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One of the best practices you can incorporate into your reading classes: broken down into easy-to-follow steps for you and your students.

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One of the pillars of our reading community is the daily book talk. While I used to do them once in a while, I was spurred on by the wisdom of Penny Kittle to do one every single day, which I have now fully embraced for the past few years.

So in the last few years, I have done a book talk almost every single day right after we finish our independent reading. It takes less than two minutes and is fairly simple. I used to plan them out much more but realized that it added another level of work to my already jam-packed day and that it didn't seem to make a difference to the students whether I did a pre-scripted one or one that was more spur of the moment. So this is what our book talks look like now.
Preparation:

1. Pick the text you will book talk - note this can be a chapter book, audiobook, a collection of short stories or whatever you feel like blessing as Linda Gambrell reminds us.

2. I like to book talk a variety of new books I have read as well as older books that haven't been discovered yet. One place I look to for inspiration is what my students have recommended in the past.

3. Decide your angle: Are you book talking it because you read it and it was amazing? Because you abandoned it and need someone to prove you wrong? Because you added it to the library but haven't read it?

4. Prepare your visual. I like to project the cover of the book so that students can easily write down the tile. I also put any genres abbreviations on the slide and whether or not is a more mature book.

5. Have the physical book ready to hold up and hand to someone or place on a designated book talk shelf or display.

During the book talk:

Keep it short and sweet. I tend to say a few sentences about the book and why I liked it/abandoned it/purchased it and then read either the first page, the inside flap or the back cover. I love these teasers as they are already made for us.

Have the book ready to hand out. The only time I break this recommendation is when I just finished a book and I want to book talk it to all of my classes. Then I try to find extra copies beforehand, such as from our school library.

Students should have their to-be-read list out which is located either in their readers' notebook or using the Goodreads app. This is a routine expectation we start with the very first week.

Pointers:

Start to transfer ownership of the book talks to students fairly early on, you should not be the only one book talking a book. I love using the 30-second book talk idea to help students become more comfortable with the format and also ensure that everyone participates.

If I am the one doing the book talk there is only one given, if it is students, then there can be up to three depending on their length. Again, this is short and sweet, not the actual teaching point of the class.

If many students want to book talk their book, consider making it the teaching point and dedicate a lesson time for it or have them do a speech about their favorite book.

Keep an anchor chart or some sort of visual of which books you have book talked, not only does it provide a reminder to students about the books shared, but it also allows you to ensure that you are providing inclusive book talks that do not just fall under one genre, cultural heritage or some other category.

Place book talked book the same place so that students know where to find them. We have a book tree that serves as everyone's place to recommend books so that is where they go.

Check to see if there are book trailers available. I still think the book trailer for The False Prince by Jennifer A. Nielsen has convinced more students to read the book than I ever have, and I love that book.

I have loved doing daily book talks and also getting them from students and I now see them as a vital component of any thriving reading community. When we book talk a book it is the invitation into a relationship with that book for all of our students, what a powerful teaching tool that is.

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One of the pillars of our reading community is the daily book talk. While I used to do them once in a while, I was spurred on by the wisdom of Penny Kittle to do one every single day, which I have...

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This is my favorite blog on writing instruction! Stacey Shubitz was one of the founders of the blog and has maintained it over the years and grown it to include many guest authors. They run an amazing writing challenge called Slice of Life, and offer great advice for all aspects of writing instruction.

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A meeting place for a world of reflective writers.

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Jennifer Gonzalez created this go-to site for handy resources related to all aspects of teaching. Her content is easy to read and includes videos, blogs, podcasts, and easy tutorials. She even sells some of her resources.  Her ideas are relevant and doable.

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Kate Roberts and Maggie Beattie Roberts are consultants who have created an amazing website of resources. Their blog and videos offer tangible, practical steps for improving instruction in ELA. They cover topics in reading and writing instruction and have amazing ideas!

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Kate and Maggie are literacy consultants, authors, and speakers. They are known for their concrete solutions to tough situations, their humor, and their strong curricular, pedagogical and personal support of teachers, administrators, and students.

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John Schumacer, aka Mr. Schu, is the Scholastic Ambassador of School Libraries. He reads and reviews children's and young adult literature every single day! His posts always share some of the latest and greatest titles to get into the hands of readers.

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Happy Monday! Just One Flake , written and illustrated by Travis Jonker, releases tomorrow. I'm grateful Travis stopped by to finish my sentences. We discussed Just One Flake 's book trailer, Liam, Pete's a Pizza , and more. I wrote the words in purple, and Travis wrote the words in black . Thank you, Travis ! Just One Flake' s book trailer fulfills my life goal of using the 2001: A Space Odyssey music for a completely silly purpose. Design Credit: Heather Kelly Just One Flake tells the story of a boy named Liam who has one goal: to catch a snowflake on his tongue. His attempts get increasingly ridiculous, with no success. In the end, Liam doesn't get exactly what he wants - he gets something even better. The whole story came out of a spontaneous drawing I made on February 6, 2021: Just One Flake's illustrations were made with a brush pen on watercolor paper, scanned, and then painted digitally. This is my author/illustrator debut, and before I began, I made a list of

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Exploring Children's Literature through Interviews and Book Trailers

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Gravity and her team write blogs a few times a month.  They're an amazing team of K-12 educators and consultants who I worked with in NY/NJ.  Their blog postings are always thought provoking and cover a wide breadth of topics. One of my favorites is "Two Magic Words: What else?"

