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This is a community builder I create with my students. I then have them share their creations on a Canvas message board and interact with posts made by others. Here's mine as an example:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1SEPDENcPw1e8RztmqSyNCv_RNfNRgdpSDEn3PdOu9oQ/edit#slide=id.gec247a6f0f_0_0

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Book of Unknown Americans Reading Schedule

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Book of Unknown Americans Reading Schedule

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This was used last year for a co-taught class with 10+ students with IEPs.  Adjust the speed as you see fit!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1P6mckG3shv0SxyZLrGLTG-MpF9KoBEqH419H-dTmZ-A/edit?usp=sharing

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Skyra Blanchard, NEO Facilitator - Activator

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A little bit about me :)
Skyra Blanchard - Quince Orchard HS
skyra_c_blanchard@mcpsmd.org; @mssky1983 (IG)
AP Lang & Hon. Eng. 12
Crossfit & Peloton

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angel_olivero@mcpsmd.org

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Theresa Baker, Quince Orchard High School

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Theresa Baker, Quince Orchard High School

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English: Honors English 10 & Honors English 11
I am a from Miami, FL; a mom to 3; and a proud TERP!  #TBIA

Theresa_c_baker@mcpsmd.org

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gildon_k_kirk@mcpsmd.org
Honors English 10, 12
I have a twin who teaches art at Blair!
I coach Track and Field @bccxctf

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Richard Montgomery High School
AP Lit & Hon. Eng. 11
wallicko@mcpsmd.org

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Hi Everyone :)!

My name is Andrea. I will be teaching English 11 Honors and 12 Honors at Albert Einstein HS

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Caitlin Fasano; Watkins Mill High School 

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Caitlin Fasano; Watkins Mill High School 

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1) My name is Caitlin Fasano
2) I will be teaching at Watkins Mill High School.
3) I will be teaching self-contained English for 11th/12th Autism Resource Services.
4) I just moved here a few months ago from Phoenix, Arizona!

fasanoca@mcpsmd.org

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I'll be teaching Honors English 10 and yearbook!
My email is michelle.oconnell@mcpsmd.net

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Hi, I'm Tyler Zencka. I'll be teaching 9th and 10th grade English at Watkins Mill High School. I'm also going to coach the baseball team.

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Brian McMullen, Poolesville High School 

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Brian McMullen, Poolesville High School 

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I will be teaching English 9 & 11 Honors, and Argumentative Speaking (Elective).

As soon as I found out I was hired, I bought a new guitar to celebrate.

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Hi! I'm Nicole Trigg. I'm the new English RT at Paint Branch High School. I'll be teaching AP Lit and English 12 Honors.
nicole_m_trigg@mcpsmd.org

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parkd000@mcpsmd.org
Honors 11/12
I am moving here from Baltimore City

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I'll be teaching AP Lang and English 11.
I've been teaching in Fairfax County for the past 12 years. I taught the Film Studies elective the past 9 years - not a "film buff" but I love the idea of telling stories in different ways. Everett_g_flowers@mcpsmd.org

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Leona Gonzalez-Simmons
llgsimmons@gmail.com

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-AP & Honors 11th & 12th
-Have been teaching at the college level, first experience with HS

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I'm teaching AP Lit and yearbook.
Most importantly, I'm mom to two awesome boys (14 and 16 -- my 16-year-old is at Walter Johnson.). I've taught Language Arts/creative writing in high school, and writing composition at MC and NOVA, for 16 years. My email is mangankr@mcpsmd.org.

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Hi, all! My name is Jennifer Winters, and I'll be teaching 10th and 12th grade ELA Honors at Northwood High School. I have two sons at UMBC, one of whom is going to be an ELA teacher like his mama. My email address is wintej00@mcpsmd.org

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amy_bresson@mcpsmd.org
I will be teaching self contained 9th and 10th grade ELA in the ARS program at WMHS. This is my 5th year teaching, first year at the high school level.

