“Good morning, Jennifer.” “Good morning, Dr. Donovan,” Jennifer replies as she walks on by to her first period class. “Good morning, Pedro.” “Good morning, Dr. Donovan,” Pedro replies as he walks into our classroom. “Is Jennifer our student? I don’t remember her. Gosh, I don’t …
7 Reflections to Quiet the Ghosts of Grading’s Past
Grades are letters that conflate the learning from the entire semester or quarter. I have to assign a grade for my seventh and eighth grade readers at the end of every quarter, and I struggle with this every time because their learning defies such neat, …
Miles for Motivation
Students are sometimes afraid to attempt assignments or feel that a grade is not worth the effort. Some have even said, “I don’t need the grade. I already have an A or a B”; “I don’t care about grades”; or “I just want to pass.” But I think that the success of this contest was due to the sense of community and the excitement of competition.
NCLB and Genocide: My First Year as a Teacher
Happy Holidays! Thank you for being a part of Ethical ELA this year. At Ethical ELA we consider the practical alongside the ethical – always asking what is good and right for the human beings with whom we are entrusted (and for us). I began …
Book Groups. It’s Personal.
Reading is personal. What we like, when we feel like it, how we like it — or don’t. Sometimes I read slowly and carefully, pausing to let an idea sink in or to get a tissue or to text a friend who’s read the same …
One 9-Week Plan on Choice Reading in the Classroom (a Follow-Up)
There is no neat way of capturing the beautiful messiness and grappling that happens when we offer our students choice.
Mirrors & Windows Booklists: Literature as Advocacy for Ourselves and Others
How can literature advocate for society? How do teachers make space in the classroom to read for discovery, problem solving, identity forming, and healing as students make sense of their worlds – our world? Books transmit values. They explore our common humanity…They [young people who …
A Loving Test: It Matters How You Assess
“I love test days,” I say to a classroom full of bewildered eighth graders. On each desk is one copy of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie and a 2 page, 2-sided test. “What?” I hear scattered across my audience. “I’m gonna …
Becoming Part of the Reading Community
by Lesley Roessing I considered myself to be a very involved middle-level ELA reading teacher. I loved to read, and I loved to share books with my students. I book-talked books that I read and thought some of my readers would enjoy reading. I continually …
Romance and Sex in YA Novels
When I was in junior high, there was this one super-cool girl. She had the most beautiful name, Shoana, which I thought was close to Sarah and, therefore, we had to be friends. Shoana lived with her mom in an apartment by school; their relationships …