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Monday Motivators

This blog page hosts posts some Mondays. The intent and purpose of a Monday Motivator is to provide teachers or readers with an idea they can share or an activity they can conduct right away.

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What's in a Name? by Eowyn Oh

4/1/2025

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As someone with a unique name, it is disheartening–though sometimes comical– to hear my name mispronounced. My name, Eowyn (pronounced ay-oh-win with an emphasis on the “ay”) comes from The Lord of the Rings. I am Korean American, so when people can’t pronounce it, many automatically assume it is a cultural name, and I have to awkwardly correct them as I explain that my name has Old English roots. However, when my name is pronounced correctly, it is a joy to bond over The Lord of the Rings or a sweet indication that I am seen and known. What power does a name hold? A name is often the first thing we learn when we meet someone new; it is a word to identify a complex human being. Names are far more nuanced than being just regular words. A name is how one holds on to the legacy of a loved one, reflects family values and hopes, and holds languages and culture. A person’s name is unique, a distinct part of one’s identity. Names matter. In her striking novel Ode to a Nobody, Caroline DuBois follows the story of Quinn, an 8th grader in Nashville, TN. During the month of April, her teacher has assigned her to write a poem a day. This assignment ends up being a critical avenue for Quinn to process the 2020 Nashville tornado, which rips through her neighborhood and changes her life. The tornado leaves disaster in its wake, destroying part of her home and reflecting the unsteadiness of her parents’ impending divorce. As she processes the tornado, Quinn also tries to fully understand her identity, as a friend, daughter, sister, and student. Part of understanding her identity begins with the exploration of her name. Her name is Quinn, but her dad calls her Quinnie. How should she sign her poems? Choosing either seems to be her picking a “side” between her fighting parents. Her name is a battle. In one of her first poems, she writes:
 
EXPERT OF NOTHING
It's another Monday
and I'm still the student
I was on Friday. Worse,
my pencil's gone dumb in my grip
and I begin to sweat.
I head my paper Quinnie.
Easy enough! Deep breath.
Erase that, write Quinn.
Erase that, write Quinn(ie).
Erase that-and rip
a jagged hole in my paper
that I want to slip
in-
To.
 
Reflecting on one’s name is a powerful way for students to think through their identity. It allows them to consider the role of parents/adults in shaping their identity, and process the emotions of how they feel about themselves. For Quinn, the battle over her name echoes a lifelong journey of people making decisions for her and about her. As she processes the history of her name, she simultaneously processes a step in maturity of deciding her name for herself. Personally, I love the story behind my name. I have two older sisters and when my mom was pregnant with me, my dad had really hoped for a son. In the movie The Return of the King, which had just been released,  Eowyn is able to slay the witch king of Angmar, simply because she is a woman. The witch king taunts, “You fool, no man can kill me” to which Eowyn replies, “I am no man” as she rips off her helmet, reveals her identity, and slays the witch king. Watching that scene was a powerful moment for my dad to get excited for his daughter’s role in the world as he named his daughter Eowyn. I was born later that year on his birthday, and my name sweetly connects me to my dad. Through a range of activities, students can not only reflect on their names and the past, but also how they seek to portray themselves in the future.
 
Hello, My Name Is
For the first task, students will be given time to reflect on the backstory of their names. Using this poem as a mentor text, students will be given time to write a poem about the story behind their names. The goal will be to creatively express the history behind their names. By using a mentor text, the students are given an understanding of the poetic style, allowing them to focus closer on the content rather than the skill of writing poetry itself. This specific poem allows students to set up contrasting ideas about their names. If there is more of a story to share, students are also free to create their own poetry. Through their poems, they can think through questions such as:
What is your name? Who gave it to you?  Were you named after someone? Does your name have a meaning?
 
Mentor Poem:
 
Mom Thought I Was Going To Be A Boy
Mom's ultrasound and intuition
convinced her
I was born to be a boy.
So my parents chose a name
and for nine long months
called me Quinn.
 
When I turned out a girl,
Mom still liked Quinn.
'It's gender-neutral,'
she insisted.
 
Dad disagreed
and has always called me
Quinnie. So it's Quinn on paper,
but out loud mostly Quinnie
and sometimes Quinn,
depending on
who's speaking.
 
Hello, This Is Who I Am:
After the students reflect on the backstory of their names and how they feel about it, the students will then creatively engage with their identities. This would make a strong beginning of the year activity as students can not only express who they are, but learn more about their classmates. Students will be offered a range of activities in which they can use writing, videography, illustration, or music to reflect how they see their identity.
 
They will have to the option to:
  • Create a minimum 2-4 page newspaper article reintroducing yourself to the world- get creative! You can include a crossword puzzle, pictures, etc.
  • Write or type (11 pt. Font, double spaced, Times New Roman) a 2-4 page letter to whoever gave you your name with the proposal of a new name. What name would you want to name yourself and why? How does your new name more accurately reflect who you are?
  • Create a 3-5 minute video where you reintroduce yourself to the world.
  • Design a 1 page character collage that represents yourself. Attach a minimum 1 page description of why you chose some of your favorite images.
  • Write and record a 3-5 minute rap about yourself. Be sure to include your rap artist name!
 
Names are discussed in many ways throughout literature. However, this does not diminish its importance. As the students reflect on their names through these activities, they will be able connect their names to their author and learner identity. Students not only reflect on their past and their formation of identity, but are empowered in thinking about identity going forward.
 
 
EXAMPLE 1: POEM
My parents named me Eowyn
after a woman who rode into war
when no man could.
A shieldmaiden with fire in her lungs,
fierce enough to face death
and call it by name.
They loved her defiance,
her wild-hearted courage,
and so they gave her to me.
 
But I am Korean American.
And when strangers see my face,
they stumble over the word,
hearing foreignness
where there is none.
They ask if it is my Korean name,
their voices soft with caution,
as if they might offend my history
by misplacing it.

I often say,
“No, it’s Old English.”
I try to smile through the confusion,
tell them about The Lord of the Rings,
about Rohan and the White City.
But now,
when someone gets it right--
Ay-oh-win--
I know, in that moment,
they are speaking my name
the way it was meant to be spoken.
 
 
EXAMPLE 2 TEXT:
I chose a picture of the mountains as my background because I find a lot of peace in nature. Throughout my collage, there are other pictures of how I engage with nature, like through the enjoyment of flowers or through a hobby of scuba diving. My family is also incredibly important to me. Little Women is one of my favorite books because I have three sisters. A big part of my identity is also my desire to teach! I added a picture of a classroom and a stack of books because I hope to one day be an English teacher. I also really value my cultural identity. I am Korean but I grew up in Japan, so I ensured to add pictures that nodded to both of those identities. My name, Eowyn, is also a big part of my identity. I love what it stands for and the powerful female character that Eowyn is in The Lord of the Rings, so I included a picture of her as well.
 
EXAMPLE 3 COLLAGE:

Picture
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Shame, Weaponization, and Mobilization by Melanie Hundley and Marissa Tessier

3/24/2025

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Six students sit around a table in the front corner of the classroom. Today we are discussing their “choice” books. These students selected Blood Moon and, while they are college students, it is clear that they are a little uncomfortable by the topic of the novel.  “I wasn’t sure what to expect,” Lola says, “I have never seen a book that talked about a girl on her period that wasn’t in a science class.”  The other students nod.  “I’m not gonna lie; I felt a little embarrassed reading it. Like it was supposed to be private.”

