In order to understand something, I read, read, read. For I believe that in order to understand the dignity, the passions, the humanity of others, we have to imagine ourselves in their skin. It is my hope that sharing these books will encourage others to deepen their understandings of other people and cultures. I breathe books, so this is my method for deepening my own understanding, but please share other approaches that have worked for you.
1. Iran
If You Could Be Mine by Sara Farizan
This stunning text tells the story of two teenaged girls who are in love in Iran. I was mesmerized by its beauty and couldn’t wait to share it with others.
2. Iraq
Sunrise Over Fallujah by Walter Dean Myers
This is an incredibly powerful book about a young man from Harlem who goes to war in Iraq. Initially, when I created this list, I intended to feature characters and authors who are from each of the countries on the #MuslimBan list, but this particular book vividly features the country and is a wonderful read.
3. Libya
In the Country of Men by Hisham Matar
This is a difficult text to read because it features complicated issues. It is told from the perspective of Suleiman, a 9-year-old boy who lives in 1979 Libya.
4. Somalia
Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
I have not read this book, but it is coming my way through the Interlibrary Loan! An excerpt: “Infidel shows the coming of age of this distinguished political superstar and champion of free speech as well as the development of her beliefs, iron will, and extraordinary determination to fight injustice.” I can’t wait to read it!
5. Syria
In Praise of Hatred by Khaled Khalifa
This is a second book that I have on Interlibrary Loan, and it looks fantastic. The reviews note that it is dark, gritty, and eye-opening. I will report back after I’ve read it!
6. Sudan
A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park
Many of the readers of this blog know this book quite well. It is This book is based on the true story of Salva Dut, a Lost Boy of Sudan. I know several teachers who do Water for South Sudan challenge with their students. This sort of advocacy is incredibly empowering.
7. Yemen
I am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced by Nujood Ali
A friend told me about this book. She said it changed her. I have asked her to borrow her copy. In the meantime, I will share an excerpt: “I’m a simple village girl who has always obeyed the orders of my father and brothers. Since forever, I have learned to say yes to everything. Today I have decided to say no.”
I have read four out of seven of these books, and I am looking forward to diving into them all. I will never claim to be an expert, and I don’t believe that reading books that feature other countries will make me an expert. It will, however, help me better understand humanity. If you’ve read any of the books above, please comment, as I hope this can be a place for us to share books with each other. I would love any suggestions of other texts featuring these countries!
With the exception of Walter Dean Myers (who writes about an American who goes to Iraq), I intentionally chose texts that are written by authors who are from the countries they write about. This list is in no way exhaustive—reading one book set in one country most obviously will not help us understand the experiences of all (or even most) of the people who live there. It will, however, give us one snapshot of one life.
When I entered my first EdCamp in late January. First, let me tell you how much I loved the experience! It was a PD run by, led, and created by teachers. You were able to choose your breakout sessions and there was such a variety!
I, personally, hadn’t planned on presenting. I wanted to just lurk and see what EdCamp was like. But then Dr. Beth Scanlon, my Adolescent Literature teacher from UCF and reading coach at a local high school, and Lee Ann Spilanne, a friend and language arts teacher at a local high school, came to me and said the words that I could not resist: Share your love of reading. With those words, I jumped in and signed up to present.
I decided to focus on the two things that I get asked the most by other teachers: How do you read so much? & How do you get your students to read so much? Since they go hand-in-hand, I thought it was a perfect thing to talk about. This is what I shared:
1. Stop reading books you do not enjoy!
Stop it. It isn’t worth it. There are millions of books out there. Books you will enjoy. Find some of them and pick them up and devour them and love them. Then share them!
2. Stop making your students read books they don’t enjoy!
Stop it. It isn’t worth it. There are millions of books out there. Books your student will enjoy. Help them find them and pick them up and devour them and love them. This is why you have to read–to help them find these books they’ll love. One of the things I do with my students is have them fill out an interest inventory and book survey at the beginning of the year to help get to know them. This allows me to give specific recommendations to each of them from the very first week. And if they don’t like a book? Let them stop and move on.
3. Read books that you can share with your students.
This makes it so that your reading is two folds. Not only is it enjoyable to you, but it gives your reading a whole new purpose. You love being an educator, so reading for your job will give you even more motivation to pick up those books your students will love. Oh, and picture books, chapter books, middle grade novels, young adult novels, and graphic novels are just so enjoyable! You’ll love them–you’ll see!
4. There is time to read.
I know this sounds harsh, but stop making excuses. If reading is a priority then there is time to read. All you have to do is set time aside. Just like you ask your students to do. My reading time is right before bed. Although I am not a perfect reader, and that is okay too! (see #6), I try to make daily reading a priority. Even if it is only 15, 20, or 30 minutes a day; there is time to read.