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we kicked things off, and then Pam offered tips for launching a year of meaningful math. Shan...

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This op-ed in the NY Times explores the lack of voice and passion in students' essays.  Scott Korb, the author, urges educators to, "value more the complete and complex lives of young people" in order to breathe life into their writing.

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Last August, as college started up again, I hadn't quite finished my beach read, William Finnegan's "Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life," so I brought it to my freshman writing class. I tried reading a few passages aloud to break the ice. I thought my students might relate to one in which the writer first wonders about turning his surfing experiences into something worth reading:

"Our queer devotions, frustrations, little triumphs, and large peculiarities, plus a few waterfront characters, plus photos, could probably keep a blog burbling along."

"What do you make of that?" I asked. "Large peculiarities - what do you suppose he means?"

Crickets.

Sand I'd smuggled back from California slid from between the pages to my desk.

Maybe they were wondering what a blog was.

We expect college freshmen to feel at least as comfortable with self-expression as the burbling bloggers and writers of yesteryear. Something beyond stylized selfies must populate their social media streams, after all.

But every year I find that getting them to admit to feeling devoted or frustrated, to being peculiar in any way (much less in a large way), verges on impossible. And as someone who has read thousands of student essays over the past 10 years, few things are more dispiriting - and as the pages mount, soul-crushing - than those written by 18-year-olds who can't see themselves as peculiar.

But why can't they?

One reason reveals itself when someone finally asks the clarifying question: "Do you mean we can write with the word 'I'?"

The class looks up in wonder. This happens every semester.

Somewhere along the way, these young people were told by teachers that who they are in their writing ought to be divorced from who they are on their phones, or as the writer Grace Paley may have said, with their families and on their streets. They know a private "I" who experiences devotion and frustration. I see them text in class and talk and laugh and sometimes cry in the halls. They wear band T-shirts, often from my era, so I assume they have taste. I watch them read.

But no matter who they are in private, when I first encounter their writing, they use only the public passive voice: The text was read. The test was taken.

It's never: I read the text. I took the test. And it is never ever: I loved the text with queer devotion!

It's true that a student's writing style isn't everything and that much of what we call good writing cannot be taught. (Bad writing apparently has been.) One can be devoted to something - a band from the '90s, surfing, YHWH- without being able to put that devotion into words.

But my experience with students has me worried that years of "texts being read" and "tests being taken" have created the sense in them that whatever they're devoted to doesn't matter much to the rest of us - so long as they know the answers to our questions, so long as they pass the test. Writing so passively and with what they've been taught is appropriate and "objective" distance from topics they often seem disinterested in, these young people signal to me that they're still waiting for something important or real to happen to them.

Perhaps they feel that only someone who has lived through something momentous - like the teenagers who survived the Parkland, Fla., shooting - has earned the right to be heard. It's hard to imagine any of those young activists writing, "The rally was held because Congress was lobbied and guns were purchased."

But what about those queer devotions and frustrations, experiences and ideas that have stirred an individual heart into peculiarity?

A decade teaching young writers has taught me a great deal. First, we need to value more the complete and complex lives of young people: where they come from, how they express themselves. They have already lived lives worthy of our attention and appreciation.

Second, we need to encourage young people to take seriously those lives they've lived, even as they come to understand - often through schooling and just as often not - that there's a whole lot more we'll expect of them. Through this, we can help them learn to expect more of themselves, too.

Some lines from the great writer John McPhee have helped me consolidate these lessons over the years. Reflecting in The New Yorker in 2011, he wrote: "I once made a list of all the pieces I had written in maybe 20 or 30 years, and then put a check mark beside each one whose subject related to things I had been interested in before I went to college. I checked off more than 90 percent."

I always tell my students that I find these lines heartening. As a writer, I've spent more than 20 years reckoning with the joys and tragedies, the shame and grief, commitments to sports and study, of my own pre-college years. A good deal of my writing continues to take me to northern Florida where, when I was young, my father was killed by a drunken driver; the stories I continue to uncover there - about justice and race and addiction - begin with me at 5 and continue through my adolescence into this adult life.

Mr. McPhee, and Mr. Finnegan, too - who at 13, he writes, found in the obliterative sea that "the frontiers of the thinkable were quietly, fitfully edging back" - tell me that there's no good reason for me ever to stop going to Florida and attending to what happened there.

At the start of this semester, I read some passages from Barry Lopez's wintry classic "Arctic Dreams." The descriptions are incomparable, even as the setting itself remains ineffable: "The physical landscape is baffling in its ability to transcend whatever we would make of it. It is as subtle in its expression as turns of the mind, and larger than our grasp; and yet it is still knowable."

This has been the lesson for my students this term. Look around at what baffles you; look in at your peculiar self and how your own frontiers continue to edge back. Don't worry, you'll never fully grasp how the world transcends you and your ability to describe it. I surely don't, and I'm 41! But don't forget: You've been trying to understand and triumph in the world for as long as you can remember, even as a kid. Now go and write.

