Enrich Student Writing by Mining for "Gems"

     I fell in love with an image today.

     "They traveled in one group, like children inside a camel costume."  Something about this image in Meg Wolitzer's best-seller, The Female Persuasion, spoke to me.  (It didn't hurt, either, that one of the character's,"Dog," was affectionately nicknamed for his first spoken word.)  With one evocative simile, Meg Wolitzer convinced me of Greer and the dynamic among her friends.

     I'm sure you've experienced Book Love, too, that moment when a line or a character or even a picture hooks into the you of you and becomes an essential something you carry forever.  It's important for you to discuss this experience with your students.  The ones who have felt it will want to chime in. Those who have never even heard such a thing need to know it exists.  Once they do, not all, but some will want to savor the feeling themselves.

     Naturally, some lucky readers (including you and me) instinctively began mining these gems, these words and phrases and even illustrations, early in our childhood.

     To this day, I cherish the quirky bond between Jane, The Middle Moffat, and her friend, The Oldest Inhabitant, who is Cranberry's most senior citizen.  Reading about it calls to mind the relationships my childhood self embraced with my own beloved set of "oldsters":  Abu, Gikki, Daumie, PawPaw . . .

    "Kindly do not poke the Sally."  An unexpected, annoying touch instantly resurrects this quote from Shirley Jackson's Raising Demons.  Sometimes I even say it out loud, not caring one bit that the 'poker' won't "get it." It tickles my funny bone. It makes me happy. 

      Grok.  Karass.  Corduroy's fuzzy ears peeking out from under the bed sheets.  These words and images are for me and of me. They make me who I am.  And I know you have some of your own.

 

     Awareness of words and a love for them does not come naturally to everyone, but they can be cultivated in our students by having them create a page in their Language Arts journals designated for "gems." I first learned the practice of  mining book "gems" in a long-ago writing institute:  A "gem" is a turn of phrase that captures your fancy in the (self-selected) text you are reading.  You pause as you read (or after you read) to inscribe it -- along with the book's title and page number -- on that dedicated page in your journal.

     Collecting gems, as with any other worthwhile practice in the Reader/Writer Workshop, is a habit that must be ingrained through repeated practice.  Doing it as a "mini-lesson" will result in a one-and-done "activity."  (As are most "mini-lessons."  Do NOT get me started on "mini-lessons.")  You may have heard that one must repeat a behavior seven, eight times before it becomes a habit?  That's at least how many times your students must be instructed to jot down a "gem" they encounter during Silent Sustained Reading.  Some will take a while to warm up to the practice, so have your Immediate Enthusiasts share theirs with the class.

     Now for the "why" of mining for gems:

     Pablo Picasso is known to have said, "Good artists copy.  Great artists steal."  By way of explaining to your students that this is not an endorsement of plagiarism, give them an example of how they can obliquely insert gems into their own writing.  For example, in Paragraph Three of this post, I refer to books that hook into the "you of you," an indirect reference to an e.e. cumming's poem I read long ago, the title of which I've since forgotten.  But the phrase is a permanent part of me along with the feeling and the understanding it invoked.  

     Students who do not "grok" the concept of allusions will benefit from a lesson on how to embed direct quotes into their writing.

     Over time, your students' collection of gems will grow, as will their skill in using them to make their own writing sparkle.  And, if all goes according to plan, one day they'll start creating gems of their own.

JRR Tolkien's illustration of Smaug atop his pile of gems.

     The Sustained Reader, a blog devoted to promoting the use of self-selected text in an integrated Language Arts classroom, debuted on May 13, 2014, with its inaugural post "Let It Go".

        

Prose from the Pros: Putting Your Classroom Library to Work

     In February of 2017, I was thrilled to receive the news that my students had taken first place honors at both the seventh- and eighth-grade level in the Austin Daughter's of the American Revolution (DAR) writing competition.  I'm not gonna lie:  When my principal initially forced -- er, encouraged us to enter the competition, I was mildly annoyed by the amount of time that would be "lost" from my first semester curriculum.  Once we dug in, though, I was surprised by the number of target objectives that could easily be incorporated.  (I've typed them in boldface throughout this post.)

