English Teachers Chat

This week I talk with colleague K. Keener about our trip to NCTE 2019 in Baltimore. We talk a little about Tommy Orange and talk about two of our sessions that occurred at the conference. Books to consider from our podcast: There There by Tommy Orange Say Yes to Pears: Food Literacy in and Beyond the English Classroom by Joseph Franzen and Brent Peters Special thanks to the GSEA of NCTE (Josh Coleman, Stephen Crawley, Darryn Diuguid, Craig Young and many others). Operation Game Design presenter: Dr. Michele Haiken Playing with fiction presenters: Jeanne Henry, Hofstra University, Lorraine Radice, Long Beach School District, NY Say Yes to Pears Authors: Joseph Franzen and Brent Peters Music from the podcast c/o Kevin MacLead. You kind find more of his royalty free music at  incompetech.filmmusic.io/ Daniel Valentin teaches American Wilderness, Ethics, and English 9 at Horace Greeley High School. He is currently reading New Kid by Jerry Craft  and is listening to  Climbin

Here at Horace Greeley one of our buildings received a drastic overhaul. Walls were knocked down, glass was put up, and nooks and crannies sprouted in all sorts of new areas. In many ways, it's the difference between the kitchens of yesteryear and the much more sleek open-space designs of today. From the distance, it's sleek. The cubicles, glass walls, and art-deco pop furniture all make the space super inviting. From surveys, students are positive about the space. "There seems to be more of an emphasis on work space," said one. "I feel less anxious in this space," said another. Of course, there were a few caveats, "there's too much furniture." "I'm not always sure where I can go." But one comment really resonated with me, "The space is more modern than the teaching." Yeesh! Of course, that's not a surprise. Even in my approach, I can't say I've evolved with any profundity. I've tried stations a

Over the last year or so I heard about the potential for using picture books with high school students. I heard the clamor: "They have a place!" But no one could tell me why. Or more importantly: how? This all changed with Kwame Alexander and Kadir Nelson's The Undefeated  which was on the long list for the National Book Award for Young Adult Literature 2019. For those who haven't read it, the text is describe as "a love letter to America. To black America. To the grit, passion, and perseverance of our greatest artists, athletes, and activists." After reading it, I knew when I started my #OwnVoices unit with my Freshmen, we were going to start use picture books.  Intention: The most important part of choosing a picture book is intention. What do you want students to learn? What do picture books do that regular contemporary, classic and YA texts cannot do? For me, I used two texts, the aforementioned The Undefeated  and Thorn and Grigni's It Feels