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Opinion | The Soul-Crushing Student Essay

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Last August, as college started up again, I hadn't quite finished my beach read, William Finnegan's "Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life," so I brought it to my freshman writing class. I tried reading a few passages aloud to break the ice.

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Even though I've linked the Two Writing Teachers site, I wanted to post this separately. I like to pair this text with 'The Soul-Crushing Student Essay.' This post explores strategies you can teach students to incorporate voice and passion into their essays.

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Rethinking the "I-Rule"

"Why is Dad wearing a white tux?" I asked. Sitting on my parents' 1963 flowered couch, I lowered the old wedding photographs carefully down to my lap. Next to me, with a gentle smile crossing her face, my mother explained. "Well, your dad and I were married in August," she began. "And in those days, you never wore black before Labor Day." Turning my head to look back down at the photo of smiling newlyweds, I tried to wrap my teenage brain around what felt like such an odd statement. "Why?" I wondered aloud. Mom answered with a slight shrug, "Those were just the rules we followed."

As writers and teachers of writing, we know there are many rules we must all follow. Beginning in the earliest years of schooling (and, let's face it, continuing into middle school), young writers are taught to begin a sentence with a capital letter and punctuate the end with either a period, question mark, or exclamation point. We teach them some of the various uses of a comma, how subjects and verbs work, and ways dialogue should look on a page. As they grow older, we begin to teach different structures, as well as different strategies for elaborating inside of those structures. And at some point, somewhere around middle school, we lay down the law and begin delivering (and enforcing) the edict: "Thou shalt not use the pronoun 'I'."

As a high school student, I certainly remember this rule being practically drilled into my writerly consciousness. Any occasion in which I may have slipped and accidentally hit the shift key along with the letter I on my typewriter was later met with the dreaded red pen. It was as if Labor Day had ended and that slovenly pronoun had arrived at the wedding wearing a white tuxedo. So wrong!

But let's reconsider that edict for a brief moment. What about professional writers? In 2018, do they still follow this rule? On a flight between the west and east coasts recently, I leaned forward and pulled a copy of Southwest: The Magazine from the seat pocket in front of me. The cover of the magazine had attracted my attention, as it featured an article about the resurgence of pinball (one of my favorite pastimes as a teenager). Immediately hooked by the topic, I opened to the article. It begins this way (2018):

Sometimes at night, after everyone else in my family had gone to sleep, I would lie in bed and pretend I was a pinball machine. I would press the knobs of my hip bones as if they controlled the flippers and kick my legs as if they were bumpers and imagine the silver ball careening through spinners and up ramps and into the drop targets of my favorite machines, the layouts of which I had memorized. Inevitably, I played brilliantly enough to light up the cherry-red circle marked "special," at which point I would fire the ball into the illuminated kick-out hole (otherwise known as my belly button) to win a free game, an event commemorated by a muffled but distinct crack, the sound of which, even 40 years later, is enough to set my heart aflutter. I thrashed around, playing this imaginary game, until I fell asleep. I would then dream of pinball (p. 55).

Enthralled by the energetic writing, I continued reading. In this text, I learned about some of the more technical aspects of pinball, as well as some of the current venues where one might compete in tourneys. I learned about techniques for successful play, and what some of the most monetarily valuable machines are called. Captivated by the impassioned, engaging voice of the writing, I voraciously read on and on (it's a long article). And somewhere in the middle, I concluded that this article must have been written by some slouch who doesn't understand the 'I-rule." I mean, he or she must have either not graduated from high school or is maybe just some airlines magazine writer. So I flipped to the end of the article to find out who wrote it, only to discover this writer, Steve Almond, has published ten books and has spent time on the New York Times Bestseller list. Hmm. . .

Every year in school, the vast majority of kids are told not to use 'I' in academic writing because, well, because it's "the rule." But in longitudinal studies completed by organizations like Columbia University's Teachers College Reading and Writing Project, the result is the eventual dulling of student writerly voice. Driving home this point at a recent Teachers College Saturday Reunion workshop, Dr. Mary Ehrenworth showed examples of students whose writing, while becoming more "evidence-based" across revisions, lost a lot of voice in the process.

A quick Google search for the terms "voice in writing" yielded the following result: "an author's style, the quality that makes his or her writing unique and which conveys the author's attitude, personality, and character" (Google, 2018). Take a moment to reread this definition; which parts would we not wantfoster in our students? All of us would likely agree- they all matter.

So why consider lightening up on the hard and fast "I-rule" in school writing? Here are a few reasons:

Knowledge of topic: Let's face it, authors who appear to know their topic are more engaging and more interesting. We trust them. And we allow them to impact us more than someone who clearly does NOT seem to know. By harnessing pronouns that reflect this knowledge, these writers pull us in as readers and make us want to hear what they have to say and learn what they have to teach. Consider writers like Malcolm Gladwell and Michael Pollan- award-winning writers who do not shy away from the first person. Consider Steve Almond (above)!

Impassioned tone: Tone matters in writing. Some might argue that by allowing students to use personal pronouns we promote a heretical compromise to academic tone. In some academic communities, this perception may hold merit. But consider that professional authors everywhere understand that in order to learn, readers must be engaged; and in order to be engaged, readers must be interested; and in order to be interested, readers must sense that the writer cares, When writerly tone is impassioned with a personal touch, the writer's caring is allowed to seep through. Consider Almond's article as a case-in-point; his first person perspective made me feel like I was listening to both an expert and also someone who cares about the topic. Which, I would posit, helps readers care, too.