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adina_h_loeb@mcpsmd.org
Hon. English 10

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Richard Montgomery H.S.

SPED (LAD) teacher-- co teaching English
Have 6 years experience at a private special education school
I'm a April Fool's baby

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I'm teaching AP Lit and yearbook at Quince Orchard High School.
Most importantly, I'm mom to two awesome boys (14 and 16; my 16-year-old is a rising junior at Walter Johnson HS.).
I've been teaching for 16 years. I've taught language arts and creative writing at the high school level, and college composition at MC and NOVA.

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Hi, my name is Hayley. :) I will be teaching 9th and 10th grade Honors English at Seneca Valley High School. I'm excited for my first year of teaching! I just moved to Montgomery County from Delaware. Besides being certified in secondary English, I also have a CELTA TESOL certificate and speak French.
whitingh@mcpsmd.org

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elliot_j_berger@mcpsmd.org
9 Honors/12 Honors
I'm excited to move back to the high school classroom after teaching in the UMD English dept. for past 7 years.
Fun fact: Gen-X graduate of Walt Whitman HS :)

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sample syllabi and canvas course page shells?

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sample syllabi and canvas course page shells?

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how might i find model syllabi and course outlines for grade 9 honors and grade 12 honors? also: would i be able to import canvas course "shells" that i could use as a foundation for my new classes?
thanks!
elliot
elliot_j_berger@mcpsmd.org

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Does MCPS offer Canvas instructional courses? How best to utilize all the resources within the program, etc?

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Why are schools moving to the "All Honors" English courses?

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I love this resource as an alternative to Youtube (depending on the curriculum)

https://www.nytimes.com/video/op-docs

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Opinion | Op-Docs - The New York Times (Published 2011)

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Op-Docs is the New York Times’ award-winning series of short documentaries by independent filmmakers. From emerging directors to Oscar winners, Op-Docs brings you the very best nonfiction filmmaking from around the world.

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How do you balance accurately assessing students' achievement of the objective and providing thorough feedback without taking way too much time to grade? (I've heard the advice to not grade everything.)

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I have heard that phones are a big issue in classrooms in terms of limiting engagement and distracting students. (However, phones can also be used during lessons for certain technology tools.) How do you handle phones/what phone policies would you suggest?

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https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/calendar/2022-2023%20Traditional%20School%20Year%20Calendar.pdf

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Link to the renowned Susan Barber's intro classes for AP Lit. Includes the "Nighthawks" lesson. https://muchadoaboutteaching.com/say-no-the-syllabus-day-one-and-two-activities/

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With just over 1,500 people voting in this survey on the AP Lit Facebook group, most teachers are heading back to work right about now. I was in the fortunate (HA) group who went back in July and am already a full week into my year with the Class of 2023.

While we all sit through countless hours of PD during preplanning, the looming questions center on day one. Will my room be ready? How can I create a positive first impression of the class? What specifically will we do on day one?

The past few years, I have started with a poetry activity which my students and I both love. In 2019 and 2020, I used the poem "The Crossing" by Ruth Moore. I gave students the first sentence of the poem then cut the rest of the poem into single words and put into baggies by sentences. Students worked together to construct the poem then we reflected on it. Here's the slide deck I used for "The Crossing" and sentences 2 - 4 blown up for cutting.

I honestly have no idea what we did the fall of 2020 because we were virtual, and I've completely suppressed that year. I'm sure I could look it up and may one day if I need virtual lessons again but for now, moving forward . . .

In 2021 I decided to work with the poem "Good Bones" by Maggie Smith for our first day. My students always have a positive experience with this poem, and I knew moving it to day one was a good choice. And it was. Here's the plan:

Students answer roll by repeating one of these phrases:

We play around with these phrases by trying out different inflections and emotions with the phrases then predict what the poem may be about.

Next students use these phrases to put together the poem in puzzle form. A poem puzzle - how fun is that for day one?

After students construct the poem, we spend time reading, annotating and responding to each others annotations.

