English Teachers Chat

When I say Anti-Racist books, what do you think? Does you mind go to Ibram X. Kendi's How to Be An Antiracist  or Tiffany Jewell's This Book is Anti-Racist . Great! What else? Anti-Racist texts are topping the charts of every best seller list. Take a look at the New York Times  Combined Print & E-Book Non-Fiction chart for the week of 6/22/20. This is a wonderful first step. Anti-racist texts occupy nine out of the 10 best selling books. But as educators (or even people just reading this random blog post from an ELA teacher in Chappaqua), is that enough?  Short answer: No.  Taking a look at the Combined Print & E-Book Fiction chart for the same week, and you'll see the problem. Anti-racist fiction is largely ignored. This is a problem. It needs fixing. Only two books on here are what I would categorize anti-racist. What's happening to our anti-racist fiction?  1. Are black writers not writing?  2. Are white publishers not publis

Last night was the #KidLit4BlackLives Rally, sponsored by ILA and hosted by Kwame Alexander. And whatever I expected, I got something wholly new. If you haven't watch it, you can watch the whole experience on YouTube . The experience felt like we could put our ideas into practice not just tomorrow, but yesterday. That we, as educations (and adults) have a responsibility to our kids. To be silent, is to spread toxicity. So here are my five biggest takeaways from last night. Listen to Our Students Tiffany Jewell, author of This Book is Antiracist, asked, "How often do we invite our students to be part of the discussion? Listen. And Really Listen." As educators, I sometimes find there is an ego-stroke that happens. Somehow, as educators, some of us got the idea that we are paragons of information. We're not. We don't have all the answers. And some of those questions we need to ask needs direction at our students. So this fall, I'm going to sit down with th

Last October I posted The Best LGBTQ Books of 2019 , and this year is no different. But this year, I want the scope expanded. Included in this year are books only publish in 2020. I also included books for all ages (middle grades through adult contemporary). I hope this list is helpful to you. Remember, the absence of voices is harmful to your students and you. It's important we grow during this tumultuous time. Read these stories! I've enjoyed every one of them, and they're worthy of your consideration. Happy Pride month! Felix Ever After  by Kacen Callender You will see, there's a running theme this year. More books are not only exploring LGBT themes, but also exploring the spectrum outside of the binary. Felix knows their trans. They know they were born biologically female and transitioned to male. But Felix even feels outside that spectrum. When someone puts up a mural of Felix from when they pre-transitioned and dead-names them, Felix seeks revenge through cat-fish