English Teachers Chat

In this episode of English Teachers Chat, I talk to four educators to take a closer look at surviving, what they wish we knew and how Covid-19 affected the state of education. Thank you to my special guests: Adam Pease , Libo Valencia , Rachel Rosen and James May. Music this episode was sourced from io and Bensound royalty free music. The opening and closing music is Garden Music composed by Kevin Macleod and the interlude music is Better Days by Benjamin Tessot. Tails32x · ETC Episode 5 - Surviving the Surf Zone Daniel Valentin teaches English 9, Humanities, and American Dream at Horace Greeley High School. He is currently reading Floaters by Martin Espada and is listening to The Sentence by Louside Erdrich . He wants his students to feel empowered through books. Follow him on Twitter  @DanielJValentin

Yesterday during a discussion (as a 9th grade teacher), I chatted with a few10th grade teachers. This year all 10th grade teachers are teaching Just Mercy  by Bryan Stevenson. One of the teachers said, "it's a hard read, the kids really struggled." It's probably been half a decade since I read Stevenson's novel, but I do remember moments that the text is mired in legal language. Another teacher remarked, "well... they need to become discernible readers and figure out what is essential to the story and what's not." Discernible readers? 10th graders? Who are these 10th grade discernible readers?  A larger discussion unfolded about close reading and now to navigate a tricky text. The four of us kibitzed about the successes and failures in each of our classrooms. The conversation naturally steered towards close reading. But what became quickly evident: when we talked about close reading, the four of us were talking about entirely different concepts. It...