Enhanced credibility: First person must be used artfully; but when done well, credibility can be enhanced. Consider the following excerpt from Steve Almond's pinball article entitled, "Staying Alive." In this part, he's teaching the basics of pinball to readers who may not know them. Watch as he switches out of a mundane teaching tone to first-person enhancement:

Skilled players can win free games, or extra balls, by earning enough points or by completing a complex set of tasks.

The machines themselves, especially the vintage models I played as a kid, are gorgeous, with a scoreboard, or back glass, that rises above the playing field like an illuminated mini-billboard (p. 57).

Do you hear how the information springs to life in the second half?

As I hope to suggest here, the use of first person is an art perhaps more than it is a science (kind of like the use of fragments). Overuse of first person comes with definite risks. So as teachers, we would likely benefit from studying some great mentor texts from publications like Mary Ehrenworth showed, publications like The New Yorker or the New York Times or others. During Mary's session, those of us in attendance briefly studied just a few pieces, some more informative in nature, some more persuasive, that all contained first person usage. Analyzing alongside our students ways professional writers use the first person to support their purpose, and providing some guidance about how and when to use (and when not to use) first person seems like a powerful idea. After all, it was Donald Graves who suggested we begin teaching young writers the ways professional writers write.

Wearing white before Labor Day is perhaps a rule still observed by some in our culture. But like many other cultural norms, it no longer holds the power to inspire rigid adherence that it once did in my parents' day. Maybe it is time to consider a similar mindset when we teach students how to write without the first person?

What are your thoughts about easing up on the "I-rule?" I'd love to hear from you!

Note: For a more academic discussion on this topic, see Jenna Sheffield's article in Writing Commons here.

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"Why is Dad wearing a white tux?" I asked. Sitting on my parents' 1963 flowered couch, I lowered the old wedding photographs carefully down to my lap. Next to me, with a gentle smile crossing her face, my mother explained. "Well, your dad and I were married in August," she began.

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Kelly Gallagher is a teacher and speaker who shares his work with his current students with others.  His article a week selections are relevant, engaging, and from a wide variety of sources.

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Kelly recognizes that part of the reason students struggle with reading is because they lack prior knowledge and background. They can decode the words, but the words remain meaningless without a foundation of knowledge. To help build his students' prior knowledge, he assigns them an Article of the Week every Monday morning.

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Visible Thinking routines are great ways to make the invisible work of reading comprehension and research visible. These routines are easy to follow and reveal the inner working of our students' minds.

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Humane Teaching: Reclaiming the Dignity of our Profession

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Humane Teaching: Reclaiming the Dignity of our Profession

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This is one of my favorite blog posts that I've read this year. It's on the Robb Review, which often posts great educational articles. Patty McGee wrote this article in the spring and it beautifully explores how to teach with "compassion and esteem."

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Patty McGee

In making the case for humane teaching, I open with the courageous words that I have heard students say to their teachers:

A kindergartener: When you yell, it makes me sad and afraid.

A second grader: Please, please don't dump my desk when it is messy.

A fifth grader: When you announce the highest test scores with a drum roll, it makes others feel bad, especially those who work hard and will never score the highest.

A seventh grader: I am having trouble learning in your class because I am afraid you are going to embarrass me by throwing my binder on the floor, too.

A tenth grader: The fact that my paper was the most marked up in the class does not mean I should read it aloud to my classmates.

These are just a few of the statements I have heard in the past few years. Students shouldn't have to self-advocate in these ways. These pleas for compassion compel me to say:

We are experiencing an epidemic of inhumane teaching.

I state this bluntly because I cannot circle around this issue for another moment. Through actions and inactions, spoken words and stony silences, teachers are creating a hostile learning environment, whether they realize it or not. Too many students endure school days punctuated with inhumane experiences, either directed at them or their peers. Whether it's intentional or not, and whether it's a byproduct of being saturated in an uncivil media culture, inhumane teaching is suffocating our children. In Alfie Kohn's description of this epidemic, he writes, " Students tend to be regarded not as subjects but as objects, not as learners but as workers. By repeating words like 'accountability' and 'results' often enough, the people who devise and impose this approach to schooling evidently succeed in rationalizing what amounts to a policy of feel-bad education." (Kohn 2004)

Unrealistic expectations are being heaved onto educators, no doubt about it. It's understandable to bristle and buckle under the pressure of accountability and raising the bar mandates. This pressure, however, does not give us educators permission to fuel inhumane learning environments. Yet it is happening. Educators have become far too comfortable saying damaging statements within earshot: These kids will never be ready for the test next year; high school is going to be a rude awakening; he is so low in math . It is hurting our students. Ultimately, it is hurting ourselves too. When we diminish students, we feel diminished.

I say this as someone who is guilty of misusing my power as an more time. Jack, Jack, are you listening? I don't think you are." Even when I perpetuated seemingly neutral habits like educator. I have outwardly shown frustration at answering the question that I already answered a half dozen times. "Okay, everyone, I am going to say this naming students by their reading level, I was undermining learners' confidence and capacity to learn. And every time I did something like this, whether during whole class teaching or with individual students, I felt a nugget of yuck in my gut. I am not sure I could have articulated it at the time, but now I see that it felt wrong because it was going against the very grain of my beliefs. Those were stress-fueled power plays, cheap shortcuts, and honestly, authoritarian acts.

