Books can be both mirrors, reflecting students’ lives, or windows into the lives of others. You know the value of creating an inclusive classroom library, but maybe you’re not sure how to start. Our guest today is Dr. Sheila Frye from Teaching Literacy. She’ll share practical tips for auditing what you have, making informed purchasing choices, and thinking critically about…
How many Asian American YA novels do you have in your classroom library? We recently read Wicked Fox, a new YA urban fantasy by Kat Cho, and we wanted to collect some of our favorite Asian American YA authors and protags to share. According to a study done by Creative Commons, only 7% of children’s and YA books…
The #1 Thing Students Need to Know When You Recommend a Book Reggie sits at his desk during SSR, drumming his fingers on the table. He reads for five minutes, but then takes his book back to your classroom library and wants to exchange it for another. It seems like Reggie never gets more than a quarter of the…
How It Went Down by Kekla Magoon is a careful, thought-provoking portrait of the aftermath of a shooting, making it a strong choice for a high school read-aloud and discussion starter. Jack Franklin, white, thinks he’s doing a good deed when he shoots and kills sixteen-year-old Tariq Johnson (black) as he leaves a convenience store. But what really happened? We…
Everything, Everything Madeline, who can’t leave her Clean House for fear of dying from an allergy to an unknown trigger, wants more. She wants to feel the ocean in between her toes and smell the musty old spines in a used bookstore. She reads thousands of pages to escape the confines of a white-on-white filtered-air house, but knows in her…
Teaching Historical Fiction: Ideas for Fever 1793 I love Historical Fiction, and my new favorite is Laurie Halse Anderson’s Fever 1793. I wanted to share this book with you today so that you may 1) love it and 2) teach it. This book came out in 2000, long before I lived in Philadelphia or told the story of Yellow Fever…