     The topic?  "Celebrating a Century:  America's National Park System."  In 1,000 words or less, our mission was to depict -- in journal form -- the wonders of one specific American national park.  Hmmm.  Not only did the prompt provide our research topic for the year -- SCORE! -- it required the students to create characters, advance a plot in journal form, and make lavish use of descriptive writing about the setting.  

     Reading and writing should be inextricably interwoven in the teaching of Language Arts, and it's important that we continuously find ways to wed our students' reading to their writing activities.  But that's not always easy (especially for novice teachers).  In the end, this DAR writing contest provided a beautifully authentic opportunity for the students to use their self-selected text as a resource material.  Even better, it enabled me and my students to experience the natural flow of an integrated Language Arts project.

     After the students had chosen the parks they wanted to research, we began to scour our home and class libraries for trade books set in locations with similar geographic features:  beaches, forests, deserts.  Unearthed gems were placed on a whiteboard tray for easy access.  Here are a few that we found:

     Whenever students encountered a great descriptive passage, they would mark the spot with a sticky note to facilitate easy access for their classmates.  Students were also offered the option to write out such passages and tape them to a collection of "Descriptive Passages From Books" posted on a window.

     During the pre-writing process of the "journals," passages that we found -- like the following excerpt from Peter Brown's The Wild Robot * --  provided the class with wonderful opportunities for collecting specific nouns, active verbs, and adjectives to describe the sights, smells, and sounds of nature. We also found an abundance of sentences to use for sentence modelling activities.  

     " . . . instead of crashing against the rocks, [the last crate] sloshed against the 

        remains of the first four crates.  Soon, more waves were heaving it up out of the water.

        It soared through the air, spinning and glistening until it slammed down onto a tall

        shelf of rock. The crate was cracked and crumpled, but the robot inside was safe."  

Sentences like these can also be used during the revision process for mini-lessons on incorporating sound devices like onomatopoeia and alliteration in prose.

     By reading and analyzing skillfully crafted text such as this, and using it to model their own prose, the students expanded their vocabularies and developed more sophisticated sentence structures without even knowing it was happening!  

     The added bonus?  Throughout this use of our classroom library, many students found titles they wanted to add to their "Books I Want to Read" lists in the back of their Language Arts notebook.  For example:  

Pax by Sara Pennypacker

Wolf Hollow by Lauren Wolk

Turtle in Paradise by Jennifer Holm

     If you are interested in learning more about using a "Books I Want to Read" list with your students, please visit these earlier posts from The Sustained Reader: 

• The Best Book List Ever!
• Starting the Student Book Buzz
• Using Book Trailers in Your Language Arts Classroom

Next Up:  Teach your students how to draw upon their reading as a means of enriching their own  writing in Enrich Student Writing by Mining for "Gems."

Feasting at the Poetry Buffet

     As a novice Language Arts teacher, I just wasn't comfortable with teaching poetry, and so, I did the least I could while adequately meeting the state standards.  As a result, my early students experienced only a few poems each year:  the poems found in their textbooks and maybe a few others I threw in.  My classes all read the same poem at the same time and then answered the same questions, thereby ensuring that everyone "covered" the required objectives.  While that approach got the job done, it also ensured an abundance of students would enjoy not even one poem they encountered in class.  And that is just wrong.

     During those many - too many - years of striving to appease the standardization gods, I noticed that a few of my students actually seemed to enjoy poetry, even some students now referred to as "emerging readers."  So, in an effort to spread the love, I scrapped everything I'd ever done in the past and created what I call a Poetry Buffet.  Yes, it's scary, but you can do it, too.

  

     When assembling a Poetry Buffet -- a wildly diverse collection of poems -- keep these three words in mind:  abundance, variety, and choice.  Just as a buffet table offers morsels that tempt even the pickiest eaters, your collection must be varied and visually appealing to as wide an array of readers as you are likely to teach.  At last count, my buffet consists sixty laminated pages, front and back, of illustrated poems, all gleaned from poetry collections like these:

     Don't let the word "children" scare you away from these amazing books.  The collected poems range from "just for fun" --

 -- to "perfect for cultural celebrations" -- 

-- all the way up to "challenging for Honors 8th Grade."  AND the accompanying CDs provide you with professional recordings of selected poems!