“The phrase, ‘It’s only blood’ stood out to me,” Mark states. “I think that it resonated with me because I didn’t…” He pauses for a while clearly searching for words. “I didn’t know what to think or how to respond or how to get my head around what I would do in that situation.”  Three of the other students nod.  Carly agrees and then says, “I got mad.  I got mad that I was uncomfortable reading about this. I got mad that I had to be reminded that it is only blood. It is a normal, natural thing. Then I got pissed off about how it was used against her.”  The students nod and continue their discussion on the novel. They focus on the role of shame and how it is used in the novel to target the characters. They talk about how the anonymity of what can happen online, whether it is posting a meme, trolling someone, or sharing something allows for the worst of people to come out.

“It’s easy to be mean and hateful when you know you won’t get caught.” Lola states. 

“Social media can bring out the very worst in people.” Cara adds. The students nod.

“It’s because you can hide and throw your verbal bombs and attacks. Things that you wouldn’t say in person.” Mark continues.  “It lets you put up a wall and lob things over while you are safe in your space.”

“You don’t have consequences, not real ones.  The only people that feel it are the ones who are attacked.” Carly says quietly.  Students not. “Lucy suffered because of the posts and memes. She is the one who cried while others got to laugh and be mean and smug and hateful.”

Blood Moon by Lucy Cuthew is a new novel in verse that tells the story of a high school girl, her first sexual experience, her period, her best friend, and a very vicious meme.  Frankie, the main character, is a high school girl who loves physics and science; she has a best friend that she trusts and a boy that she is falling for.  Then, she has her first sexual experience with the boy and her period starts.  They both agree that it is only blood.

But then, a vicious meme goes viral. This meme turns what was an intimate moment between Frankie and her boyfriend into a public spectacle.  It makes Frankie’s first sexual experience and her period something mortifying and shameful.   The meme weaponizes shame and uses the expectation that Frankie should be ashamed of having sex and having a period to attack her, to publicly shame her. 

Frankie’s world implodes. Who told? The boyfriend? The best friend? Who created the meme?  The online attacks and online shaming takes on a life of its on. Frankie begins to wonder who she can trust, if her life will ever be normal again.  Frankie decides that this will not be her life; she will fight to take her life back.  This novel in verse chronicles her taking her the steps to get her life back.  It also shows the dangers of online attacks and public shaming.  Shame is used to try to control Frankie, to manipulate her, to make her feel inferior.  The viral meme makes Frankie’s experience public; part of the threat of public shaming is the idea that it change how people see the person. This shame initially separates her from the people who provide her with support and strength.

The three activities for this novel focus on analyzing specific poems and then creating something in response. Symbolic Difference examines the role of meaningful objects and their symbolic weight in a character’s life.  It then asks the students to consider something that has a symbolic meaning for them. The Weaponization of Shame examines the way that shame makes Frankie feel and asks the students to write about a time when they felt shame.   Moments in Time focuses on the poem Forever as a counterpoint to the viral meme that tries to destroy Frankie’s life.

Click here for Teaching Resources. 
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Reading Lab by Elisha Boggs

12/18/2024

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We run a risk when we tell our students we are about to read a book or a text and proceed to pass out a pile of books or papers from an old box before asking them to tell us the number inside the front cover of the book or packet we've just handed them so we can recollect them a later and place back in the storage closet for yet another year. 

This takes our students into an uncomfortable, dreaded zone they do not want to share with us. 

We imagine we are handing out a gift that they will enthusiastically receive. We see them opening the pages into realms and worlds that will forever stamp their lives as they turn the last page, inspired to be stronger, braver, and more resilient. 

We think the pre-reading activities on the author's life and times will draw them in with curiosity when, in fact, they will groan. They will roll their eyes. They will not thank you. They will not see the black-and-white matter in front of them as a treasure. They will see it as work – as torture even. 

Your students have been in digital media classes creating stop motion films; they've been in science conducting experiments, test-crashing little egg cars; they've just left theater where they were rehearsing their lines for the upcoming play; and some are on a high from completing a set of math problems with real concrete answers. 

Now, they sit with you and a pile of words with instructions to find connections, abstract ideas, and examples of figurative language they are meant to "discuss" aloud with their classmates. 

Silence reigns – or you find yourself talking up a storm and trying to convince them that the metaphor at the top of page 27 echoes the thematic elements the author clearly aimed for us to see. 

Except for the few bookworms drawn to stories like ourselves – the thing that brought us to our profession – we are fighting an uphill battle. 

I propose changing our approach to sharing texts with students. Begin by turning your classroom into a lab of sorts. It may be a coffee shop, a political campaign office, a living room, a kitchen, a desert, an abandoned castle, or a non-profit think tank. Take them where they need to go. I'm not talking about significant changes with lamps and coffee machines. I'm talking you changes. Where are you when you present the text to your students? 

Wherever you are, take them with you. Today, I am bringing you to my lab: A non-profit organization dedicated to helping put sports equipment in the hands of young girls who otherwise could not afford it. I just made that up. It doesn't exist, but I want it to, and I will build it in my classroom. 

What does this have to do with literature? Seventh-grade teachers across the country are preparing to read or have read A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park. 

A Long Walk to Water tells the story of Salva Dut. Salva, is a young boy from Sudan who is violently forced to flee his village during the civil war, and Nya is a fictional Sudanese girl who walks long distances daily to fetch water for her family who struggles with the issues surrounding lack of clean running water. The narrative follows both characters' struggles, highlighting the devastating effects of war and the lack of clean water, while ultimately converging as Salva, now an adult, returns to Sudan to build wells and improve the lives of people like Nya, showcasing the power of resilience and hope in the face of adversity.

This book is powerful. It sells itself. It is full of metaphors, allusions, similes, etc. You don’t have to look far to find figurative language: 

     "As the plane lumbered down the long runway as if it had to try as hard as it could to get into the air." 

     "Cars crawled along the road like ants.”    

     “The war had scattered them like the seeds of a dandelion in the wind."

You can teach those. Your students will find them. But let’s head back to my lab. 

Salva Dut started "Water for South Sudan." You can read more about it here: https://www.waterforsouthsudan.org. There was a need in his community, and despite the incredible challenges he faced, he found a way to help his people. Our students may struggle to identify with what it is like to lack access to clean water. How will they connect?  

Start the unit by looking at the needs in your community. What do people lack? What do people need access to? Is it health care, housing, clothes, shoes, backpacks, pencils? What organizations already exist in the community to help those in need? 

Bring in someone who runs, works, or volunteers for a local non-profit organization to speak to your students. If possible, go sort food at the local food pantry. If possible, make essential bags for the homeless shelter. This is the work of preparing to read the novel. If that is not possible or in addition think about the following: 

As a group, in groups, or individually, have students discover a need in their community and think of a way to meet it. Build a simple rubric based on what they will develop. What do non-profits do to raise money, collect donations, and do whatever they do to make a difference? Think about how this will cover writing, speaking, research, and collaboration — the list is endless. Have them present their ideas to the class and, if possible, act on them! 

The scales can be small. Adjust as needed. I had a student who was very interested in Eddie Izzard’s “Mandela Marathons.” In February of 2016, Eddie embarked on an attempt to run 27 marathons in 27 days through South Africa as a salute to Nelson Mandela, who spent 27 years of his life in prison in his fight against Apartheid. Throughout these marathons, Eddie visited communities, organizations, and families, all of whom have been helped by the work of Sport Relief.  

Instead of running 27 marathons in 27 days. One afternoon, my student ran 27 laps up and down his long driveway, waving the South African flag. In addition, he collected shoes and donated them to a local agency that provides shoes for the homeless. 
​

I encourage all of us to find a way to approach our teaching that turns our classrooms into interactive workshops and labs. Get out the books. Read the books, but make sure that when you hand them the book, they are ready to receive it.

Books that work well for a reading lab:

Walk The World’s Rim by Betty Baker: A 14-year-old Indian joins Cabeza de Vaca's 16th-century expedition through the Southwest. A vivid portrait of Mexican life and the harsh conditions of a primitive Indian tribe.