5. Join a reading community.
This is what really changed my reading life. I found my reading community which not only gives me other educators to talk about books with, but I also get recommendations of the best books to read. At first, I only joined Goodreads and began building more book knowledge, but then expanding my reading community came in three folds. First, I became active on Twitter taking part in chats like #titletalk and meeting educators from all over the world. They became my PLN (professional learning network). These “tweeps” have grown to become true friends, and I would not be the reader or educator I am without them. Second, I started blogging and launched It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? where 30+ bloggers connect weekly and talk about what books they are reading and enjoying. Finally, I joined The Assembly on Literature for Adolescents of the NCTE where I found true advocates for adolescent literature. I then became active first serving on the Walden Award Committee and taking part in the workshop and now I am on the Executive Board and the Public Relations committee. All of this allowed me to become more involved in the best books for adolescents.
6. Don’t be too hard on yourself.
Did you not read on Monday? Did you take 2 weeks to finish a book because you were busy? Did you abandon the last 3 books you started? Yes? That’s okay! Whenever you start feeling down on yourself, just remember me saying: It is okay! It happens. We all have reading slumps! Just pick yourself up and keep going. It will end if you keep fighting it.
7. Have a classroom library.
Having a classroom library shows your students that reading and books are part of your class culture. When you walk into a room where walls are covered in books and bookshelves, you know where the priorities lie. From my own surveys with my students, I know that having a classroom library also helps my students read more than they do in other classes. They don’t have to worry about library due dates, they have the books right in their classroom, and they have a teacher that will help them find the right book for them. See some pointers I gave at NCTE in 2013 on building a classroom library here. I also shared the website, Booksource, that I use for inventorying and checking in/checking out books of my classroom library.
8. Allow time for independent reading and talking about books in your class.
This builds right off of #7. If you think reading is important, then allow time for it for your students just as you are allowing time for it in your life. Also, giving students time to talk to you or each other will really push their reading further!
9. Don’t force reading logs or book expectations on your students.
Don’t kill reading for them! No one is checking up on you or limiting what you read! Yes, I know, you have a college degree already, but think back to when you were a kid. Did you enjoy logging your reading? If someone told you you couldn’t read your favorite book, how would you have reacted?
Over the course of the next seven days (excluding Saturday and Monday), we will be shaking things up at Unleashing Readers. We are excited to feature seven incredible text sets created by seven phenomenal pre-service teachers. These teachers are remarkably creative and clever, and their text sets were chosen to be featured on our site because we thought their ideas would be useful to you.
Each day we will feature a different theme with a different anchor text. We are hoping that you can either use their ideas or adjust the text set to fit your needs. The themes of these text sets apply to a wide variety of texts that teachers use each day in their classrooms. Additionally, the anchor texts are popular. We believe that an important part of teaching is sharing with others. We hope you enjoy their hard work!
It has officially been 2 years since we launched Unleashing Readers!!
To celebrate our blogiversary, we thought it’d be fun to do some revisiting. Today we are going to visit with each other to learn more about our literary, educational, professional, and parental journeys! We each came up with a handful of questions, and we cannot wait to see how the other responds to them!
Kellee
1. How has your job changed since you have become a reading coach?
The main goal of my job has not changed at all. I still work with students to help them find the books that they are going to connect with. The difference is found in the specifics. I no longer am teaching intensive reading (struggling readers). I coach and work with the other three reading teachers in my school. Each of those teacher’s students are allowed to come visit my classroom library where I try to work with each student who comes in to find the best book for them. In addition to continuing our struggling readers’ literacy growth, I am in charge of helping my reading teachers with instruction, interventions, and data analysis. Because of every course having an end-of-course exam, I am not able to do pull-out intervention anymore, so instead I work with the teachers to ensure interventions are being implemented in the classroom.
In addition to coaching, I am still teaching my yearbook class, coaching Future Problem Solvers, and they added an advanced reading class for me last year.
2. What are you aspirations for the next year of the blog?
I would really like to work on our Navigating Literary Elements pages and try to add even more than we did this week. I think it is so important for teachers to have a go-to place to help them decide which texts will best suit their needs. I think it is essential to really flesh out these pages to make our blog even more of a resource for teachers.
3. What is one special reading moment you’ve had with Trent?
Trent loves books! I am so glad that I began reading to him as early as I did because he knows how special books are.
