arises from revision."          ~Clint Smith 

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"Form arises from revision."          ~Clint Smith 

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I recorded this interview with Clint Smith in the summer of 2023 for the Book Love Foundation summer book club. Huge thanks to Clint for his continued support for our work. And for his incredible writing!

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Simran Jeet Singh is executive director for the Aspen Institute's Religion and Society Program and author of "The Light We Give: How Sikh Wisdom Can Transform Your Life." Singh shares his Brief But Spectacular take on how by focusing on the positive aspects of our multi-religious, racial and ethnic world, society can disrupt bias and build empathy.

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Simran Jeet Singh is executive director for the Aspen Institute's Religion and Society Program and author of "The Light We Give: How Sikh Wisdom Can Transform Your Life." Singh shares his Brief But Spectacular take on how by focusing on the positive aspects of our multi-religious, racial and ethnic world, society can disrupt bias and build empathy.

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Beautiful and eye opening presentation. Gave me a lot to ponder about when it comes to my students loving reading

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After the death of Ahmaud Arbery, Morning Edition asked for your reactions to the killing in the shape of a poem. The 25-year-old black man was shot and killed by two white men while he was out for a jog in February in Glynn County, Ga.

When video of the incident was released, it was met with public outcry and protest. In the weeks since, we've seen more outrage accompany new headlines about African Americans killed by police. Dreasjon "Sean" Reed was shot and killed in Indianapolis. Breonna Taylor, an emergency medical technician in Louisville, Ky., was shot eight times in her bed. And Monday night Minneapolis, another black man died in police custody; a video shows George Floyd pleading with an officer whose shoe is on his neck.

The art that comes from hurt and pain is compelling and formidable. We received over 1,000 entries - an emotional outpouring of poems and reflections what it means to be black and safe in America today.

NPR's poet-in-residence Kwame Alexander took lines from the many submissions to create a community poem. Contributors are credited at the bottom.
Running For Your Life
What is the color of air?
Who owns the right to breathe?
Why are we so afraid of each other?
When will they come for the brown men I know and love?
What was his crime?

Is there justice for all In the land of the free?
Or only those who are
White like me?

What is the vaccine for this "pandemic"?
I wonder where my baby is?

My country, 'tis of thee ... we must raise the skeletons
buried deep in our past,

1880
1890
1920
1990
2020
"Give it time," White Fragility says.
Nothing moves forward
until this hunting stops
a knife on our collective tongues

Please stop running
from the truth
and listen:

This death was everyone's fault.
This is on you, young America

We must accept the lingering shame and guilt,
the anger and mistrust inequality have instilled,
apologize for the damage commit to sow a future with humility.

While we await such a day,
Let us say your name:
Ahmaud Arbery,
Ahmaud Arbery,
Ahmaud Arbery.

I am sorry that we all know your name now;
That we will forget it far too soon.

I am sorry that the only song they know to sing for you is tragedy.
I am sorry that all I can do is write this poem

I am sorry that your life has become a metaphor:

a house being built, down the road,
He liked to mark its progress,
dream of building one himself,

Eyes shine through windows,
Like raccoons in the woods at night,
Their faces twisted, pink, and hot,

He knows these trees, and their strange fruit,

Of thee I sing.

After bullet leaves chamber
it cannot be recalled

My heart rages for another mother's loss of her son
for the blindness

for the cover up
for the tears not enough to wet the graves

of so many lost for the sake of insanity:

his first words: Don't Be Afraid
a black boy jogging in the morning

There is an essential difference between running

and running for your life.

I remember my mother, the night
she got down on her hands and knees
on the frayed rug,

Tired of the facade of racial progress

Pain too hard to bear,
fists pumping out the beat,
"I can't take it anymore."

I don't fear the pick-up trucks
It's only the dogs sometimes, when there are two or more, and mean,
Who charge out onto the road, hair raised along their backs, barking and growling.
Coming up behind me.
Looking for a chance to bite.
My deepest fear is that I am black and that I will be murdered for it.

They are young men
simply going about their lives

Never, ever again, should a dream be deferred,
should a parent have to explain

We fight to be a world of one

We fight for our humanity
because after leaves fall they cannot be reattached
to the tree

because broken hearts still beat

because Justice peeks her head
around the corner.
And hope the door doesn't slam.

This community poem was created using submissions by:

Ameera Pearsall, Milwaukee

Catherine King, Omaha, Neb.

Chelsey Brunelle, Glendora, Calif.

Kathryn Ing, Los Angeles

David Calvin, Charlotte, N.C.

Angela Snyder, Borden, Ind.

Mary Battle, Augusta, Ga.

Kim Klugh, Lancaster, Pa.

Jade G, Concord, Calif.

Laura Tate, Cortland, N.Y.

Natalie Wilkinson, Newburgh, N.Y.

Marilyn Johnston, Salen, Ore.