Call It Courage by Armstrong Sperry: The main character, Maftu was afraid of the sea.His mother had drowned when he was a baby, so though he was the son of the Great Polynesian Chief of Hikueru, and he was named Stout Heart, he was afraid of the ocean. When everyone branded him a coward, he could no longer bear their taunts and jibes. He decided to conquer that fear or be conquered, so he went off in his canoe. This is the story of how his courage grew and how he finally returned home. 

Rickshaw Girl by Mitali Perkins: Naima, a Bangladeshi teenager, sees how dire conditions are getting for her family with the possibility of her parents being unable to send her younger sister to school. She resolves to disguise herself as a boy and drive the rickshaw at night so her father can rest.

The Land I Lost by Huynh Quang Nhuong: Nhoung tells fifteen stories of his childhood in the highlands of Vietnam, next to the jungle teeming with wildlife. He writes about his encounters with tigers, wild hogs, and deadly snakes that were as much a part of his life as tending the rice fields while on the back of his pet water buffalo, Tank.





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Teaching Texts in Constellations and Complicated Relationships by Dr. Jason D. DeHart

11/11/2024

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Today’s Monday Motivator post was written by Jason D. DeHart. Jason taught middle grades English for eight years, worked at the university level from 2015 to 2022, and is currently a high school English teacher. He is a passionate advocate for including a wide range of representations in classroom libraries, including authors and characters, but also including types of texts. In this post, DeHart looks at the possibilities for linking short visual research assignments to nonfiction young adult texts, as well as specific topics within some fiction texts for extension.
As someone who is passionate about using comics in the classroom, I know the standard pair-up. It goes something like: To Kill a Mockingbird is a difficult book for some students. Why not have them read the graphic novel instead? (A similar conversation usually involves the film, as well, and results in reading the book, then watching the film – or saving the film as an end-of-unit prize.)

This post is not to diminish the work of using a graphic novel adaptation of a classic to build connections – I would applaud anyone with comics in their classroom library. Instead, I am hoping to problematize and complicate the relationship of texts to help teachers (including myself) think about the many ways that books and media can be implemented in instruction.

Yes, And, Plus
Should I use the graphic novel, traditional novel, and film? 

The answer is yes to all of these, at least for me. I also want to take it another step with my students. I want them engaging with interviews featuring the author, book reviews, essays about parts of the texts, short stories, poems, and contemporary songs that resonate with the themes, memes that illustrate the vocabulary and concepts, action figures that represent the characters…the list could go on.

Now, one limitation I admit is that there is not nearly enough time to do all of this work. I was inspired today when I did learning walkthroughs at my school, taking part in observations of my colleagues whose classrooms I rarely have occasion to enter. I watched as students engaged with the multimodal text about a sewing machine and then turned to their design journals to take notes; next, I watched students work in teams to shape lumps of clay into muscles, which were then pressed onto skeletal models. These students were using checklists, notes, Google Images, and other forms of information to accurately add heft to their otherwise emaciated learning tools.

This is, of course, a side pitch for the learning walkthrough, a practice my principal has put in place since I have been teaching in this setting. However, it is also a way to think about the creative tools that my colleagues use – and evidence that students are, indeed, doing a lot of textual activity in their personal and classroom lives.

Here is a rundown of some ideas I have tried and want to try using a variety of texts.
  • Action Figure Design
    • Whether it is the classic novel Things Fall Apart or a more recent read (thinking of Tristan Strong), asking students to design a figure – or even create one out of found materials will require rereading, engaging, discussion, description, design, and several other steps, depending on the extent that the teacher wants to explore (again, a factor dependent on time).
    • I have tried the initial stages of this activity with class readings and my recent trip to a science teacher’s classroom makes me want to press further in.
  • Adaptation (Not To Replace)
    • ​Instead of using film and comics to supplant the original text, why not ask students to engage with a range of texts as they go? When reading a few pages in Long Way Down, for example, why not pull in an interview with Jason Reynolds? Perhaps add in a dash of the graphic novel? Then, read a bit more of the graphic novel to introduce the next section of the verse novel? 
    • Rather than seeing one text as a static replacement or ice cream sundae party for finishing the book, why not play with the ways stories are told across forms? This kind of connected and complicated work invites comparison, evaluation, and even responsive creation.
  • Building on the Image
    • Returning to my love of comics, in a recent tutoring session with middle school students, I invited the class to collect three images that represent their experiences. Never one not to model the task when possible, I selected three images that represented important places and ideas in my life.
    • As this is a writing-focused class, I asked students next to select three images that represented the characters they had created for their narratives. We next compared these for overlaps – in what ways did my students lives inspire their characters? How did they make creative choices that intentionally opposed their daily routines and familiarity?
    • This initial step into images now has me thinking about introductions to books and characters using more image-based resources, media collages, and video editing processes. 
  • What Is Your Vision?
    • We have talked about using the already-existing adaptations of works, but what about fashioning adaptations before ever encountering a text? I write this idea on the eve of introducing Romeo & Juliet to a group of ninth graders. To my knowledge, this will be their first direct experience with this text.
    • At the same time, our school has positioned informational text as an area of continued work for our students. We are in the midst of reading about branding.
    • Tomorrow, my students will engage with the prompt of designing a logo, tagline, and product idea aimed at two teenagers in love. The intended audience for this product will be the parents and legal guardians who are trying to put an end to this relationship.
    • Will this include a fair amount of conversation? I think so. Will there be an occasional eye roll as I attempt to use slang as a means of appealing in an example? I surely hope so.
    • In any case, I want my students to see a time-stained tale not as another swamp they have to crawl through on their way to the final steps of public education. I want them to engage with the ideas and vibrant heart of a work that makes it something that comes back over time.
    • And, of course, we will also read parts of the graphic novel by Gareth Hinds and even watch the zombie film remix, Warm Bodies.

I am continuing to work across these ideas and approach each day in my classroom as a new challenge and opportunity to make connections. As my colleagues have demonstrated, there are a wide range of texts to engage with a host of tools to consider and use.

The fences I used to place around end-of-the-year novel units are starting to look more like carousels, wheels, and multifaceted landscapes. I have not yet arrived, but I am going to keep playing with pedagogy.
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Creative Subversion Using Verse Novels by Arianna Banack

10/4/2024

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As a professor of English Education in Florida, many of my preservice teachers (PSTs) voice concerns about how they can bring racially and ethnically diverse voices and young adult novels into their future classrooms. And while YAL deserves its own place in curricula because it is just as rigorous, complex, and valuable as the Western literary canon (and more engaging), I also acknowledge the reality that the PSTs in my courses live and will work in a state that is systematically trying to further marginalize Black Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC) and LGBTQ+ students in schools through censorship (PEN America, 2024, 2023).

In my methods and YAL courses, we examine different ways to push back on district, school, and individual levels through creative insubordination techniques (
Gutiérrez, 2016; Rigell et al, 2022; Smith & Banack, 2023; Nam, 2023). We also talk about quick and practical strategies to bring diverse voices into classrooms with less fear. One of these ways is through utilizing selections of verse novels. At the 2023 ALAN Workshop, authors Mariama J. Lockington and Candice Iloh spoke about how they write verse novels to empower educators to select poems from the entirety of the novel, to more easily introduce diverse voices into the classroom, and to creatively subvert tensions around censorship. My students and I talk about the different ways to utilize verse novels including: reading a poem a day from a verse novel aloud for a warm up (or just because it’s okay to show students we love reading, too!), used as getting to know you activities, selecting pieces from verse novels to teach literary skills (inference, tone, etc.), and selecting poems from verse novels that relate to the theme of your current unit and asking students to draw connections. 