One of my favorite memories includes the book Fifteen Animals by Sandra Boynton. If you don’t know it, go listen to it here for free 🙂
This is one of Trent’s go-to books (if you follow the blog, you know that he has a handful of favorites, and it is really tough to get him to read anything else; however, he loves those books so much!). We have read/sang this book probably a hundred times already. One day, Trent grabbed it just as he usually does, but this time he began turning pages himself, pausing, and saying, “Bob, Bob, Bob” and other words/sounds as he read to himself. It was magical, so cute, and just wonderful. His first independent book of choice!
One of Trent’s many times reading Fifteen Animals.
4. What is your favorite teaching memory?
This one is the one that stumped me. I have so many amazing memories! I am going to share two recent wonderful things then probably my favorite collective teaching activity (this answer is going to be long!).
My advanced reading class this year was not a class that students chose to be in. It ended up with 8 students who had no where else to be (plus 4 that did ask to be put in after the year started). This can make for quite a tough go of it because some of the students would have rather been in any other class next to a class where they were going to be forced to read. There was one student in particular that fought me most of the year. He is so smart, but didn’t always choose to work to his ability. He also was one of the few students (since I’ve started being an advocate for independent reading) who I could not get to read or grow a love of reading. He was tough. But then two things happened. 1) The Crossover; 2) A yearbook message. In May, he read The Crossover and he said to me that he now understood why people read independently. He connected so much with Josh and couldn’t stop talking about the book. Then, at the end of the school year, this student wrote in my yearbook one of the nicest messages that I’ve gotten. With the way we butted head, I would have never assumed that by the end of the year he would appreciate it. He thanked me for never giving up on him.
This year also marked my third year of students graduating from high school. This graduating class is especially special because many of the students who graduated were in my class all three years of middle school (and many others for one or two years). I know a lot of the seniors. These students graduating also meant I could become Facebook friends with them! Many of these students are ones that I want to be in touch with for the rest of our lives, so as soon as they requested, I accepted. Last Monday, on my birthday, these new students wrote well wishes on my wall, but one stood out in particular: “Happy birthday to the greatest teacher I’ve ever had!!! Hope you have a wonderful day Mrs. Moye 😊” Wow! A student who graduated from an IB high school just said I was the greatest teacher she ever had. That really blew me away (and made me tear up).
As for my favorite classroom memory, I love having students Skype with Eliot Schrefer and/or interview Ginny Rorby. This blows students’ minds because most of them have never interacted with an author. I think it is so important to have students learn about the process of writing, background for the books, and have a chance to ask questions that they have about the book. This is an experience unlike any they had have before. (Interviewing Ginny in addition to our Center for Great Apes field trip really is a special thing as well.)
Skyping this year and two years ago:
Phone interview two years ago:
5. What is one book that is special to you?
By far the most special book to me is The Giver. I remember reading it when I was 12 and having my mind blown. The Giver made me realize how lucky we were to have art, love, music, family, books, memories, etc. I looked at the world differently. These things weren’t something I should take for granted–they are something we are blessed to have as part of our life because it can be taken away by the snap of a government official’s finger. Even now, as an adult, I cherish each of the things that Jonas didn’t have will all my heart.
Ricki
1. Can you tell us a bit about your doctorate program and what point you are at?
I am in the Curriculum and Instruction Department, and my focus is English Education. My long-term goal is to teach preservice teachers and conduct research in English Education. I am particularly interested in young adult literature and multicultural education. I just took my comprehensive exams and have moved from being a doctoral student to a PhD Candidate. Technically, this means that the doctoral student doesn’t need to take more classes, but I love taking classes, so I am going to enroll in at least two more courses. As long as my dissertation proposal passes, this upcoming year, I will be out in schools conducting my dissertation research. The following year, I hope to write up my research and defend my dissertation. If any bloggers/readers are interested in learning more about doctoral research, please don’t hesitate to contact me. It has been a really fun, life-altering ride for me. I absolutely love it.
2. What teacher inspired you the most?
This is a two-part answer for me. I always knew I wanted to be a teacher, but my 8th grade language arts teacher (Mr. Goffin) urged me to teach English language arts instead of mathematics (my initial plan). He always pushed me to do my best in school, and I am forever grateful that he steered me in the English language arts direction.
My current doctoral advisor (Wendy Glenn) has this magic about her. She makes her students want to be incredible teachers. We always joked that we should buy bracelets that say “What Would Wendy Do?” When I was teaching high school, I often heard her voice in the back of my head. Specifically, she guided me to become more involved in the professional/research/service realm, and eventually, she planted the seed that I should consider going back to school for my doctoral degree. If you’ve met her at NCTE, ALAN, or elsewhere, you will know what I mean when I say that she has this way about her that makes people want to do better and be better.
