English Teachers Chat

I feel like we're not talking enough about genre and authentic voices. When I'm helping students pick out a new book, my first question is, "what are you interested in?" For many of my (and here I'm going to super gender stereotype here) female students, they can point to other texts they've enjoyed. They enjoyed Yolk or Grown or Instructions for Dancing, all amazing texts which can lead to a 100 other recommendations: Off the Record, Love is a Revolution, Kiss & Tell.  But other kids (and often my male students) will say, "I am looking for fantasy, dystopian, war or historical fiction." And while I have plenty of those titles. Many of those titles are from White authors, and I noticed a lack of other voices: Black, Hispanic, AAPI, Muslim, Jewish, etc. that explore these rich genres. I'm sure that's more to do with publishing companies than the authors themselves, but nevertheless, here we are. Underrepresented but more than worthy of our...

Yesterday I released my Top Books of 2020 . Today, I wanted to give some attention to the top YA books of the year. Young adult literature is doing what adult literature can't keep up with: diversity. More diversity and experimentation is occurring for young adults than their adult contemporary counterparts. I hope the publishing industry is noting this because they need to fix this problem. I also must thank the Project Lit Community which brought to light so many amazing diverse authors to my attention this year.  As per usual, any books on this 2020 list was published in 2020. Give any one of these books a read and you'll be a better person for it. For a one page printable of this list, click here . So without further ado: 1. This is My America by Kim Johnson Tracy’s father sits on death row and she continues to write to the Innocence Project in the hopes to free him. With time waning, Tracy needs to stop the wrongful execution, but the people with power are controlling mu...

This year, I managed to read 157 books in 2020. And while 2020 sucked in so many ways, books were not one of them. As per usual, my top 10 books are books only composed of books published in 2020. So while I read some other remarkable books (and some that would near the top of this list), they were excluded to keep the focus on what's present. In terms of trends, I'm happy to say that my list was full of more diversity than ever before with half the authors of some minority. There's still a long way to go. This year, I'll also be writing my top 10 YA books of the year , so look forward to that later this week. For a one page printable of this list, click here . So without further ado: 1. The Vanishing Half by Britt Bennett Is there any book more worthy of our attention than Bennett’s masterpiece? No book felt more pressing. A novel about race, American identity and the American Dream, the story of twin sisters who go and live completely different lives is unlike anythin...

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...

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 ...

In our second episode of English Teachers Chat, Daniel Valentin interviews Dr. Tony Sinanis, author of Hacking Leadership. Together, they discuss some of their favorite LGBTQ books. Links to all the books discussed: Prince & Knight by Daniel Haack The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang George by Alex Gino Pet by Akwaeke Emezi Other books mentioned: Hacking Leadership by Joe Sanfelippo and Tony Sinanis Anger is a Gift by Mark Oshiro 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 The Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy Ribay  and listening to Sabrina & Corina: Stories by Kali Fajardo-Anstine. He wants his students to feel empowered through books. Follow him  @DaValentinCCSD

October is LGBTQ history month. This is the perfect opportunity to expose our students to LGBTQ texts. For me, this is essential. As a student, the closest I could find to LGBTQ characters were Tom from The Glass Menagerie , the random David Sedaris piece and Michael Thomas Ford's books (which as a teenager I was way too young to be reading about). Now, there's a number of LGBT characters and representation in literature, but if you're an educator, where do you start? What I'm hoping is that my students will see queer texts not as queer texts, but simply texts. Often times (and not to generalize, but here I go anyway) my straight male students will avoid anything with even a hint of gay subtext. The more I talk to my students, it's clear that there is still an internalized insecurity. What they read might say something about themselves. In truth, a book is a book, queer characters or not. The easiest way to break the ice with that stereotype is that I always tel...