     On Poetry Buffet day, you will place two laminated sheets in front of each student.  As gentle music plays in the background, students answer the questions on teacher-made handouts, addressing the elements of poetry on which you want to focus that day.  When finished with the poems in front of them, they get up and move to work with the poems on another table.  Obviously, the process flows much more smoothly if you have at least one unoccupied place to which a student can move when he is ready.

    So often, students think they're supposed to learn a particular poem instead of learning the general elements of poetry.  For that reason, the handouts should require that your students answer the same questions about different poems they read.  For example:

• Is this a narrative poem?  Explain why or why not.
• Write an example of onomatopoeia and explain the sound it is trying to imitate.
• How many stanzas does this poem have?
• What lesson, if any, does this poem teach?

     How many poems should students analyze during the buffet?  As many as they are able to complete during the time you allot for the activity.  That's why you'll want to provide a stack of spares for your more advanced readers.  I really enjoy giving the students the ability to work at their own pace.  If you have any students obsessed with the notion of "fairness" -- (Hey!  HE only did two poems today!) -- you may want to let them know that they will ultimately be choosing one of their analyses to submit for a grade.  The kids who complete more analyses have a wider range of work from which to choose.  Also, my students' final assessment consisted of completing a similar handout, analyzing a poem we never studied as a class.  In theory -- and usually in practice -- the more poetry analysis practice they got, the higher their final assessment grade would be.

    As students move from desk to desk exploring the buffet, you circulate the classroom attending to these two tasks:  

1. Answering questions that crop up: "Mrs. McHale, can you tell me one more time what 'onomatopoeia' is?"
2. Making note of any poem that students just don't "get."

     I will never forget the day a very bright eighth grade boy read "How to Paint a Donkey" by Naomi Shihab Nye --

-- and his "take" on the poem was something like this:  "It's just a dumb poem about some dumb donkey."  While hilarious, his response made abundantly clear the fact that he (and probably the rest of the class) needed a great deal of practice with abstract inferential thinking!

     I try to do at least three Poetry Buffets during April, National Poetry Month, interspersing them with lessons that 1) address specific elements I want to teach or 2) give students the opportunity to analyze a specific poem in small, heterogeneous groups.  You may want to give students who like to read aloud the opportunity to present a poem to the class.  And, it is always fun to follow along  silently with celebrity recordings of famous poems, like this one:

Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" as read by Christopher Lee

     After feasting at the Poetry Buffet, at least one student will develop a taste for poetry -- (It happens every year!)  -- so add a few volumes to your classroom library if you can.  Who knows?  They may whet your appetite for the genre, too!  

     You can find examples of Poetry Buffet ThinkSheets at TeachersPayTeachers.com:  Poetry ThinkSheets .  

      Reading and writing should be inextricably interwoven in the teaching of Language Arts, and it's important that we continuously find ways to wed our students' reading to their writing activities.  But that's not always easy (especially for novice teachers).  Our next post, Prose from the Pros: Putting Your Classroom Library to Work, show an example of how it can be done.

The Unfortunate Exclusion of Mrs. Why

     I adore the question, "Why?"

    "Why?" you may ask.  (Please ask.  Please always ask.)

     Of all members in the 5Ws and an H cohort -- Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How -- "Why" is the W that vaults class discussion into the realm of higher-level thinking.  "Why?" is the question that demands analysis.  For some reason, though, this important query is often excluded from polite Language Arts society.  (Where, for example, was Mrs. Why in A Wrinkle in Time?  Talk about a snub!)  Fortunately, she doesn't have to be excluded from your classroom.  Invite her in -- daily!  The level of classroom discourse will rise each day that Mrs. Why is invited to participate.

(I love you, Madeleine L'Engle, but where the heck is Mrs. Why?)

     The mystery of the missing "Why?" resurfaced this week as I was exploring the Internet for poetry resources -- more specifically, resources for sound devices in poetry.  (National Poetry Month is right around the corner, you know.  And, April 26 is National Poem in Your Pocket Day -- mark your calendar!)