3. What is one special reading moment you’ve had with Henry?
Before Henry was born, I was reading books to my belly. I ached for him to enjoy reading. Thank goodness, it seems he loves reading as much as my husband and I do. One of my favorite moments was before he was crawling. He barrel rolled across the living room floor because he wanted to be closer to the bookshelf to pull down a book to read. He is 18 months old now. Every day (multiple times a day), he walks up to me and holds out a book. I pull him into my lap, and we read together, and nothing else in the world seems to matter.
4. What is a funny thing that Henry does?
Just one? That boy has me laughing all day long. When we eat dinner, he loves to “cheers” everyone’s glasses. If we are out at a restaurant, he holds out his sippy cup to people at other tables and often gets them to cheers glasses with him. He is a social butterfly. He learned how to kiss this week, and he can’t walk by our shiny fridge without kissing his reflection with a loud, “MWAH!”
5. What is a favorite book memory from childhood?
I know I did read books as a young child, but I don’t remember them at all. I most remember sitting on my grandfather’s lap as he blew smoke rings and told us Native American myths. He had a ruddy complexion and his red cheeks always stood out to me. That man wasn’t a people person, but he loved to tell stories. He was most happy when he was out at sea. My upper elementary school memories consist of me hiding books under the table and sneaking to my bedroom to read because I didn’t want to be social.
Make sure to check back tomorrow and Friday as we revisit two of our most popular posts and put a new spin on them!
I am very excited to share a new program called LitWeaver. It features literary selections devoted to grades 5-12 and is an excellent resource to teachers. And here is the great news…IT IS FREE! Teachers can create a sign up and browse the library. They can print out the literary selections or send them to students’ digital devices. The designers (Will Weaver, Don Gallo, and Mary Dennis) promise they will always feature free selections, but eventually, there may be a low cost to teachers. Each week, they plan to add more selections to the library with a goal of 100 high-quality selections by 60 authors in the first year. The selections include: short stories, poems, plays, essays, and a few novels (on the way). When classes are reading and discussing a work, the authors will be be able to access the selection’s discussion board.
I’m really excited about this resource and decided to devote a full blog post to it because I wanted to spread the word. I’ve been aware of this resource for quite some time, but I was thrilled when I heard that it officially launched this month. I worked in a school where resources were always an area of concern, and I wish I had this program available. I hope you find it to be useful!
Some of the featured authors (you might recognize a few—wink):
Will Weaver
Rich Wallace
Alden R. Carter
Charlie Price
Lisa Rowe Fraustino
Joseph Bruchac
Rodman Philbrik
Kelly Milner Halls
Marc Aronson
Nikki Grimes
Joyce Sweeney
Gary Blackwood
Kao Kalia Yang
Susan Beth Pfeffer
Dian Curtis Regan
Don Gallo
Ellen Conford
Annette Curtis Klause
René Saldaña, Jr.
Harold Schechter
Richard Peck
Naomi Shihab Nye
Deborah Noyes
Alex Flinn
Walter Dean Myers
Alan Sitomer
Pete Hautman
Jerry Spinelli
Sue Ellen Bridgers
Anton Treuer
Sharon Dennis Wyeth
Elsa Marston
Lensey Namioka
Gordon Korman
Marsha McGregor
Sandy Asher
Ellen Hopkins
Gloria Skurzynski
Chris Crowe
Jane Yolen
Bruce Coville
Katie Williams
Terry Trueman
Katherine Paterson
Lauren Oliver
Jean Davies Okimoto
Jan Cheripko
David Lubar
Ron Koertge
Mel Glenn
LitWeaver has had early success—a 7120% increase of new teachers signing up since launching the beta 3 ½ weeks ago! This confirmed their idea that YA lit should be more accessible, more varied, and more affordable. There will eventually be 200 pieces of content (in various genres) in their library.
They’re working right now on how to provide more and more free content for teachers. They believe this is doable but will need everybody’s support to help shape the product—so please spread the news!
Penguin Random House, the National Book Foundation, GoodReads, and Mashable invite you to join them for National Readathon Day tomorrow. They are asking readers to commit to reading for 4 straight hours from noon-4pm (all time zones) and to help raise funds to support the National Book Foundation.
You may be asking: “How can I participate in the readathon?” As a reader, the easiest ways to participate are to create your own Firstgiving Fundraising page to benefit The National Book Foundation, invite friends and family to donate to your effort, check the National Readathon site to find a participating venue near you, or just read tomorrow and donate to a worthy cause by visiting the National Book Foundation.
Hope you will join in on the Readathon, and don’t forget to share your experiences and photos using the hash tag, #timetoread!