It is time to commit ourselves to what feels morally sound: humane teaching.

Humane teaching is teaching with recognition of the learner. It springs from our own self-respect and professionalism, and an awareness that students thrive when teachers bring to their role a sense of stewardship.

Carl Rogers, grandfather of positive psychology and one of the great humanitarians of our time, describes this approach as "prizing the learner" and it is remarkably impactful on learning. "It is an acceptance of this other individual as a separate person, having worth in her own right... a prizing of the learner as an imperfect human being with many feelings, many potentialities." It is the belief that all learners possess the innate desires to grow and yet are grappling with growing. "Learning is increased.... when they are simply understood - not evaluated, not judged, simply understood from their own point of view, not the teacher's." (Rogers 1967 304-311)

In line with Carl Rogers' thinking, I am not suggesting we approach our students in a fluffy, sugary-sweet, singsongy way. That's just nonsense and all students see right through it. Instead, I am urging us to take on courageous, brave teaching. Embrace the difficulties and the struggle of learning; accept the many complexities manifested in students and teaching without finger-pointing, blame, and humiliation. This is integral in the work we do: namely, teaching with compassion and esteem.

So just how do we teach with compassion and esteem? I am tempted to succinctly tell you i n the numbered tips style so prevalent in all media, designed to hold the attention of a distracted population, but it's not possible to squeeze this issue into such a format. There are no capsulized solutions.

So, instead, I reach out to you, requesting you to draw in close for just a bit longer so I may share a bigger message here. YOU are not the problem. If you are reading this blog, you are likely an enlightened educator who doesn't shame students. But WE are all the problem. Let me explain. We can post, read, like, share, retweet these blogs till the cows come home, but that doesn't seem to be stemming the tide of inhumane teaching in our schools. Instead, I want to crowdsource us and our own passion and smarts and outrage so that together, we recognize it's time for greater collective action.

Within our schools, how might we use our insight and energy to help fellow educators learn more compassionate ways of interacting with students? How do we help us all be more compassionate with ourselves? It seems to me it's done by way of a paradox- a pairing of zero-tolerance and generous, abundant curiosity about why we are resorting to those behaviors and how we might search out alternatives. It is a strict, daily commitment to prize the learners within our fold in the manner of Carl Rogers. We also must, every day, recognize and prize ourselves and our fellow educators. And when this does not happen, we act. We do not let discomfort dissuade us from addressing inhumane teaching.

Instead, we might choose to do what one educator, a principal who has taught me much, did to face inhumane teaching head-on. First, she acknowledged the feeling in her gut that said, "No way. These words are callous and cruel. This is not who we are." Second, she recognized her role in the situation. She owned that in some way, shape, or form she contributed to the way teachers were speaking about students. Bravely, professionally, and compassionately, she spoke to the educators about her expectations of humane teaching and how all must grow (including herself) to prize their students, especially those who seem most challenging. From there, they all made a plan of action to study together- to study ways of educating humanely. Most importantly, they followed that plan of study together by reading, talking, teaching, and supporting one another in this work. May we all be inspired to follow this same path when advocating for educating compassionately.

This is brave, challenging work that requires persistence. Committing to humane teaching helps us ground ourselves in the greater purpose of the work we have been called to do, and helps us to teach from that sacred space so that learners no longer need to self-advocate for dignity. are the answer.

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Humane Teaching: Reclaiming the Dignity of Our Profession

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Patty McGee In making the case for humane teaching, I open with the courageous words that I have heard students say to their teachers: A kindergartener: When you yell, it makes me sad and afraid. A second grader: Please, please don't dump my desk when it is messy.

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Pernille Ripp is a teacher, author and speaker who is passionate about getting great literature into the hands of readers. Her blog has some of my favorite book lists. She uses her own students to cultivate these lists and her recommendations end up being some of my favorites. She also has great advice for teaching reading.

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Educational Leadership is one of my favorite journals. They post a lot of their articles in full text online. They have some amazing contributors and really interesting, inspirational, thought-provoking research-backed content.

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We create practical, timely, affordable professional learning to help educators and instructional leaders provide students with a modern, equitable, and quality education.

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Stop Using the Label 'Struggling Readers'

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Stop Using the Label 'Struggling Readers'

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Beloved author Jacqueline Woodson was interviewed by Education Week in early 2018. This blog post transcribes her interview.

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In January, author Jacqueline Woodson was named National Ambassador for Young People's Literature by the Library of Congress. She designed her platformReading = Hope x Change (What's Your Equation?)-to spark conversations about how reading can help young people create, as she puts it, "the world they'd like to live in."

Woodson is a four-time Newbery Honor winner, a two-time Coretta Scott King award winner, and was named the 2015 Young People's Poet Laureate by the Poetry Foundation for her memoir-in-verse Brown Girl Dreaming. She is the sixth author to take on the two-year role as the nation's premier advocate for young people's literature. The first National Ambassador, in 2008, was Jon Scieszka, followed by Katherine Paterson (2010-11), Walter Dean Myers (2012-13), Kate DiCamillo (2014-15), and Gene Luen Yang (2016-17).