​Specifically in one activity, detailed below, PSTs found had multiple uses and one student was encouraged to use excerpts from the verse novels to facilitate a mini lesson in their field placement class with 8th graders. Students read three excerpts from the verse novels
Chlorine Sky by Mahogany L. Browne, Me(Moth)  by Amber McBride, and Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds all centered around “rules”.
Picture
After reading, students individually brainstormed rules they have to abide by in their lives. I provided them with suggestions of utilizing specific places (e.g. rules at school, sports practice, home, parks, etc.), general rules of society, or rules given by specific people (e.g. guardian, coach, teacher, religious leader, etc.). The class shared some of their rules and then I asked them to put their rules into the format of one of the poems we read from the verse novels. Then students got into groups of 4 and read their poems to one another. I asked them to talk with their group to determine any patterns or similarities they found between their poems and to reflect on what they learned about their classmates while hearing their poems. After that, we once again shared out from their small groups to the whole class. I did this at the beginning of the semester as a “getting to know you” activity for myself and my students and also to provide them with an activity they could take with them into their future classrooms. We discussed how they could also use it as a way to talk about classroom norms and rules at the beginning of the school year (and how to make equitable “rules” in an ELA classroom). 

After discussing these excerpts’ utility for the beginning of the school year, students noted how these excerpts could be used during the year as a way to begin conversations with text and around “rules in society.” Students offered ideas about how to use the verse novel poems to discuss gendered “rules” of the 1950’s when reading A Raisin in the Sun or socioeconomic status “rules” when reading The Great Gatsby. They discussed how you could have students write “rules” that specific characters in novels abide by as a way to study characterization. The versatility of these excerpts from the verse novels is what makes this activity so useful. One student in particular was in an 8th grade classroom that just started a unit on utopia and dystopia and the students were about to read “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegot. He brought up the idea of using the excerpts with his mentor teacher and was encouraged to facilitate a lesson on rules the students felt society expected of them. He used this as a warm up before reading “Harrison Bergeron” and then returned to it after reading to have students make a list of rules the society in “Harrison Bergeron” expected. They then debated whether the rules in “Harrison Bergeron” made that society a utopia or dystopia– drawing it back to their unit theme. Verse novels offer opportunities for educators constrained by restrictive policies to bring excerpts of texts by BIPOC authors into their classrooms with more confidence. They can also be useful for educators who aren’t restricted by policy, but perhaps whose budgets do not allow them to purchase new class sets of books to still bring contemporary, diverse voices into their curricula. 

Up next on my verse novel to-be-read list are: 
Onyx and Beyond by Amber McBride
Abuela, Don’t Forget Me by Rex Ogle
An Impossible Thing to Say by Arya Shahi
​

Arianna Banack is an assistant professor of English education at the University of South Florida. She was formerly a secondary ELA teacher in Connecticut. Her work focuses on how preservice and inservice teachers can use diverse young adult literature to teach towards critical literacy. She can be reached at [email protected] 

References:

Gutiérrez, R. (2016). Strategies for creative insubordination in mathematics teaching. Teaching 
for Excellence and Equity in Mathematics, 7(1), 52-60.
Nam, R. (September, 2023). Teacher use of diverse literature in secondary English Language Arts classrooms: District barriers and resistance strategies. Study and Scrutiny, 6(1), 1-20.
PEN America. (2024, April 16). Banned in the USA: Narrating the crisis. https://pen.org/report/narrating-the-crisis/#heading-0
PEN America. (2023, May 17). PEN America files lawsuit against Florida school district over unconstitutional book bans. https://pen.org/press-release/pen-america-files-lawsuit-against-florida-school-district-over-unconstitutional-book-bans/


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The How of Teaching Perspective by Brandy Sappington

9/23/2024

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Brandy Sappington is from Watauga County, NC and a graduate of Appalachian State University with a BS in Secondary Education/English and a Master's in Curriculum and Instruction. She taught preschool and served as a preschool director for 16 years before making the leap to the high school English classroom. She has taught 9-12 ELA, AP Lit, AP Seminar, and AP Lang in Wilkes County, NC for 14 years. Brandy is married and the two have three sons, three daughters-in-love, and a delicious granddaughter! In her free time, Brandy enjoys working to create and review test items for the 6-8th grade ELA EOGs and the English II EOC! In her real free time, she enjoys the beach, reading, eating pizza, cheering on the Dallas Cowboys, the UNC Tarheels basketball team, and most importantly, enjoying her family!
What is your “why”? If one more person asks me this, I. WILL. SCREAM! It is not that this question is invalid. The question itself is really a great starting point. But more importantly, the question affords the (victim) interviewee to reflect on why he/she has essentially decided to dedicate every waking moment to a profession that is often less appreciated than it should be.

The question that should be asked to those of us who are really committed to changing lives and to helping students find, or to cultivate their purpose, is How the heck? How in the world will I do everything that I can in order to live up to and to do right by my why? How will I choose literature, experiences, and opportunities that will aid students in their quests to be who they want to be and to evaluate who they do not want to be? 

Our mission should be to build within our students empathy and understanding. We do this by simply providing moments to explore perspectives. Their own perspectives. Her perspective. His perspective. Their perspectives. Implementing literature into my classroom and facilitating those opportunities to do so is what makes me sing. It is what makes me happy. It is what makes me feel that I am fulfilling my purpose…to simply help others find theirs!

There are several pieces of literature that stick out for me as not only relatable for high school learners, but impactful for their future approach to challenges. Our kiddos must better understand the struggle that peers undergo by sometimes stepping into the shoes of those that are often seen as others.

Activity #1 
“Make it Better” ~This one is one of my favorites and I use it both as an icebreaker and as a segue into a unit on exploring cultural perspectives.

  1. Place learners into small groups of 4.
  2. Provide each small group with a cup of Play-doh. Give each group only one color!
  3. Secretly hand each student a piece of paper with the name of a concrete object or an abstract object. Think music, corn on the cob, taco, democracy
  4. Students will then divide the Play-doh and construct the item written on the paper. After 60 seconds, the students must then rotate and continue working on the sculpture that their peers have started. They will simply work to “Make it Better” although they do not know what the item is supposed to be!
  5. Once each student has completed a try at a peer’s masterpiece, allow them an opportunity to talk about what the item was supposed to be and what others thought they were creating!
This is a great activity for teaching students to avoid assumptions and to assume the best intent! Although you will have some sculptures that may not look anything like what the initial item was destined to be, this discussion time gives learners a chance to explain their objective and a greater chance for peers to say “Oh, now I see what you were thinking!”.  What learners are sure to discover is that there is no possible way to learn everything they need to learn about anything (a person, for sure) in 60 seconds.

Activity #2 “Letters to a Friend” ~This activity also highlights the concept of exploring perspectives and is one that my learners prepare for throughout a reading of Livia Bitton-Jackson’s I Have Lived a Thousand Years: Growing Up in the Holocaust. This memoir is heartbreaking, yet uplifting and serves as a female’s perspective to the experience of coming of age during the Holocaust. While many of my colleagues read Elie Weisel’s Night, I use the memoir as a supplement to 13 year-old Elli Friedmann’s experience in I Have Lived a Thousand Years. I have found that the writing style of Friedmann speaks more precisely and the memoir allows me to more easily differentiate for my learners.

  • G- Goal: Your goal is to create a letter that is historically accurate as it pertains to the Holocaust and WWII.
  • R- Role: In the letter, you will be playing the role of a Holocaust survivor or a soldier who  was involved in the liberation of a concentration camp  in the Holocaust. 
  • A - Audience: Your audience is a family member in the United States who has not heard from you in a while. 
  • S - Situation: You have survived the Holocaust and are in need of financial assistance in order to leave the area. 
  • P - Product Performance and Purpose: You will create a letter in order to convince your family members to send money to relocate. 
  • S - Standards and Criteria for Success: Your letter will be assessed for formal grammar, letter structure, historically-accurate details, and an understanding of the Holocaust survivor’s ordeal.  

