Recently I reread 1984 by George Orwell, which I had read the first time in high school in the sixties, have taught many times, and had not reread for decades. I saw that the book was perhaps the best selling book of 2017, which I …
Introducing My Debut YA Novel, Alone Together
Today is Friday, which means Story Time in my junior high writing classes; students share their writing in an open-mic forum with student-hosts facilitating the stories and celebrations. Today, I stepped up to the mic in front of my biggest and most beloved critics: my …
Ten Books Loved by 7th Graders (List 4)
This is the fourth and final list of “Ten Books Loved by 7th Grade Readers.” I asked 7th-grade readers to tell me about a book they read this school year that they “loved” and was worthy of recommending to other teen readers. They obliged, writing …
Ten Books Loved by 7th Grade Readers (List 3)
This is the third of four book lists: “Ten Books Loved by 7th Grade Readers.” I asked my 7th-grade readers to tell me about a book they read this school year — a book they “loved” and worthy of recommending to other teen readers. The …
Ten Books Loved by 7th Grade Readers (List 2)
This is the second of four lists of “Ten Books Loved by 7th Grade Readers.” We began the school year in mid-August with a quest to uncover all the books can do for our lives with daily choice reading. In mid-November, I asked students to tell …
Ten Books Loved by 7th Grade Readers (List 1)
In the last week, I’ve had texts, emails, and social media posts asking for book recommendations. My sister was looking for book ideas for a teen girl in a family she’s sponsoring for Christmas. A colleague was looking for ideas for her junior high daughter’s …
Book Review: None of the Above by I.W. Gregorio
I grew up in the 80s surrounded by images like Cindy Crawford and Pretty in Pink, which made figuring out what sort of girl I was “supposed” to be rather complicated. On top of that, I grew up with seven sisters ranging in size, shape, interest, and certainly attitude and three brothers who had their own ideas about what a girl “should” be. And as a middle school teacher for over a decade, I see teenage girls and boys navigating a world of gender “shoulds” and trying on a spectrum of gender markers, which is beautiful and painful (at times) to witness. None of the Above by I. W. Gregorio is about an 18 year old girl with AIS (Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome), when one’s chromosome make-up does not match the gender to which one identifies or intersex. She questions how she (and her whole school) understand what it means to be a girl.
10 Months.10 Lessons.
Thank you for your readership of Ethical ELA this school year. Thank you for being my teacher-friend. In a typical school day, the only time teachers may be alone is when we use the restroom (until someone knocks on the door). Still, teaching can feel …
“Give me your tired, your poor”: 11 Immigration Books Reviewed by Teens
For this blog, I offer 11 stories of immigration alongside student voices to make visible the sort of thinking teens are doing about immigration and the social forces that impact lives around the globe. How these books imagine America have everything to do with how our students imagine their world — what it is and what it ought to be.
Warning, Triggering, Censoring, Advising: Recommending Books to Teens
A seventh grade boy came up to me during reading class the other day, stepping away from his browsing on Goodreads for his next book. He said after reading a review about one book, “This one reviewer said he fell into a deep depression after …