     As I was saying, " . . . Internet resources for sound devices in poetry."  Naturally, I found a TON of worksheets and PowerPoints with questions like these:  "What sound devices can be found in poetry?", "What are the definitions for the those sound devices?", "Where do you see those sound devices in this poem?"  But, who is missing from these questions? 

     So, today, let's assume your students have already learned to name, define, and identify rhythm, rhyme, repetition, alliteration, assonance, and onomatopoeia in poetry -- all of which are lower-level thinking skills.  Don't stop there!  All that work is merely the prelude to a deeper analysis beginning with a single question: "Why?"

     I can think of no better poem for demonstrating my point than "Cheers" by Eve Merriam, the queen of sound devices in poetry for children.

“Cheers” by Eve Merriam

The frogs and the serpents each had a football team,

And I heard their cheerleaders in my dream:

“Bilgewater, bilgewater,” called the frog,

“Bilgewater, bilgewater,

Sis, boom, bog!

Roll ‘em off the log,

Slog ‘em in the sog,

Swamp ‘em, swamp ’em,

Muck mire quash!”

“Sisyphus, Sisyphus,” hissed the snake,

“Sibilant, syllabub,

Syllable-loo-ba-lay,

Scylla and Charybdis,

Sumac, asphodel,

How do you spell Success?

With an S-S-S!”

  Begin by reading the poem aloud.  Always begin by reading the poem aloud.  Twice even.  Then start by asking those "Who?, What?, When?, and Where?" questions:

• Where does this poem take place?  A swamp.
• What are some words that let us know that?  bilgewater, bog, log, sog, swamp, muck, mire
• Who is the poem about?  Frogs and serpents
• What's another word for a serpent?  Snake
• What are they doing in this poem?  They're cheering for their football teams.
• Does this poem convey a deep life message?   Obviously, no.

     So why did Eve Merriam write it?    Take a few answers from those daring souls who always have an idea.  But if you discover that your students really don't know yet, explain that, sometimes, poetry is written just for fun!  Sometimes poets -- Eve Merriam, especially -- just love to play around with words and sound!

    In Stanza Two, repetition of the consonant B is obviously alliteration, but why is the letter B repeated?  Why not L or T?  Well, who's cheering in Stanza Two?   Read the stanza aloud once more  and really belch out those words beginning with B as if YOU are a big, ol' bullfrog.

     The letter B is repeated in Stanza Two so that we actually hear the sound of the frogs as they belch out their cheer!
  
     Stanza Three is even better.

• What consonant sound is repeated in the third stanza?  S
• Now apply what you learned from Stanza Two.  Why is the letter S repeated in Stanza 3?

     The letter S is repeated in Stanza Three so that we can actually hear the snakes as they hisssssss out their cheer.  Make sure the kids connect the S sound to the onomatopoetic word "hissed" in Stanza Three.

     Rhythm, while artfully applied in "Cheers," can be tricky for modern students because the poem harkens back to a time before spandex and glittery eye-shadow, back to the days when cheerleaders looked like this:

"Roll ‘em off the log,

Slog ‘em in the sog,

Swamp ‘em, swamp ’em,

Muck mire quash!”

     Can't you just hear those old-time "yell leaders"?  No?  Well, if you can't, your students surely can't either.  What better opportunity to get those kids up out of their desks to devise some old-fashioned moves for this old-fashioned cheer!  And if they're totally wrong, who's to say?

     Once you've settled everyone back into their desks, it's time to pose the lesson's final, "Why?"

• Why did Merriam want to create that particular rhythm in her poem, "Cheers"?

     Merriam wants the reader to hear the actual sounds of a football game, so the rhythm of Stanzas Two and Three imitates the rhythm of an old fashioned cheer.

     As National Poetry Month draws near, pull out some old friends -- "Cheers," "The Highwayman," "Casey at the Bat" -- but, this year, ask them a brand new question:  Why?

     You'll be happy you did.

Want to try something new with poetry this year?  Dig into Feasting at the Poetry Buffet.

