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For this year’s Boston University/Boston Green Academy Summer Institute (which I’ve blogged about before), we decided to change up our usual routine of reading one book, and this year we chose two – Darius and Twig by Walter Dean Myers and Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson.

Our essential question for our rising ninth and tenth graders was about how much we determine our own lives and how much they are determined by others’ expectations of who we will be. I wasn’t sure going into the two weeks how well our books would play together, but I needn’t have worried. These two books about writers were rich ground to explore in our time together.

Our students were anxious to find out what would happen to Darius and Twig, the writer and the runner, who face challenges as they navigate coming of age in a world that is far from perfect. (I miss Walter Dean Myers already so much and his wonderful stories of our imperfect world.) Even the most reluctant readers this summer had thoughts about these two characters and the choices they made. And our some of our students found that kinship that happens sometimes with characters whose backgrounds related to their own.

Then, we began to write our own stories, and we turned to Jacqueline Woodson to teach us how. And she’s a great teacher. Somehow, in her beautiful, sparse vignette poems, our students found inspiration and ideas. But it was more than that – I think her poems became a permission slip of sorts to tell their own stories and to experiment with images and tones to craft their memories into words. I’ve usually had experiences where students have been intimidated by poetry, but that didn’t happen with BGD. Instead, our writers dove right in to writing their own experiences as poems.

All in all, the two books we chose for this year’s essential question fit together after all, and I’ve gotten interested in book pairs that allow us to focus on a theme when reading and can also serve as writing models. I’d love to hear if others have tried this or have pairs that worked well!

The post Telling and choosing our own stories appeared first on The Horn Book.

Since I wrote recently about using a text set built around the idea of respect and the title Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass by Meg Medina, a few people have asked what other texts we used alongside it. Our* essential question was “What makes someone worthy of respect?”

We were aiming for a set that spanned genres, and so the resulting set was both too big to use in our short time but also made of texts that weren’t only from the YA world. It included the some of the following:

• Poems like “The Ballad of the Landlord” by Langston Hughes and “Ex-Basketball Player” by John Updike
• A series of quotes about respect from famous people
• The short story ‘Chuckie’ by Victor LaValle
• A couple of articles about bystanding and upstanding when bad things happen to others
• Lou Holtz’s famous first locker room speech at Notre Dame
• A couple of pieces from the This I Believe collection having to do with self-respect (thisibelieve.org)
• Several anecdotes from the book Discovering Wes Moore about choices, misunderstandings, and facing adversity

This group of texts are all related to the idea of respect and who gets it and who doesn’t, and the different readings allowed us to consider respect from a variety of vantage points as we tried to put ourselves in the shoes of Piddy and Yaqui in the anchor novel.  They also gave us lots of time to dabble in writing different genres.

Text sets are such a fun way to really think hard about important stuff, and I’m excited to keep adding to this set about respect.

*This curriculum for the BGA/BU Summer Institute was developed in collaboration with my awesome friends Marisa Olivo and Lucia Mandelbaum from BGA and Scott Seider from BU. 

The post Yaqui’s text set appeared first on The Horn Book.

Jaclyn DeForge, our Resident Literacy Expert, began her career teaching first and second grade in the South Bronx, and went on to become a literacy coach and earn her Masters of Science in Teaching. In her column she offers teaching and literacy tips for educators.  This is the second in a series of posts on thematic text sets.

One aspect of the Common Core that I get asked questions about all the time is thematic text sets. What are they? How do you know which books to use? What types of texts should you be pairing together?

Fear not! I’ve compiled some examples of text sets that cover one topic and span multiple genres and reading levels. Some of the titles you may already have in your classroom library, and others I think you’ll enjoy discovering. In my first post, I compiled books about the moon. Today we look at books about Kenya:

Theme/topic: Kenya

Grade: 3rd-4th

Informational Text: Only the Mountains Do Not Move by Jan Reynolds (Guided or Shared Reading)

• provides information about the Maasai people of Kenya
• can be used to address informational text standards

(a free Teacher’s Guide is available for this title)

Realistic Fiction: First Come the Zebra by Lynne Barasch (Independent Reading)

• the main characters in the story are from the Kikuyu and Maasai tribes
• can be used to address literature standards

(a free Teacher’s Guide is available for this title)

Narrative Nonfiction: Brothers in Hope: The Story of the Lost Boys of Sudan by Mary Williams (Read Aloud)

• the story chronicles the Lost Boys’ journey from southern Sudan to Kenya
• can be used to address informational text and literature standards

(a free Teacher’s Guide is available for this title)

Biography: Seeds of Change: Planting a Path to Peace by Jen Cullerton Johnson (Read Aloud)

• discusses the life and contributions of Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai
• can be used to address informational text and literature standards

(a free Teacher’s Guide is available for this title)

What books would you put on this list?  Add your favorites in the comments!

Further Reading: Thematic Text Set: The Moon (2nd grade)

Jaclyn DeForge, our Resident Literacy Expert, began her career teaching first and second grade in the South Bronx, and went on to become a literacy coach and earn her Masters of Science in Teaching. In her column she offers teaching and literacy tips for educators.

One aspect of the Common Core that I get asked questions about all the time is thematic text sets.  What are they?  How do you know which books to use?  What types of texts should you be pairing together?

Fear not!  I’ve compiled some examples of text sets that cover one topic and span multiple genres and reading levels and over the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing these sets with you.  Some of the titles you may already have in your classroom library, and others I think you’ll enjoy discovering.

Theme/topic:  The Moon

Grade: 2nd

Informational Text:  The Moon Book by Gail Gibbons (Shared Reading)

• provides scientific information about the moon
• can be used to address informational text standards

Nonfiction Poetry:  A Full Moon is Rising by Marilyn Singer  (Read Aloud)

• provides scientific information about the moon
• provides information regarding moon-related festivals, traditions, holidays, and celebrations
• can be used to address informational text and literature standards

Realistic Fiction: Owl Moon by Jane Yolen  (Guided Reading)

• the moon plays a central role in the setting of the story
• can be used to address literature standards

Realistic Fiction:  Surprise Moon by Caroline Hatton (Independent Reading)

• discusses celebrations and festivals related to the moon 
• can be used to address literature standards

from A Full Moon is Rising

What books would you put on this list?  Add your favorites in the comments!