Mary Donahue Brown, Pittsford, N.Y.

Mary Carter, Nashville, Tenn.

Skooter Fein, San Francisco

Isabelle Hart, Naples, Fla.

Tony Miller, Wellman, Iowa

Barbara McCarley, Chapel Hill, N.C.

Jennifer Greenow, Scotia, N.Y.

Jessica Bartley, Portland, Ore.

Laura Vinton, Estero, Fla.

Jose Salabarria, Houston

Kara Kral, Twin Falls, Idaho

Lisa Stolar, Trenton, N.C.

Bambi Vargo, Kirtland Hills, Ohio

Meriel Martinez, Tampa, Fla.

Clare Cranford, Paso Robles, Calif.

Rhiannon Schmidt, Houghton, Mich.

Rachel Olatunji, Wilmette, Ill.

Diana Torres-Guillén, Madera, Calif.

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'Running For Your Life': A Community Poem For Ahmaud Arbery

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After the death of Ahmaud Arbery, Morning Edition asked for your reactions to the killing in the shape of a poem. The 25-year-old black man was shot and killed by two white men while he was out for a jog in February in Glynn County, Ga.

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Hamilton – “Wrote My Way Out” (Nas, Dave East, Lin-Manuel Miranda & Aloe Blacc) [Official Video]

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Can you diagnose fear? The red tree blooming from uterus
to throat. It's one long nerve, the doctor says. There's a reason
breathing helps, the muscles slackening like a dead marriage.
Mine are simple things. Food poisoning in Paris. Hospital lobbies.
My husband laughing in another room. (The door closed.)
For days, I cradle my breast and worry the cyst like a bead.
There's nothing to pray away. The tree loves her cutter.
The nightmares have stopped, I tell the doctor. I know why.
They stopped because I baptized them. This is how my mother
and I speak of dying-the thing you turn away by letting in.
I'm tired of April. It's killed our matriarchs and, in the back yard,
I've planted an olive sapling in the wrong soil. There is a droopiness
to the branches that reminds me of my friend, the one who calls
to ask what's the point, or the patients who come to me, swarmed
with misery and astonishment, their hearts like newborns after
the first needle. What now, they all want to know. What now.
I imagine it like a beach. There is a magnificent sand castle
that has taken years to build. A row of pink seashells for gables,
rooms of pebble and driftwood. This is your life. Then comes the affair,
nagging bloodwork, a freeway pileup. The tide moves in.
The water eats your work like a drove of wild birds. There is debris.
A tatter of sea grass and blood from where you scratched your own arm
trying to fight the current. It might not happen for a long time,
but one day you run your fingers through the sand again, scoop a fistful out,
and pat it into a new floor. You can believe in anything, so why not believe
this will last? The seashell rafter like eyes in the gloaming.
I'm here to tell you the tide will never stop coming in.
I'm here to tell you whatever you build will be ruined, so make it beautiful.

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Poetry by Hala Alyan: "Can you diagnose fear?"

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Susan Pagnac is the assistant dean for learning enrichment and director of writing at Central College in Pella, IA. Her work has appeared in Journal of Business and Technical Writing, Praxis: A Writing Center Journal, WPA: Writing Program Administration, and Pedagogy: Critical Approaches to Teaching Literature, Language, Composition, and Culture. She has presented at the Council of Writing Program Administrators Conference, the Conference on College Composition and Communication, and the International Writing Center Association Conference, and is currently copresident of the Independent Writing Departments and Programs Affiliate with Jan Rieman.

Whenever instructors ask students to write, they have to "invent the university for the occasion-invent the university, that is, or a branch of it, like history or anthropology or economics or English," as the late David Bartholomae explains in his famous essay "Inventing the University" (60). When students learn how to write and speak at the college level, we as their instructors, teachers, and mentors help them to do so, and we need to do so with explicit teaching methods. To not assist our students in this way is a great disservice to them.

Explicit teaching methods are more than just "telling students what you want." They are ways to introduce students to the methods and rhetorical moves they will need to use in early college writing courses and communication courses. As an instructor, they are your opportunity to show students how to try on those methods and moves for themselves. In this post, I will address two of my favorite methods of explicit teaching: templates and models.

I started teaching with templates as a teaching assistant in graduate school. In one writing assignment I used in my first-year writing classes, I asked students to compare versions of a story told in a song with contemporary sources; students could choose from the Grateful Dead's "Casey Jones," Johnny Horton's "Sink the Bismarck," and Gordon Lightfoot's "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald." Students had little difficulty understanding that the three versions of these stories-the song, a newspaper or magazine story from the time of the event, and one additional source of their choice-told the same story in very different ways, but they struggled to distill their rather complex ideas into thesis statements. I spent a class period brainstorming thesis statement templates with my students that they could then use in their essays. The edited results are in this screenshot:

Students appreciated that I listened to their struggles, and we worked together to resolve their concerns. Future iterations of the class also appreciated having a format to hang their ideas on, like a coat hanger. They could try out each option, and they almost always edited the wording to better reflect their ideas.