     

Meeting Ourselves (and Other Strangers) in Books

      As so often happens on Twitter, I stumbled last week across the most intriguing tidbit: 

     This miniature biography of Ona Judge was just one among 28 stories of extraordinary black women highlighted throughout Black History Month by author Jason Reynolds.  Never before had I heard this woman's name, much less the saga of her audacious, improbable, permanent escape from enslavement under George and Martha Washington.  And, like many Americans, I'd never before been so blatantly confronted with the reality of slave ownership among our nation's Founding Fathers. 

     As a white woman in modern America, I would be hard-pressed to imagine a life more alien to mine than that of Ona Judge.  Yet, in the aftermath of that one tweet, hers became a story I needed to know.  Fortunately, just moments after wondering online about the outcome of Ona's escape, Erica Armstrong Dunbar appeared with the answer:

     Turns out, Dr. Dunbar is the author of Never Caught, a Finalist for the National Book Award for Nonfiction.  (Don't you just love the Internet?)

     We read a lot these days about the importance of children seeing people like themselves in the books they read.  That is so important.  Books are the first, best place for kids to learn they are not alone in an overwhelming world.  (Thank you, A Wrinkle in Time.)  But the joyful synchronicity of this online exchange compels me to reaffirm the equal importance of kids -- and grownups -- reading books that are filled with people with whom they have little, if anything, in common.

     I have a very specific fourth-grade memory of reading The Song of Bernadette, Franz Werfel's novel about St. Bernadette Soubirous and her visions of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Lourdes, France. Galvanized to action by a looming book report deadline, I found it amidst my mother's collection of Reader's Digest abridged books.  Who could have predicted this chance encounter would spark a life-long interest in the Catholic faith to which I eventually would convert?  Given that my great-grandfather helped found our local Lutheran church, that's quite a testament to the life-changing power of friendships formed in a book.

     Occasionally, as a reading teacher, I've been led by my students to books I would never have given the time of day.  Books like this:

     As a ballet-dancing, impressionist art-loving, life-long inveterate bookworm, never would I have picked this book for myself!  I was actually somewhat flabbergasted to see it presented in the hands of a demure little sixth grade girl.  But somehow Jackie spoke to her, and together we worked our way through the events of his uncommon life, marveling over his athletic prowess and at the intelligence and grace with which he overcame the mighty challenges as America's first African American in the MLB.   My life was enriched by his story, one I would eventually impart to all three of my sport-obsessed sons.

     So thank you to @jasonreynolds83 for leading me to Ona Judge (as well as to the Ghost who was haunted by his past). 

Click here for an amazing book trailer you will want to use in your class!

     And, thank you, Erica Amstrong Dunbar, for guiding me through Ona's life in your wonderful book that I've just begun to read.  

@ericaadunbar

     Thank you, writers everywhere.  Your stories, both real and imagined, can teach us about ourselves and others;  they can teach us about ourselves through others. 

Up next:  The Sustained Reader Examines The Unfortunate Exclusion of Mrs. Why

Need a Day Off? The Sustained Reader Can Help!

As every educator knows, classroom teaching may be the only profession where it’s more difficult NOT to show up to work!  Consequently, many a sick, exhausted, or feeling-a-little-crispy-around-the-edges teacher drags herself into the classroom instead of taking that well-deserved rest. Fortunately, The Sustained Reader (TSR) has had an idea! Drawing upon her 27 years of classroom teaching, TSR is creating a cache of objectives-based, classroom-tested teaching bundles for use on just such occasions!

The first bundle, titled “Teaching with Rabbit Ears: 'How the Leopard Got His Spots',”* is designed, in part, to provide substitute teachers with engaging and easy-to-implement lessons that ensure meaningful instruction continues in your absence. Best of all, each lesson includes an extension activity that requires your students to apply the skills they've practiced together to the Silent Sustained Reading book they've selected for themselves.

If, like The Sustained Reader, you've become immune to all student-borne bacteria, you'll be happy to know these lessons are also perfect for those crazy days before a holiday as well as that occasional day when you just want your students to hear a different voice. (Great for home-school use, too!)