Students utilize the notes, guided reading questions, and discussions to imagine what the life of a Holocaust survivor or a soldier who liberated a camp might be like after WWII’s end. When planning this opportunity to create a narrative in the form of a letter, I use the GRASP strategy and I share this with my learners. The creativity I have been able to witness is off the charts!

Reading about Elli’s plight, her experience during captivity in several concentration camps, and learning about her resiliency as she becomes the inspiration for her mother to also survive the horrors really hits home with students and allows them to put their own trauma into perspective. You can also read more about Bitton-Jackson here~
https://www.kz-gedenkstaette-dachau.de/en/videos/livia-bitton-jackson/

Activity #3 “Let’s Talk” ~I work hard to make my classroom a safe place. I want every learner to feel safe, but to also afford others that same safety. As we work more closely, my students learn to appreciate the mistakes, for in those mistakes, they do the most learning. This is part of my How the Heck?! I find that it is truly important to take into consideration what others might be experiencing. This is a little opportunity with a big impact!

  1. The teacher simply conditions learners to respond to the directive “Let’s Talk” by grabbing a half sheet of paper. They can share a piece of notebook paper with a classmate, if they like.
  2. Students are then either given a prompt that may be connected to what they are reading or writing about, or the teacher says “What do we need to know today?”. 
  3. Students then write down a sentence or maybe just a word that alerts the rest of the class to a possible issue or concern that they have. Sometimes this is an opportunity for students to release frustrations. 
  4. The teacher collects each piece of folded paper. Students are asked to write in pencil and to submit anonymously. Students should always be given the option to pass on participating!
  5. The teacher reads each one aloud and then crumples it up and throws it away
As a class, we learn that someone may be in conflict with a friend, a family member, or may have experienced a break up. In some cases, the issues at hand and in the room, affecting the learning environment may be even more pressing. This allows everyone to take into consideration what may be weighing heavily on a peer’s mind. I have found that this softens the high school classroom on days when there are matters that are much more pressing than the due date of an upcoming assignment.

The above activity is also one that I use most often during a reading of Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak. Anderson’s Melinda Sordino is worthy of being introduced to every high school student. While we reserve the right to explore the novel during 9th grade year, I revisit Melinda with my AP Literature seniors, believe it or not! If they have not had an opportunity to read about Melinda’s journey after she is sexually assaulted the summer before her freshman year, many will choose the book for our “Banned and Challenged Book Week”. Following Melinda as she struggles to find the strength and confidence to speak up and against her attacker, students also learn about the cliques and stereotypes that permeate the high school experience. Taking into consideration the possible obstacles that those sitting next to them might be traversing provides a moment to acknowledge that everyone has a load to bear and an outlook that may affect their success. 

We owe it to our students and to ourselves to provide experiences that allow growth and understanding. Though an ELA classroom rarely finds itself home to hands-on activities like those of a Science classroom, facilitating activities that permit students to be, to experience, to flourish, to grow, to explore, and to view, has the potential to create empathetic, responsible, aware human beings. Like many of you, my fellow educators, I have always known my why, but from here and forever more, let's all focus on reinforcing our how? Dedicating energy to the actionability of the how? will transform our classrooms into havens for the empathy and understanding we all need! 
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Reading with Images & Sound: Creating 360 Reading Experiences with Graphic Novels and Their Audiobook Counterparts by Stephanie Reid & Dani Kachorsky

9/16/2024

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Today’s Monday Motivator post is written by Stephanie Reid and Dani Kachorsky. Stephanie taught eighth and seventh-grade Reading and Language Arts in Wisconsin for 12 years. She also taught students in grades 6-12 in England for three years. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Literacy Education at the University of Cincinnati. 

Dani has 15 years of teaching and research experience in the field of literacy education. She has taught at the middle school, high school, and university levels. Currently, Dani teaches English, Research, and “the comic book class” at a high school in Phoenix, Arizona. She also hosts the Reading in the Gutter, a podcast that bridges the gap between comics and education. 

We love to read visual and multimodal texts, and our research together has explored how students interpret picturebooks, graphic novels, and multimodal novels. 
Over the years, we have thought a lot about multimodal texts, which are made up of images and written language. Together, we have examined TIME magazine covers focused on education, non-fiction graphic novels in Science and history classrooms, multimodal novels in a middle school Language Arts classroom, and the adaptation of written language novels into graphic novels. 

Typically, we embrace multimodality and multimodal texts. However, the recent trend of adapting graphic novels into audiobooks caught us by surprise. We admit that when we heard about this trend, it seemed odd to us. We could not imagine how a predominantly visual format was turned into solely audio text. We wanted to learn more about these audio versions of text and understand how they made graphic novels accessible to readers through sound alone–through spoken language, music, and sound effects. 

In this post, we want to share some classroom ideas that might support students in analyzing a graphic novel extract and a graphic novel audio excerpt. We also want to introduce the idea of the 360° reading experience, where students experience the printed language and images together with the audio soundscape. The graphic novel we will focus on as an exemplar text is New Kid by Jerry Craft. New Kid is an award-winning graphic novel with an audiobook adaptation that was published simultaneously in 2019.

Introducing the Print & Audio Versions of New Kid by Jerry Craft

New Kid follows the experiences of Jordan Banks, a middle schooler whose parents send him to a private school against his wishes. Jordan would rather attend art school to pursue his passion for drawing or, at least, would like to stay at his neighborhood school in Washington Heights with his friends. At the prestigious Riverdale Academy, Jordan is one of the few students of Color and one of the few students on financial aid. As Jordan navigates his new environment, he faces questions about his identity, confronts the racism of peers and teachers, and wrestles with being the new kid.

The graphic novel variant of New Kid follows a familiar dramatic plot structure, occasionally interrupted by two-page spreads from Jordan’s own notebook featuring his illustrated commentary about his life. The first of these, for example, displays monstrous, anthropomorphic school supplies chasing students around the city to force them to return to school. 

The audiobook variant of New Kid features a cast of nine actors voicing various characters. The audiobook employs a range of sound effects and musical components, which add depth and dimension to the narrative. For instance, during the opening sequence of the audiobook, a combination of footstep sound effects and audio fading suggests to the reader-listener that Jordan’s mother leaves a room. At times, the audiobook also incorporates additional content to the graphic novel in an effort to account for the visual nature of the comics format. For example, during the aforementioned school supply scene, Jordan’s father, Chuck, asks Jordan, “Is that a history textbook eating a student?” (Craft, 2019, 00:01:54). This paints an image in the reader-listener’s mind, adding context that would otherwise go missing.

Preparing to Teach: Choose a Dynamic Text Excerpt


To prepare for this analytical work, we recommend that teachers select a short text extract from the story that students will both read and listen to. We recommend choosing a dynamic section of text. Teachers could pick a moment of significance in the plot, an excerpt with visuals that catch their attention, or a section of the audio where diegetic or non-diegetic sounds seem particularly meaningful.  Diegetic sounds are sounds that the characters in the story’s fictional world might hear. Non-diegetic sounds are sounds that readers hear but the characters do not (e.g., background music or musical interludes).  

From New Kid, we recommend selecting Chapter 1: The War of Art. This chapter introduces the protagonist, Jordan Banks, as well as his parents and his school guide, Liam, another student in Jordan’s grade. 

This text segment is a particularly dynamic 6-minute segment / page sequence. The sequence features two scenes from Jordan’s sketchbook–the back-to-school scene previously described and a scene with instructions for how to do a handshake correctly–which are referred to as “sketchbook break[s]” (Craft, 2019, 00:03:06) in the audiobook. 