Woodson talked with Education Week about how she plans to use her new platform. (The Q&A has been edited for length and clarity.)
You have said that you'd like to use your platform as ambassador to steer people away from using labels like "struggling reader." What do you see as the harm in these labels?
Woodson: Any kind of qualifier can be harmful because who we are is not static. Our abilities are constantly changing. What does it mean to be a struggling reader? I know if I was raised in this day and age, I would have been labeled a struggling reader. But what I know now is I was actually reading like a writer. I was reading slowly and deliberately and deconstructing language, not in the sense of looking up words in the dictionary, but understanding from context. I was constantly being compared to my sister who excelled, and it made me feel insecure. What gets translated is 'you are not as good,' and that gets translated into our whole bodies. That's where the danger lies.
So it's not what you read, or how fast, but what you get out of reading?
Woodson: First and foremost, young people should be passionate about reading. In the 6th grade I still enjoyed reading picture books. It informed me as a writer. Even now, I tell people that if they want to understand how a novel is structured, look at a picture book. It's all there.

Another part of your platform is to show kids who might be anxious about the future how books can help them to remain hopeful. How can reading help them do that?

Woodson: What you see when you read is people who have survived. It could be contemporary survival, like surviving middle school, or it can be historical survival, shown in the story of the Underground Railroad, the civil rights movement, or the Women's March. We can turn to books for the hope we need in the moment.
Is the "We Need Diverse Books" movement part of that hope?
Woodson: Yes, one of the first steps is to give young people access to relevant literature. If they don't have access to books that speak to them, then we are already failing them. Young people are diverse, and I'm not just talking about racially or economically, or in terms of gender or gender preference. There are just so many ways that young people are different from one another. It is so amazing that this renaissance is happening, when all these different kinds of books are becoming available.
When you were a kid, was it difficult for you to find books that inspired you?
Woodson: We lived at the public library. We had to go there after school and wait for my mom to pick us up when she got off from work. We had limited classroom libraries, but I still was able to find Mildred Taylor and Virginia Hamilton. I grew up in the age of Judy Blume and I loved her. Looking back, it would have been nice to have more options.
Where will your term as Ambassador of Young People's Literature take you?
Woodson: I want to go to a lot of rural places in Mississippi and Alabama, where typically young people might not get the chance to meet authors. I want to visit prisons and juvenile detention centers. Of course, I also want to get to as many libraries as I can. So it's just about getting out there to as many venues as possible and spreading the gospel of reading.
What do you hope to achieve by visiting prisons and detention centers?
Woodson: The school-to-prison pipeline is real. It's important for me to show up and make sure people know their rights. In a lot of prisons and detention centers, books are being censored. One book, The New Jim Crow, was censored because it talks about the history of mass incarceration and what it looks like and what it means. And some people are saying, 'No, you can't read that.' Books should not be censored because a system is afraid of being dismantled. We know the power of books. There are so many people who have studied law in prison, and then gone on to get law degrees and challenge the system of mass incarceration.
What do you do to get kids interested in reading?
Woodson: I talk about myself as a young reader. I talk about their power, about their right to read, and their right to ask for the books they want. They should have books in their classroom libraries that mirror who they are. If they don't, someone is remiss. If I'm visiting an underserved school, I'm also talking with teachers about organizations like First Book, and about making sure all students are empowered with library cards. It's all about giving kids that access.
Do you have any advice for teachers?

Woodson: Know who your students are. I've gone into schools where I wanted to read Visiting Day, a picture book about a girl whose dad is incarcerated, and teachers have said, 'We have no kids with incarcerated relatives in our class.' I started talking about the book and how my uncle was incarcerated and come to find out, there are 10 kids in the class whose mothers, or brothers, or uncles are in prison. Get to know your students, make no assumptions about them, and you'll be better able to help them choose literature that is relevant. A lot of times kids don't want to read because they haven't seen themselves or anything that interests them in a book.

Take boys who think they don't like to read. The minute they start reading Ghost by Jason Reynolds they're gone. They are enrapt. You have to be under a rock to not know Jason Reynolds at this point in time, but I've met people who have never heard of him. Find current books to engage young people. Authors are always tweeting about the latest books.

As often as you can, read aloud to students. You will see a difference. My son is 10, and if it's up to him he would read Big Nate books all day long. When I see him reading, I see his passion, I see his joy. But at night I could go up to him and read aloud The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, and he loves it just as much.
You said you enjoy being alone and writing and that the idea of taking on this extroverted role was intimidating. What ultimately convinced you to take it?
Woodson: Talking to Carla Hayden [the first woman and the first African-American to become Librarian of Congress] who has worked so hard, and I watched her go from her work at the Enoch Pratt Library [in Baltimore] to Librarian of Congress. We are living in a time where we have to show up. As Ambassador, I'm trying to show up, do the work that I've been called to do, and not be afraid or resistant to it.
Photo: Juna F. Nagle

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Stop Using the Label 'Struggling Reader,' Author Jacqueline Woodson Advises

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In January, author Jacqueline Woodson was named National Ambassador for Young People's Literature by the Library of Congress. She designed her platformReading = Hope x Change (What's Your Equation?)-to spark conversations about how reading can help young people create, as she puts it, "the world they'd like to live in."