Each "Teaching with Rabbit Ears" lesson is intended for use with a Rabbit Ears picture book and CD set, all of which are available, new and used, at Amazon.com and often at Half-Price Books. Because of the extremely high quality of Rabbit Ears products, most school librarians will be happy to purchase them for campus-wide access. Given her book hoarding tendencies, though, The Sustained Reader never felt much inclined to share such academic treasures, nor would she have wanted to leave them behind should she transfer to a different campus.  So, she bought them for herself, loaning them out only very occasionally to her dearest and most desperate friends; to this day, her extensive Rabbit Ears collection has proven to be among the most useful purchases she ever made as a teacher.  

  Throat a little scratchy? Crazy-making holiday coming up? There's no time like the present to prepare for the future. Go to TeachersPayTeachers.com and look for The Sustained Reader brand. You'll be happy you did -- and so will your substitute!

*Here's your direct link to TeachersPayTeachers.com: Teaching with Rabbit Ears: "How the Leopard Got His Spots"

A Dynamic Duo: You and Your School Librarian

     Holy Hard Work, Teachers!  Does that look familiar?  Promoting school literacy can be a daunting job -- even for the most tireless Language Arts advocates!  And because the quest is never-ending, sometimes even a super-hero needs help. 

     Take heart, my Classroom Crusaders. Your perfect partner may be as close as the school library!  Contrary to her mild-mannered appearance, the librarian (an oft-overlooked resource) has super-powers far beyond calming class cut-ups with a single, "SHHHHH!"  And, she's eager to share them!

     As you may recall from our last thrilling installment,  Getting All aTwitter About Books, "the number one job of a Language Arts teacher is getting her students excited about reading."  But how, you may ask, can our librarian help?  With a mere touch of the keyboard, your school librarian can conjure up book lists tailored to entice even the most reluctant readers.  You just have to know how to use them.

          For reasons obvious to any middle school teacher, let's call this first printout our "But, Mom!  EVERYBODY'S Reading It!" book list.  Notoriously motivated by whatever their peers are doing, students in grades sixth through eight cannot help but gravitate to a list of the twenty-five books most frequently chosen by their classmates during the first semester of school.  With a piece of poster board, some colorful markers, and a few willing accomplices -- (aka student aides, teaching interns, or that kid who just loves hanging around your classroom) -- the list below easily becomes "poster perfect" for a quick classroom Book Buzz.* Yes, you will have to recreate this poster each year as student choices change, but in my experience, the interest it sparked throughout my classes made it worth the effort.

     OR, as librarians say, check this out:  Sustained Readers -- (which your students soon will be) -- learn to hunt down books that appeal to their personal interests.**  With spring just around the corner, many of them will begin to exhibit symptoms of baseball fever.  What better time to tempt your "jocks" with a list of fiction and nonfiction titles to feed their current obsession?  The list below is only one of sixteen pages to appear when your cagey companion runs a search for "books about baseball."  

     In the interests of keeping this task manageable, you may want to ask your savvy sidekick to winnow the list down to ten or so of the most popular titles.  Those "Top Ten Baseball Books" then become a poster to display after the class reads some baseball-related text.  (For sixth graders, might I suggest a choral reading of Casey at the Bat by Ernest Lawrence Thayer?)  If you ask nicely, your newest -- and best? -- campus resource may even pull out the tantalizing volumes for display during your classes' next Library Day!  [Added bonus:  This is a poster you can use year after year.]

   

     Swing by soon to plot these and other amazing escapades with your school librarian!  Together, you may discover a whole new world of academic adventure!

  * Click here for a quick refresher on Starting the Student Book Buzz!

** For more on "How to Choose a Book You Will Enjoy," take a peek at So Many Books, So Little Time.

The Sustained Reader gratefully dedicates this article to the Dynamic Duo of Erin Flynn and Brenda Sparks Specks who immediately (and without any grumbling whatsoever) came to the rescue in running the kinds of book lists I needed for illustrative purposes.

     

     

Getting All aTwitter About Books!

     Perhaps the number one job of a Language Arts teacher is getting her students excited about reading.  After all, the more they read, the better they read, and the better they read --  well, the more they read.  Nothing vicious about that cycle, right?  The question, though, is "How do we get them excited?" 

