English Teachers Chat

For today I made a simple graphic highlight a number of 2022 books. These are all books I've read this year that I can't get enough of.  For some students, sometimes that familiar book is just the next step to push them towards something fresh.

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...

It's that time of the year again. Summer reading (and a preview of some of my year's favorite books)! Reading shouldn't feel like a chore. This should be a time to engage with texts that YOU want to engage with. As I finish book number 90 (Instructions for Dancing by Nicola Yoon), here's my top 10 picks this year. Just some quick details about this list. All books on this list are 2021. Additionally, this is the YA list; my adult list will be out early next week. So seek and find something that works just for you! (If you want a one page printable list, click here! ) 1. Off the Record by Camryn Garrett In Garrett’s brilliant new novel, Josie is a high school journalist with the opportunity to go on a press tour and write a profile piece on an up and coming actor. But as she starts to do interviews, it’s clear that the director is a “Harvey Weinstein” type with exceedingly questionable behavior. Will Josie confront the issue, and will she come to her own reckoning with ...

This is part two of my four part series Becoming a FITT Reader. Be sure to read Volume 1: Frequency here .  Reading is a skill. It's developed over time like our palate. It's like learning to distinguish deep umami flavors or appreciating a fine red wine. Too difficult texts creates non-readers in the same way a person new to sushi might totally scoff at a dragon roll over the more palatable California roll.  I, like I'm sure many other people, experienced an English class where the text was too difficult, too long, and too beyond my comprehension. In short: too intense. As a freshman in high school, I faked my way through readings of Great Expectations , and I also remember exclusively reading SparkNotes the time Dr. Cotter assigned the entirety of Dante's Inferno  for the next class a mere two days away in undergrad.  Ultimately, intensity in reading comes in four forms: text complexity, length, concept and content. What It (Sometimes) Looks Like There ar...

Maybe because I'm too much into fitness, or maybe because I'm too much into reading, it's clear to me, reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body. It's an essential part of what makes people grow. It's healthy and fun, and downright addictive when performed regularly. In the world of fitness, we operate under the ideas of FITT: Frequency, Intensity, Time and Type. That same philosophy can be applied to our students too. Today we're going to look at Frequency. It's my firm believe that if students and teachers follow FITT principles, we'll all become more proficient and FITT readers. Before the How, Why? Frequency is all about how often reading occurs. For our students, we need to build an environment where reading happens not only in the classroom, but then is encouraged at home. Why? The data is clear: Disrupting Thinking, Beers and Probst, 137 A clear direct correlation exists between reading and student performance and language abilities. The...

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...

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...