Other auditory features include the non-diegetic naming of the chapter title; diegetic sounds such as heels tapping on hardwood, pages ruffling in a notebook, and the clicking of a manual camera; the purposeful fading in and out of sound effects to simulate physical space within the story world; and music–which can be argued as both diegetic and non-diegetic.  

In the physical book, the black-and-white nature of these scenes within the full-color comic calls attention to these double-page spreads as being both internal and external to the narrative arc. The graphic novel utilizes a range of comic book elements, including panels with and without borders, speech and thought bubbles, caption boxes, onomatopoeia/sound effect words, and a variety of gutters (i.e., the white space between panels). There are several shifts in visual perspective, sometimes positioning the reader-viewer as an outside observer and sometimes as a character within the text. At times, visual and textual information are contained within panel borders, but there are also instances where image, onomatopoeia, and speech bubbles break such barriers. While most panels adhere to grid-like structure, some are drawn at odd angles.

Analysis Layer One: Analyzing the Graphic Novel

For this first phase, we recommend that students complete a first draft reading of the text to orient students to the narrative (thank you, Kelly Gallagher, for this reading draft notion!). Then, we recommend inviting students to complete a second draft reading response to the text. You could prompt students to think about the graphic novel extract using the questions listed below. Please note that question three’s sequence of prompts is borrowed from Abigail Housen and Philip Yenawine’s Visual Thinking Strategies:


  1. What aspects of the story resonate? 
  2. What words or images are significant to you and why? 
  3. What do you notice? Why do you say that? What else do you see? 
  4. How do you describe the experience of reading the graphic novel - what do you notice about yourself as a reader-viewer?

Analysis Layer Two: Analyzing the Audiobook

The next phase is to provide space for students to think about the audiobook version of the story. Again, after one listen-through to orient themselves to the audiobook extract, invite students to listen a second time. The following questions might help students develop their reader responses. Again, we thank Abigail Housen and Philip Yenawine for the sequence of prompts listed here in question three

  1. What aspects of the story resonate? 
  2. What words, audio, or sound effects are significant to you and why? 
  3. What do you notice? Why do you say that? What else do you hear? 
  4. How do you describe the experience of listening to the graphic novel - what do you notice about yourself as a reader-listener?

Bringing Both Versions Together: The 360° Reading Experience

During the first two layers of analysis, students focused on single-format reading experiences. For this final 360° reading experience phase, the graphic novel and audiobook experiences are brought together so that students have the opportunity to experience them simultaneously. Invite students to both read and listen during the first draft reading. Follow with a second immersive 360° reading experience, during which we recommend guiding students’ responses using the following questions:

  1. How do you describe the experience of listening to the graphic novel as you read?
  2. What do you notice about yourself as a reader-viewer-listener?
  3. Did the story resonate in different ways for you? If so, how?
  4. What new / different / expanded noticings or ideas did you think about?
  5. Were there instances where one format disrupted or interfered with your connection to the story or immersion in the storyworld?

Fine-Tuning Students’ Text Analysis

Finally, if you have curricular time and space, you may want to engage students in a more detailed analysis of these text extracts. For Dani, who teaches AP students, literary analysis is something that students need to practice and feel confident about. Dani has also engaged students in studying and thinking about graphic novels and their audiobook counterparts in both a Comic Book elective class and a Research Club for students. We developed an analysis template that Dani used to support her students in constructing the kinds of detailed notes that build towards detailed literary analyses–especially as it is hard to annotate audiobooks. Feel free to use and adapt!

Additional Recommended Texts

First, we definitely recommend When Stars are Scattered by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed. The graphic novel shares the lives Omar and his younger brother, Hussein, lead in a refugee camp in Kenya. The brothers’ relationship is centered as the trajectories of their lives unfold. A compelling dynamic text excerpt would be the opening pages of the graphic novel before Chapter 1 starts.  

Second, we recommend White Bird: A Wonder Story by R. J. Palacio, a historical fiction graphic novel prequel to Wonder. This text focuses on the experiences of Sara Blum, grandmother to Julian Albans, the class bully in Wonder. Her story of hiding alongside a former classmate she once shunned during World War II in Nazi-occupied France contains echoes of Julian’s story. The dynamic closing sequence of the text offers opportunities to discuss the visual metaphor of the white bird and what is lost in terms of context. Some images in the graphic novel are not accounted for in the audiobook.

Third, we recommend Nimona by ND Stevenson. This fantasy narrative tells the story of teenage shapeshifter, Nimona, and her supervillain mentor, Lord Ballister Blackheart, as they try to prove that the heroes among them are not as heroic as they seem. The fight scenes in this text offer particularly dynamic moments for visual and auditory analysis. The addition of a recent film adaptation on Netflix provides yet another narrative medium for analysis.
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Exploring the Effects of Visuals with "The Effects of Pickled Herring" by Jason DeHart

8/19/2024

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Today’s Monday Motivator post was written by Jason D. DeHart. Jason taught middle grades English for eight years, worked at the university level from 2015 to 2022, and is currently a high school English teacher. He is a passionate advocate for including a wide range of representations in classroom libraries, including authors and characters, but also including types of texts. In this post, DeHart looks at the possibilities for linking short visual research assignments to nonfiction young adult texts, as well as specific topics within some fiction texts for extension.
One of the go-to strategies that I think about as a first step in literacy for readers, regardless of age, is using visuals along with words to build connections. When I find a new graphic novel text, I think about helping readers see their stories as important – indeed, vital – to the world of ideas. It is my goal to help students realize that their experiences are worthy, and that there are a range of ways to share their ideas. 

Additional Note: I am co-authoring the introduction with my first block class of the Spring 2024 year to share some ideas for ways to effectively use texts like graphic novels. (I also recommend this work of co-authoring with classes as a Monday Morning strategy for the brave and those who are willing to write on the spot).
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For this post, I am centering the graphic novel The Effects of Pickled Herring by Alex Schumacher. The book focuses on twelve-year-old Micah Gadsky as he prepares for his B’nai Mitzvah with his sister, Alana. The book is a coming-of-age story rendered in colorful cartoon format, and features a glossary of vocabulary words for readers who might not be familiar with the Jewish culture presented in the text.

Annotations and Initial Thinking
I love what interacting with a text opens up for readers, but the comics page can be a bit busy for those who have not encountered it before. Readers might also hesitate to mark up the aesthetic picture-scape of a graphic novel page – and perhaps rightly so. 

I recommend a small number of annotations rather than a time-consuming mini-lesson on the many marks students can make on the page, and I recommend sticky notes or reader notebooks for this interaction. As a reader, I often use two to three marks, including underlining and question marks, to respond to the page. This implementation of a small number of possibilities for responses can be quick-on-the-go work. By annotating, students can take close notice of what is on the page and add their inferences and thinking as they go.

A page or panel (narrative box) that features only responses and images can be a ripe place for adding notes and questions, including inferences, as is the case with page 116 – the two main characters in the graphic novel are sharing a meal and burst into laughter as a callback to dialogue on a previous page.

Prediction Points
As with many examples of literature, there are possibilities for thinking about ways to set up thinking about what is ahead in the narrative. Like Jerry Craft’s New Kid, The Effects of Pickled Herring features full page introductions to mark chapters. By discussing the names of chapters, as well as the typography used to introduce them, readers can make educated guess about the unfolding story to come.

Working at a symbolic level, the seasonal nature of the chapters can also help readers tap into the mood that might be part of each chapter or section as seasons are changing. Students can trace the movement of the story and look for these seasonal markers (I am always nervous when I encounter winter as a season in the story). The symbolic can be explored through text and images in cases like this, including the ways colors and character design/illustration can indicate emotions.

Using sticky notes with the text is also a way of marking spots in the text that might indicate a motif or moment that seems significant and potentially impactful.