     In my experience, excitement results not from one massive school-wide activity like an author visit from John Green.*  (Although that would be mind-blowingly fabulous, and will someone please set that up for me today?)  Excitement about reading is the cumulative result of small, on-going efforts -- daily, if possible -- to place engaging text in front of your students, express enthusiasm for that text, and provide students with the opportunity to explore, discuss, and write about that text.  It's true.  The more I gave students time to talk with each other about the books they were choosing for themselves, the more excited everyone became about reading.  Including me!

     For one such activity, we need look no further than social media, specifically Twitter.

     I always love the beginning of every year because that's when publishers post lists on social media of the books they'll debut in the new year.  Just yesterday, I ran across the most wonderful tweet from Brightly, an online resource in partnership with Random House Penguin:

18 of the Most Buzzed-About Middle Grade Books of 2018

Colorful and with print large enough to placate even the most reluctant reader, this Brightly list not only features each book jacket and a short blurb about its contents, but also offers links to four online booksellers where you -- and your students -- can explore the books even further!

     Here's how you can use this as a classroom resource to get your students all aTwitter about books that will soon hit the shelves:

Step One:  Tell your students that, today, they get to preview the 18 most buzzed about books of 2018!  That's right!  Through your amazing connections in the Twitterverse, YOU have arranged for them to get a sneak peak at 18 amazing books not yet released to the general public!

Step Two:  For their computer-time assignment, direct the students to look at each of the 18 covers, read the 18 blurbs, explore the 18 links, and -- most importantly -- write the titles and authors of any books they might want to read on the "Books I Want to Read" page in the back of their composition books.*

Step Three:  Once the students have perused the entire list, have them complete a Google Form survey or a good old-fashioned print ballot, naming the three books they found the most interesting and settling on the one book they think stands out as the best of show.  

Step Four:  The written assignment is for students to write a short paragraph stating which book they think looks the best/they want to read most/they want to read first/etc.  Their topic sentence should be supported with at least one reason they want to read it, and each reason followed by explanation and/or example.  Something like this:

     Of the 18 books we previewed in class yesterday, I am most looking forward to reading  The Science of Breakable Things by Tae Keller.  As you know, science is my favorite subject, and according to the book blurb, the main character Natalie uses scientific method with a classroom "egg drop" experiment as well as a method for solving her mother's real life struggle with depression.  I'd be very interested to see whether it's possible to use scientific method to solve real life problems.  Also, the blurb suggested that this book is, in some ways, like The Thing About Jellyfish, my very favorite book from last year.  The Science of Breakable Things is definitely going on my "Books I Want to Read" list!

This paragraph should not be an elaborate composition project.  The more of these paragraphs the students write, the more adept they will become at discussing text and at recommending books to each other, a major component of creating a book buzz in your classroom.

Step Five:  Reading is a social activity -- or, at least, it should be.  Talking about books they have read as well as books they want to read is an important part of getting students excited about text.  In small groups or as a whole class activity, have the students share their paragraphs or just discuss their opinions about the books the chose as their favorites.

Step Six:  Create a bulletin board or poster featuring all of the book covers plus 1) how many kids chose each book as their favorite and 2) the date when each book is going to be released.  See if you can get your librarian/the PTA/classroom parents to purchase a copy of the book for your school/classroom library.  

Step Seven:  Make a point of letting the kids know the week/day before the book is due to be released, and ALWAYS be sure to show any professionally-made books trailers provided by the publisher.

     These seven easy steps should take no longer than two days during which your students use technology to read about books (and maybe compose their paragraphs, depending on the availability of computers on your campus).  It affords the opportunity for the group work that so many administrators promote, and it helps to instill in students the good reading habit of knowing what they are going to read next.

  * If you haven't yet nabbed a copy of Green's latest, Turtles All the Way Down, do yourself a favor and order it today -- for yourself or for your 8th grade and up classroom library.  Beyond the pleasure of learning what that title has to do with anything, the book 1) offers beautifully developed character relationships that can make adolescent readers feel less alone and 2) provides comfort in knowing that you're not the only person in the world coping with anxiety every. single. day. of your life.

** For more info on the "Books I Want to Read" page, see Starting the Student Book Buzz and The Best Book List EVER!.