Finally we watch the "Good Bones" video and this is where the real magic happens. Students have unknowingly built an interpretation of the poem through their work and discussion around it, and many disagree with parts of the interpretation of the video. I love when they point to certain lines and tell me why it should be portrayed in a different way. They're doing literary analysis one day one, and I've never even told them "how to analyze literature." This lesson checks all of the boxes: engaging, modern poetry, group work, and literary analysis. You can find all of the resources here: Good Bones

This year, just to keep us on our toes, our schedule changed to a C day (or 42 min) on day one instead of a full block. Back to the drawing board for me. 42 minutes is not a lot of time if you're used to 90 minutes. Here's what I did on day one then day two (my first full block class).

Day 1 2022: My goal was for students to think about themselves as readers as well as the value that reading has in our lives. Their first task was this:

Students talked about these at their tables, and some shared out to the class. We were nostalgically talking about books on day one with lots of "oh, I forgot about that" and "YES - that one is so good."

Next students finished this statement, "At the end of the day, studying literature is about . . . " (I think this idea came from Brian). From day one I wanted students thinking about the WHY behind what we would be doing all year. Here are some of their answers:
understanding the world around us and the feeling within us. expanding your knowledge. It helps you to learn more about the world around you as well as who you are the 3 E's - analyzing and embracing texts to help you educate, entertain, and explore yourself. finding yourself through other people's stories. learning new things and broadening creative expression. understanding the human experience. learning new things about life and how different people experience it. finding out what books you are interested in because they will stick with you forever. gaining perspective. studying history and the future.
This seems like a pretty good starting point for the year and a great use of our first 42 minutes. Here's my full day one slide deck.

Day 2, 2022: I debated doing the "Good Bones" lesson on day two but am saving that for an introduction to poetry later this month. Instead, we jumped straight into literary analysis using the painting "Nighthawks" by Edward Hopper. After a brief visit from our college advisors, we talk through the Big Ideas and Enduring Understandings from the CED. These concepts are what we will be chasing all year as we read, think, and write. We spend time discussing the difference between identification and function and how all of the skills serve as tools to expand on larger ideas (the enduring understandings). This class will not be a scavenger hunt for devices but rather a exploration of how devices and techniques expand our thinking on a subject and aid in building an interpretation of a text. Strangely, this seems to be a new way of thinking for many students. Now we practice reading and thinking about the Big Ideas and Enduring Understandings with "Nighthawks."

Here's my full "Nighthawks" literary analysis lesson with a brief explanation of how this rolls out in the slide notes.

Need more ideas?

Here's one of Brian's first day lessons: Tennyson's "Ulysses"

And Gina Kortuem shared some of her first day lessons: Literature is a Verb, Why Teach Literature? , and her second day lesson AP Lit Skills: The Interstate, the Microscope, and the Compass

The bottom line: there's not one best lesson that works for everyone in every situation. Figure out what best works for your personality, your demographic, and your time allotment then go with it. First days are important, but it's just one day. This year I kept reminding myself that yes I needed a well thought through first day, but I didn't need to spend hours upon hours agonizing over the first day lesson. Actually, that's going to be my theme for the year: be intentional but don't overthink my plans.

Here's to a great start to the year!

Susan Barber teaches AP Lit and Writers Workshop/Advanced Composition at Midtown High School in Atlanta, Georgia and serves as the College Board Advisor for AP Lit. In addition to reading, writing, and investing in the next generation, she loves watching college football with her family especially when Alabama is playing.

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Say No the Syllabus: Day One (and Two) Activities - Much Ado About Teaching

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With just over 1,500 people voting in this survey on the AP Lit Facebook group, most teachers are heading back to work right about now. I was in the fortunate (HA) group who went back in July and am already a full week into my year with the Class of 2023.

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This video was made by Audrey Boettcher, the Staff Development teacher at QO. This video will show you how to upload information into Talking Points easily.

https://www.loom.com/share/29ab8341d1194a1e9b586174777f1b13

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How to upload parents' phone numbers to Talking Points