We as teachers and instructors often forget what it's like to transition from a high school setting to a college setting. Along with learning how to be on their own, we ask students to learn new ways of juggling classes and homework and activities. We ask them to write in their first year, a task that may seem daunting. Explicit teaching methods can help bridge that gap as they learn how to write in college.

We also ask them to give up on the "rules" of writing they may have learned before college. In April 2018, Susan Schorn (Senior Program Coordinator and Curriculum Specialist at University of Texas, Austin) requested "rules/lore/myths about writing that students bring to college with them, but which don't necessarily serve them well in college" on the WPA-L ( Schorn). She later sent out a compiled list of those "student rules" and included two thesis statement-focused examples:

The thesis MUST be the last sentence of the introduction (possibly underlined) and/or should "list" three things (which then correspond to three body paragraphs)

Repeat the thesis in the conclusion but use different words, or summarize the essay in the conclusion" (Schorn)

By using templates, we help students loosen their hold on these "rules" that they bring with them to college. And by offering templates in the absence of such rules, we demonstrate that writing in college is different than writing in high school and, more importantly, that students can succeed in their writing classes in college. In fact, I believe so strongly in the power of templates to help students learn that our college has recently adopted Graff and Birkenstein's They Say / I Say as the textbook for our first- and second-year communication-intensive courses. When the time came to revise the core curriculum, faculty wanted to change how writing is taught at Central College; as the assistant dean for learning enrichment, I wanted the faculty to use the same language and terminology when talking about writing with their students. Because Central College is a small, liberal arts college, many faculty have not had formal training in teaching writing. They needed something that would help them, and our students, navigate those early communication and writing courses.

My other explicit teaching method is the use of models. Whenever I teach a writing class, be it first-year writing, business communication, or developmental writing, I spend a class period or two showing models to students. We spend time discussing those models' similarities and differences and how a given model could be improved. Before the advent of learning management systems, I would remove student names (with prior student consent, of course) and hand out paper copies of the models and let students read them and write on them, and then I would retrieve them at the end of class. The purpose of this exercise was to allow students to see what was possible for a particular assignment, including some of the more common pitfalls they might encounter. It also put everyone on the same page: students could see how I might grade a given paper, while I showcased my expectations for a given assignment.

As instructors we need to remember that students bring to their early college communication courses what they have learned before college, necessitates the use of templates and models. Once students are comfortable with the transition to college writing classes, they can go forward with more challenging kinds of writing. Using templates and models to show students what your expectations are only strengthens your credibility as an instructor; students may even thank you for it.

Works Cited

Bartholomae, David. "Inventing the University." Writing on the Margins: Essays on Composition and Teaching. Bedford/St. Martin's, 2005, pp. 60-85.

Schorn, Susan E. "Compiled 'Student Rules.'" WPA-L Archives, 12 April 2018, https://lists.asu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=WPA-L;b632603a.1804&S=. Accessed 21 May 2018.

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Structure Isn't Spoon-Feeding-Providing Students with Models and Support

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Susan Pagnac is the assistant dean for learning enrichment and director of writing at Central College in Pella, IA. Her work has appeared in Journal of Business and Technical Writing, Praxis: A Writing Center Journal, WPA: Writing Program Administration, and Pedagogy: Critical Approaches to Teaching Literature, Language, Composition, and Culture.

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Try this... 5 things a day in your notebook.

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Try this... 5 things a day in your notebook.

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The Book Love Foundation is dedicated to helping teachers in the U.S. and Canada build classroom libraries. Consider applying in 2024!

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The Book Love Foundation is dedicated to helping teachers in the U.S. and Canada build classroom libraries. Consider applying in 2024!

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The Truth about Why I Love to Teach Writing by Tom Romano

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The Truth about Why I Love to Teach Writing by Tom Romano

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This is a stack of print-ready essays for your classroom.

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This is a stack of print-ready essays for your classroom.

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PBS NewsHour
Literature can be daunting for some young people, so how can we create a culture of avid readers? Poetry can be a non-threatening alternative introduction for fledgling bibliophiles, giving them more "white space" on a page without losing narrative elements. Author Jason Reynolds shares his humble opinion on how poetry can entice young readers.

Aired: 12/15/17

Rating: NR

Problems Playing Video? Report a Problem |

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PBS NewsHour | How poetry can help kids turn a fear of literature into love | Season 2017 | PBS

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Combating the fear of books through "breathable" poetry.

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UNDER ARMOUR | RULE YOURSELF | MICHAEL PHELPS

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Malcolm Mitchell... "I had to work to read."

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Malcolm Mitchell... "I had to work to read."

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Book club is the MVP of Patriot wide receiver Malcolm Mitchell's career