With Schumacher’s book, questions might include:
  1. Why did the author choose to use two floating word bubbles above a half-page image on page 19?
  2. What do you notice about the use of language and words at the top of page 21 and what effect does this create for the story?
  3. What might the character be feeling who is split into three panels on page 23?
  4. Why are the pages in black and white and why is the art so different on pages 45-49?
These are first-glance questions and there are many opportunities for exploring pages, artwork, and narrative as the book progresses. Students can also frame their own questions as they annotate.


Prose Responses and Character Creations
Attending to the creative, students can use examples like this graphic novel to think about how characters are designed visually – linking to concepts like aptronyms and physiognomy. Students can illustrate characters based on what they would expect and descriptions from other characters and the narrator in a text.

Readers of the graphic novel will discover one of my favorite text features in comics – the reveal that aspects of the story are based on the author’s lived experiences. This feature is a natural lead-in to exploring the kinds of storytelling that are possible in comics, from the realistic and grounded to the otherworldly.

As with all strategies and ideas, these approaches can (and should) be changed in any way, including trying them out with different types of texts. Annotations for video and musical/sonic texts could lead to interesting and creative possibilities, especially when using tools that allow for students to pause and comment. 
I conclude with some additional recommended graphic novel texts.

More Recommended Texts
Call Me Iggy by Jorge Aguirre and Rafael Rosado | Published by First Second
  • An exploration of identity focused on a young Colombian American teen who is grappling with love along with issues of citizenship. The book includes some mystical and fantasy elements. (You can hear an interview I did with the author here).

Lies My Teacher Told Me: A Graphic Adaptation by James W. Loewen and Nate | Published by The New Press
  • A visual adaptation of the 1990s text that has served as a learning point for many students interested in investigating the nuances and injustices of history.

Youth Group by Jordan Morris and Bowen McCurdy | Published by First Second
  • A comedic and satirical look at what happens when a church youth group turns out to be a secret army of demon hunters.

​Family Style: Memories of an American from Vietnam by Thien Pham | Published by First Second
  • A visual depiction in graphic novel memoir form of a young Vietnamese boy traveling from place to place and making memories through foods.​
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Soaking up the Summer Olympic Spirit by Michelle M. Falter

8/5/2024

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I don’t know about you, but as an English teacher and sports enthusiast, I've been completely captivated by the Summer Olympics this past week. There's something truly special about watching these incredible athletes push themselves to the limit, overcome challenges, and share their inspiring journeys. While I certainly feel a surge of patriotic pride, I also find myself cheering for athletes from all over the world and discovering fascinating sports I rarely get to see. Watching stars like Simone Biles, Katie Ledecky, Stephen Nedoroscik, Sha'Carri Richardson, Caleb Dressel, and Noah Lyles compete, I'm reminded of why I love the Olympics so much - it's a unique celebration of human potential, sportsmanship, and global unity that I wish could last all year round.

As I think about the start of this academic year, I can see how the Summer Olympics could provide an incredible opportunity to get students excited about reading and writing. I think pairing the thrilling narratives of the Olympic games with carefully chosen YA literature could really engage students in their literacy activities. The Olympics offer such a rich tapestry of stories - tales of perseverance, cultural exchange, and athletic excellence - that would naturally lend themselves to meaningful classroom discussions, activities, and writing prompts. I'm excited to harness this Olympic spirit in the English curriculum, and I believe it could effectively bridge the gap between sports and literacy for many students.  Here’s a few ideas of how English teachers can harness the spirit of the Summer Olympics to enrich their curriculum through YA literature.

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1. Exploring Themes of Perseverance and Achievement
The Olympics are filled with stories of perseverance, dedication, and triumph over adversity, themes that resonate deeply within YA literature. One ideas is to select YA novels that mirror these themes to facilitate rich discussions and activities. Books like Fast Girls by Elise Hooper, which follows three female athletes’ determination and resilience amidst the growing threats of war during the Nazi-sponsored 1936 Olympics in Berlin, provide rich fodder for exploring these themes.

Activity: Thematic Analysis Essay Students can write essays analyzing the theme of perseverance in both an Olympic athlete's story and a YA novel. This exercise encourages them to draw parallels and deepen their understanding of these universal themes.

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2. Cultural Diversity and Global Perspectives
The Olympics highlight cultural diversity and global unity, themes that can also be explored through YA literature. Books like The Knockout by Sajni Patel, which tells the story of a seventeen-year-old Indian American who attempts to balance her cultural heritage and her passion for Muay Thai boxing, can serve as a catalyst for exploring these themes.

Activity: Multicultural Book Club Organize a book club where students read and discuss YA sports novels from different cultures. Pair these readings with profiles or documentaries about Olympic athletes from those same cultures. This activity has the potential to promote empathy, cultural awareness, and a broader understanding of the world.

3. Reading Olympics: A Competitive and Collaborative Activity
To foster a love for reading and healthy competition, organize a Reading Olympics. This activity can engage students in a fun and motivating way while enhancing their reading skills.

Activity: Reading Olympics Divide students into teams, each representing a different country. Over a set period, students read a selection of YA novels related to the Olympics or themes of sports and perseverance. See the list below of possible books to choose from.

Medal Event Ideas:
  1. Speed Reading: Award medals to students who complete the most books within the timeframe.
  2. Comprehension Quizzes: Hold quizzes on the books read, with medals for the highest scores.
  3. Book Reviews: Students write reviews of the books, with medals for the most insightful and well-written reviews.
  4. Creative Projects: Students create a project related to one of the books, such as a poster, diorama, or digital presentation. Medals are awarded for creativity and execution.

Award Ceremony: Conclude the Reading Olympics with an award ceremony where gold, silver, and bronze medals are given out. This celebration recognizes students' efforts and achievements, while also fostering a sense of accomplishment and encouraging a lifelong love for reading.
As an English teacher, I'm always looking for ways to make my lessons more engaging and relevant. I believe that integrating the Summer Olympics into a curriculum through YA literature has the ability to spark students' interest in reading and writing. The rich stories and diverse themes not only improve their literacy skills but also broaden their worldview. Not only do adolescents love sports, these texts also have the possibility of helping students feel more connected to global events and cultures. Personally, I think it’s a win-win for the start of the year - effective, fun, relevant, timely, and meaningful all at once.
Here are some recommended YA and MG texts that feature some of the Summer Olympics Sports:
  • Fast Girls by Elise Hooper (2020):
Fast Girls explores the lives of three female athletes who competed in the 1936 Olympics. Elise Hooper blends history and fiction, focusing on their determination and resilience amidst societal obstacles and global upheaval. The novel highlights their legacy and the challenges they faced in breaking barriers. Recommended for ages 14 and up.

  • Gold by Chris Cleave (2012):
Gold examines the friendship and rivalry between two competitive cyclists as they pursue Olympic glory. Chris Cleave delves into their personal struggles and triumphs, offering insights into the intense world of elite sports. The story underscores the complexity of balancing ambition with personal relationships. Recommended for ages 16 and up.

  • Don't Tell Me You're Afraid by Giuseppe Catozzella (2016):
This novel tells the true story of Samia Yusuf Omar, a Somali girl with Olympic dreams. Giuseppe Catozzella narrates her journey from war-torn Mogadishu to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, highlighting her spirit and the challenges she faced. It is a poignant account of the obstacles athletes encounter beyond their sport. Recommended for ages 14 and up.

  • The Flying Horse by Sarah Maslin Nir; Illustrated by Laylie Frazier (2023):
The Flying Horse follows the journey of a young girl training for the Olympics and her encounter with a magical horse. Sarah Maslin Nir weaves a story of ambition and courage, complemented by Laylie Frazier's illustrations. The narrative captures the determination and dreams of an aspiring Olympic athlete. Recommended for ages 8-14.