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The Nerdy Book Club is just what it sounds like - a place for book lovers to join together! You can learn about great literature and read about reading instruction and the power of books in our lives.

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Middle Web has great articles, resources and ideas all geared towards working in a middle school.  Content covers instruction in all disciplines as well as behavior management, SEL, and other facets of supporting middle schoolers.

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MiddleWeb is all about middle school & the middle grades - with a sharp focus on teaching and learning in grades 4-8. Join us, learn about our 5 streams of content, and find out how to get involved.

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MiddleWeb is all about middle school & the middle grades - with a sharp focus on teaching and learning in grades 4-8. Join us, learn about our 5 streams of content, and find out how to get involved.

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Ralph Fletcher, one of my favorite writers and teachers of writing, lists helpful tips for young writers. HIs Writer's Desk also includes poetry and other snippets of his writing that can be great to share with students.

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What Should I Write About?

I'm not a big believer in "story starters". I believe that the best ideas are living inside you. Your challenge is to dig them out. Do the writing only you can do. But every writer gets stuck from time to time so I've included a few ideas to jump-start your imagination. You might try to write about:
* Family story
* A particular tradition in your family.
* An artifact (arrowhead, ring, antique, etc.). Important objects in our lives often provide excellent material to write about.
* Special place: special room, attic nook, inside of a tree, scary closet. You might start by quickly sketching a map of a house full of memories. Mark those rooms where something important happened to you.
* Brother, sister, or special relative. Remember: think small. Focus on one aspect of that person, or one experience you had with him or her.
* Your place in the family. Are the oldest kid in your family? The youngest? Are you a middle child? An only child? Were you adopted?
* Best friend. (Did you ever get in trouble?)
* Moving. Did you leave behind a best friend when you moved from your old house?
* A disastrous time you had at camp or on a family vacation.
* Horrible haircut (or other mortifying experience)
* An injury. Did you ever have to go to the hospital
* Important first: your first day in school, the first time you rode a two-wheeler, etc.
* Favorite pet, or a pet you once had.
* When your family changed: your brother went off to college, grandma came to live with you, etc.
* What you are (or used to be) afraid of.
* One thing you never want to do again!

How To Use Your Writer's Notebook

Use your notebook to breathe in the world around you. You can write about:
1) What amazes/surprises/anger you
2) What you wonder about
3) What you notice
4) "Seed Ideas" or "Triggers" to generate stories or poems
5) Small details that intrigue you
6) Snatches of talk you overhear
7) Memories
8) Lists
9) Photos, articles, ticket stubs or other artifacts
10) Your own sketches, drawings or doodles
11) Quotes or inspiring passages from books or poems
Once you have gathered a lot of writing in your notebook, try the following ideas:

1) Reread to dig out the best material

2) Experiment with new kinds of writing

3) Try to write something beautiful but don't expect all your writing to be great. Give yourself permission to write badly!

4) Write about personal things-fears, nightmares, or dreams-that contain strong feelings

5) Write about writing Remember these tips:

* Keep your notebook with you so you can write at any place and time.
* Pull your notebook out whenever you have a few minutes with nothing else to do.
* The notebook you keep should reflect you. If you like to draw, draw in your notebook.
* Writing can be fun. Your notebook is a place to enjoy writing.

Prewriting Strategies For Your Writing

1) Write in Your Writer's Notebook. A writer's notebook gives you an easy, informal, no-pressure way to start thinking about a topic. Great for brand-new "seed ideas".
2) Talk It Out. Sometimes I'll get together with a friend to kick around an idea I'm thinking about. There's a little danger here-if you talk too much you can talk the mystery out of an idea. I have found that a little talk goes a long way.
3) List Ideas. Lists are a great way to gather material. The idea is to generate ideas. Don't worry if some ideas are better than others. And don't worry too much about getting the ideas in the right order.
4) Make A Web. You may have done this before. Put the main idea in the center, and make a "spoke" for each connected idea.
5) Make A Simple Time-line. I find this idea very helpful for writing stories. Jot down when each important event happened. Now, where do you want to start the writing? At the beginning of the timeline? In the middle? At the end?
6) Three by Three by Three. Give yourself three minutes to write three ideas on three different topics. Great for generating ideas.
7) Free Write. Give yourself a short amount of time (five to seven minutes) to jot down ideas, words, fragments related to a topic. If you doing this right your pen should never leave the page. One friend of mine calls it "Hot-Penning". Don't think: write! Let your pen go wild. Later you can go back and circle any parts you want to use.

Important Note:
I don't use each one of these ideas each time I write. (Often I just start writing.) You will probably find that some of these ideas work better than others. You will have to try them out and see which ones work best for you.