  • Breath Like Water by Anna Jarzab (2020):
​Breath Like Water delves into the life of a competitive swimmer aiming for the Olympic trials. Anna Jarzab presents the protagonist's struggles with pressure, injury, and self-discovery. The novel explores the resilience required to pursue athletic dreams amidst personal challenges. Recommended for ages 14 and up.

  • Tumbling by Caela Carter (2016):
Tumbling follows the lives of five gymnasts competing for a spot on the Olympic team. Caela Carter examines the personal and professional challenges they face, offering a look into their dedication and sacrifices. The story provides a perspective on the emotional journey of elite athletes. Recommended for ages 12 and up.

  • The Flip Side by Shawn Johnson (2016):
The Flip Side, written by Olympic gymnast Shawn Johnson, explores the double life of a teenage gymnast training for the Olympics. The novel balances the protagonist's high school experiences with the demands of elite sports. Johnson offers insights into the world of gymnastics from an insider's viewpoint. Recommended for ages 12 and up.

  • Code Red by Joy McCullough (2022):
Code Red addresses the topic of menstruation with humor and sensitivity, touching on the protagonist's interest in the Olympics. Joy McCullough's protagonist navigates the stigma surrounding periods while also engaging in athletic pursuits. The book aims to break taboos and promote understanding. Recommended for ages 10 and up.

  • Coming Up for Air by Miranda Kenneally (2017):
Coming Up for Air focuses on a competitive swimmer on the verge of a significant decision. Miranda Kenneally portrays the protagonist's balance between Olympic aspirations and personal desires. The novel captures the pressures of growing up and pursuing athletic goals. Recommended for ages 14 and up.

  • Rush for the Gold: Mystery at the Olympics by John Feinstein (2012):
Rush for the Gold follows two teenage reporters covering the Olympic Games. John Feinstein combines elements of mystery and sports journalism, providing a glimpse into the world of competitive sports. The narrative highlights the excitement and challenges of the Olympic experience. Recommended for ages 10 and up.

  • Break the Fall by Jennifer Iacopelli (2020):
Break the Fall examines the world of elite gymnastics through the eyes of a young athlete. Jennifer Iacopelli's protagonist deals with injury, team dynamics, and personal setbacks on her path to the Olympics. The story highlights the strength required to overcome obstacles in pursuit of athletic success. Recommended for ages 14 and up.

  • Gravity by Sarah Deming (2019):
Gravity tells the story of a young female boxer aiming for the Olympics. Sarah Deming explores themes of identity, perseverance, and the reality of the sport. The narrative focuses on the protagonist's journey and the challenges she faces in achieving her goals. Recommended for ages 14 and up.

  • The Knockout by Sajni Patel (2021):
The Knockout follows a teenage girl balancing her cultural heritage and her passion for Muay Thai boxing. Sajni Patel's protagonist navigates family expectations and her aspirations, with the goal of competing in the Olympics. The novel addresses themes of identity, ambition, and determination. Recommended for ages 12 and up.
Michelle M. Falter is a former middle and high school English teacher and currently an Associate Professor of English Education and the Director of Teacher Education at St. Norbert College in Green Bay, WI. Her work focuses on the study of young adult literature and how teachers take up these texts and their topics in the ELA classroom, along with the role of emotion and empathy in ELA teaching and learning. She can be reached at [email protected]
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Strong as Fire, Fierce as Flame Vocabulary Development by Elizabeth Seeker

7/29/2024

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Strong as Fire, Fierce as Flame by Supriya Kelkar is the captivating tale of a young girl’s survival in the sexist, racist, and oppressive society of British occupied India in 1857. Meera, only twelve years old, must run away from everyone and everything she knows to escape a dangerous ritual called sati, which would lead to her death. She ends up a servant in the house of a British general, where she must decide whether she values personal safety over the chance to help free her people.

This middle-grade novel is packed with opportunities for education, making it a rich resource for student learning. Not only does the novel explore a historical period that I feel is often overlooked in history classes, but it does so in a way that offers unique opportunities for exploration of the topics and the language of the novel. What stood out to me the most when reading this book was the vocabulary.  Kelkar utilizes Hindi and Urdu words, as well as some more uncommon English words to tell her story. This variety of language captivates, provides cultural exposure, and piques the curiosity of the reader. 
Vocabulary studies are always an amazing way to get students to investigate what they are reading beyond the surface level, and investigating these more uncommon and non-English words is key to developing an understanding of the plot. Many readers, and I myself am guilty of this, might skip over unfamiliar words when reading. While garnering meaning from context is not the worst strategy, with a book like Strong as Fire, Fierce as Flame meaning is in danger of being lost altogether without knowledge of these words. The following vocabulary study activity is designed as a pre-reading activity so that when these students encounter unfamiliar words in their text, they have a starting place to build from.

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The goal of the activity is to get students to work collaboratively to develop a deep understanding of at least one word on the list above and teach it to their classmates. First, students choose a word that is interesting to them thus making small  groups of 3-4. In these groups, students are to develop a vocabulary skit. Performing skits is a fun way for students to engage in collaborative and kinesthetic learning in a format that isn’t common in classrooms. Make sure to explain what a skit is so that students are clear on what their final product will look like. Teachers could also show this example video of the word “ritual”. The teacher can assign each group a word (or words) or  in addition to the interesting word chosen by the students. Teachers may challenge students to incorporate more than one word into a skit. Using this worksheet, students will explore synonyms and actions related to the word, as well as decide who will talk and in what order. After students have been given sufficient time to create and develop their skits, they will perform them in front of the class. Encourage students not to say the exact definition in the skit, instead using synonyms and actions to describe the definition. At the end of their skit, students can say their word together or hold up a sign, like they did in the example video. 
The reflection portion of this activity is also key for student understanding. Since one of the goals of this activity is to get students to be able to help their classmates understand their word, the reflection piece can help gauge student understanding. There are a multitude of ways that students can reflect on the skits. Students in the audience could do a simple fist to five to show how well they understood the definition of the word based on the skit or write down their own definition of the word using context clues from the skit. If there is any confusion, performing students should be able to clarify definitions and contexts. 
Skits can be recorded and stored in a shared class dictionary that students have access to, or photos can be taken during skits to put up on a class word wall. Students who perform a skit on a word can be named as the “expert” on the word in case any students have questions about the word, its definition, or pronunciation. This will allow students to maintain access to the words and their meanings as they read the book, giving them resources to refer back to when they come across the word while reading. 
Now armed with a strong and deep understanding of the words in the wordbank, students will be able to confidently read, comprehend, and appreciate Strong as Fire, Fierce as Flame, without having to rely on the glossary in the back of the book. 


Today's post is written by Elizabeth Seeker. Elizabeth is a recent graduate of Vanderbilt University's Secondary English Education Program. This summer she started her masters degree in Reading Education. She hopes to teach middle school next year! 
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    Curators

    Melanie Hundley
    ​Melanie is a voracious reader and loves working with students, teachers, and authors.  As a former middle and high school teacher, she knows the value of getting good young adult books in kids' hands. She teaches young adult literature and writing methods classes.  She hopes that the Monday Motivator page will introduce teachers to great books and to possible ways to use those books in classrooms.
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    Emily Pendergrass
    Emily loves reading, students, and teachers! And her favorite thing is connecting texts with students and teachers. She hopes that this Monday Motivation page is helpful to teachers interested in building lifelong readers and writers! 
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    Jason DeHart
    In all of his work, Jason hopes to point teachers to quality resources and books that they can use. He strives to empower others and not make his work only about him or his interests. He is a also an advocate of using comics/graphic novels and media in classrooms, as well as curating a wide range of authors.
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