Ideas For Revising Your Writing

Many young writers think of revision as all hard work and drudgery. But revision is more than just a way to fix a broken piece of writing. It's also a way to honor a good piece and make it even better.
Here are some ideas to experiment with:
* Change the beginning: experiment with different kinds of leads. You might try sound effects, or an intriguing first sentence.
* Change the ending: maybe a circular ending, for example, or a surprise ending might work best for your writing.
* Add a section. Have you left out something important?
* Remove/delete a part. A piece of writing is like a rose bush-it grows healthier after you prune the unnecessary parts.
* Revise for voice. Are there places in the writing where you stop sounding like you and start sounding like someone else?
* Change the order. You don't have to tell the story in the order it happened. Try starting in the middle, or try starting at the end and flashing back to the beginning.
* Change the genre. The story you are working on might work better as poem, an information piece, or a letter.
* Change point of view. Try telling the story through the "He" or "She" point of view, instead of the more common "I".
* Change the tone: make it funnier, more sarcastic, more serious.
* Change the tense: from past ("I walked in to the house") to present tense ("I walk into the house"), for example.
* Slow down the "hot-spot" or crucial moment of the story using dialogue, emotion, and frame-by-frame detail.
* Break a big topic (All About My Family, for example) into chunks or chapters. Think of each chunk as its own piece of writing.

Publishing Your Work

You don't have to have a book in the bookstore to be published. Getting published means "going public" so your words and ideas can be communicated to many different readers.

Here are some ideas for how you can do that-I'm sure you will think of your own ways.
1) Photocopy your writing and share it with friends or family.
2) Mail your writing to someone special. You could take a poem, make it into a card, and send that.
3) Tape yourself reading your story or poem and send the tape to an interested reader, adult, relative, etc.
4) Use your writing as the basis for an illustrated picture book for a younger sibling, or friend.
5) The school newspaper, yearbook, or local newspapers often publish student work. Find out what kinds of writing they publish, and how they want you to submit it.
6) Magazines that publish work by young writers include Cricket, Stone Soup, and many others. See if your librarian has a copy. Read the magazine carefully to see what kinds of things they publish. Might your writing fit in this magazine?
7) Check out contests put on by bookstores, local organizations, magazines, or national groups.
8) For information/nonfiction writing, you can make a "Teaching Poster" and post it in a place where people will read it. Study the teaching posters in your classroom before you make your own. **You'll need your teacher's cooperation for this last idea:
9) Classroom Author's Day. Some classes have one on the last Friday of every month. Chips, cookies, ginger ale make this a special occasion. Set a deadline and make sure everyone works toward it. Allow time for each student to read a short piece out loud. Give classmates and guests 3 by 5 inch index cards so they can write a response. At the end, each reader gets to read the stack of response cards. Author's Day celebrations can be a blast but there's a lot to do to get ready: write invitations, invite special guests, send out a press release to the local newspaper.

Recommended Books For Young Writers

WHERE DO YOU GET YOUR IDEAS by Sandy Asher (Walker & Company).

IN YOUR OWN WORDS: A Beginner's Guide to Writing by Sylvia Cassedy (Crowell). ?A thoughtful book jam-packed with terrific ideas for your writing.

MARKET GUIDE FOR YOUNG WRITERS by Kathy Henderson, Betterway Publications, Inc., PO Box 219, Crozet, Virginia, 22932. ?This book has a wealth of information about magazines, contests, etc. Lots of smart advice if you hope to get your writing in print!

LIVE WRITING: BREATHING LIFE INTO YOUR WORDS by Ralph Fletcher(Avon Books For Young Readers). This book is a sequel to A WRITER'S NOTEBOOK. It will show you how to improve the different parts of your writing. There are chapters on how to write a strong lead, how to craft an effective ending, how to bring alive your characters, and another one on how to write with voice.

The MEET THE AUTHOR SERIES published by Richard C. Owens Publishers. This series gives you a close-up look at many authors you will recognize.

The AMELIA BOOKS by Marissa Moss (Tricycle Press): AMELIA'S NOTEBOOK, AMELIA WRITES AGAIN, AMELIA TAKES COMMAND, and others. Written with a kid's zany sense of humor, these books crammed with wonderful ideas for young writers.

The WriteSource 2000 Books. Good, all-purpose, inexpensive books with information different kinds of writing.

POETRY FROM A TO Z: A GUIDE FOR YOUNG WRITERS by Paul B. Janeczko (Simon & Schuster). Also A SCH0LASTIC GUIDE: HOW TO WRITE POETRY by Paul B. Janeczko (Scholastic). Paul Janeczko has solid advice for anyone who writes poetry.

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I'm not a big believer in "story starters". I believe that the best ideas are living inside you. Your challenge is to dig them out. Do the writing only you can do. But every writer gets stuck from time to time so I've included a few ideas to jump-start your imagination.

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Berit Gordon is an author and consultant who specializes in supporting middle and high school students increase autonomy and engagement in reading. Her blog posts are relevant and deal with current issues facing middle and high school educators. One of my favorites is: Part I: Odysseus, Meet Katniss: Moving Non-Reader Teens to Skilled and Stamina-Driven with a Blend of Classics and Choice Reading

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Blog - Berit Gordon: Literacy Consultant Students Teachers

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Reading the Chart Chums blog has helped take my chart game to the next level. They offer great suggestions for creating charts, drawing symbols and images, and storing charts. Visual cueing systems are so important for learning and the advice on this blog can help you make them meaningful and simple to create.

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This blog post on Corwin Connect speaks to the importance of providing clear feedback. It also outlines Hattie's framework which is extremely useful. Corwin's site posts a lot of great educational articles...and they publish terrific books for educators!

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While this isn't specifically an ELA resource, it's a go-to site for supporting student inquiry.  This is a great site for nurturing student curiosity.