Literacy Now

Four years ago I came across Drive by Daniel Pink. This professional reading continues to empower my teaching practice. Drive focuses on how to avoid meaningless work by engaging in work for a purpose. Pink’s writing focuses on three specific characteristics of work: autonomy, mastery, and purpose. He describes autonomy as the urge to direct our own course, mastery as the drive to improve, and purpose as the reasoning behind what we do.

Still today I take to heart what Pink wrote. Not only do I apply it to my personal life, I also implement it in my classroom. I have found it is difficult to have students work towards a larger purpose by asking them to hang their work outside the classroom. Instead, I look for ways to learn outside of the classroom while asking the students to work with a purpose. We then harness Twitter, Skype, and other technological vehicles to connect the student’s work with other classes, organizations, and businesses to ensure students are working for a purpose.

This year my students participated in the National Association of Independent Schools Challenge 20/20 program. This program is an Internet-based program teaming three classes to find solutions top global problems. To start, we connected with our partner schools in Rochester, NY, and Vitoria, Spain, to work on global biodiversity. Each class pursued a project covering one problem in their area. Our projects had the same enduring understandings of empathy, compassion, and collaboration. While working globally, we also connected locally with programs including The Dallas Zoo’s program about conservation and The Dallas World Aquarium’s shark program. These programs heightened my student’s passion for the subjects and allowed us to tie in other studies such as art, Spanish fluency, and literacy. We researched the geographic locations of shark habitats using Google Earth and learned about a global demand for shark fins driven partially by a cultural desire for shark fin soup.

The students then researched how we, as young learners, could solve this problem. This lead us to an organization called Sharks 4 Kids. One of the major components of Sharks 4 Kids is to educate and help kids learn to advocate for sharks. My students took this to heart and decided to collaborate on a book, All About Sharks, which we will share with the other classes in the Challenge. We are in the process of recording our book in both English and Spanish to post on YouTube to share globally.

The students ate up the shark research so much I tied in reading and writing nonfiction. I scheduled a field trip to The Dallas World Aquarium and each student picked an animal to research. They wrote four chapters with different chapter titles such as “Where Boas Live,” “What Boas Eat,” “Boa Babies,” and “Fun Facts.” I told students they would take photos of their researched animal during our trip. The reason was two-fold: first, students will have a purpose on the trip, second, for copyright issues. My librarian and I collaborated on our digital citizenship goals. Our goal included students citing sources and at this point in the school year this can be a bit daunting. While brainstorming solutions, one was for students to take pictures of the animals themselves.  We will also have students illustrate pictures in addition to using the Book Creator app.

My favorite moment so far this school year unfolded when we arrived at the aquarium. The sight mesmerized the students. As we forged ahead to the first exhibit, I heard squeaks and squeals of “Hey Marshall, look at your animal the three-toed sloth.” The students not only knew the facts about their animal, they knew their peers’ animals. They took their learning and owned it!

To keep the excitement going after these trips, I have planned Skype sessions with the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (SANCCOB) to hear the story of a rescued penguin named Beakie, Digital Explorers to hear about coral reefs, and Yoga Foster to participate in an ocean yoga lesson.

I know this can sound like a lot. I want to urge educators to start small. Take one question from a child or one topic and go with it. Make a list of local and virtual ideas. My favorite virtual ideas are Skype in the Classroom and Twitter. Talk with colleagues and ask for help. Our Spanish teacher helped me with the aquarium field trip by tracking animals using Google Maps and the students learned animal names in Spanish. They are also writing a sentence in Spanish about their animal for their book. The art teacher at my school tied in photography. She taught students how to take photos and the importance of light when taking photos on the trip.  

Once you start you will be simply amazed at how the learning extends outside of your classroom. Hold on tight and get ready to be amazed.

Allison Hogan is a primer teacher at The Episcopal School of Dallas in Texas where she teaches kindergarten and first grade. She holds a bachelor’s in communications from the University of North Florida and a graduate degree in education from Southern Methodist University where she specialized in reading and English as a Second Language. She has been recognized as a Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development Emerging Leader and a National Association of Independent Schools Teacher of the Future. She can be found on Twitter at @AllisonHoganESD or @PrimerESD.

Kindergarten is such a transitional time in the life of a 5-year-old and the crucial time to begin an exciting path to lifelong learner. That being said, it is critical Kindergarten teachers fill the emergent writers with tools for the rest of their school careers. One is how to write a story in a sequence. The easiest way is with something most of you have in your classroom, sequencing puzzles. You know that kit, the one with the three puzzle pieces that obviously fit together because the pictures go together—AND there is only one way for the pieces to fit.

It certainly isn’t the best activity to assess or even practice their sequencing skills, but let’s not throw the puzzles away too quickly. Use that puzzle set in a center to inspire writing in a sequence.

Put a set of the puzzles together under the document camera and have the students tell the story while pointing to each picture. “I see a jar of popcorn. I cook the popcorn. I eat the popcorn.” Introduce the students to the words: first, then, and last. Ask them to restate the sentences, adding those introduction words. “First, I see a jar of popcorn. Then, I cook the popcorn. Last, I eat the popcorn.” Practice this sequencing activity with a few completed puzzles each day for a week. Each day emphasize using the words first, then, and next.

The following week, revisit the puzzles. While the puzzles are displayed, write a sentence for each puzzle piece as a whole group. Providing a sheet with the transition words on it, students will create one story a day for a week. “First, I see the cow. Then, I milk the cow. Last, I drink the milk.” Once the students have practiced the art of orally telling a story in the correct sequence and writing the story with transition words, this becomes an independent center. I cleverly call it, “First, Then, Last.” I know it isn’t creative, but the students know exactly what to expect. I put three sets of puzzles in a resealable bag. The students choose a bag, and put the puzzles together. After they choose one puzzle they get a sequencing paper and start their independent story. This center can remain for the next several weeks or for the remainder of the school year. The same bags can be used because students choose a bag and a different puzzle to write the story. Eventually, the writing paper is replaced with word cards (first, then, last) and students can add more details to their stories as they are comfortable.

Eventually, students may add a comment about how much they like or don’t like milk or even about how it would be to milk a cow. Providing simple sequencing lessons lets a student experience success with writing. Each success puts another writing tool in their toolbox and future teachers can build on this skill to increase the rigor and expectations.

Cathy Collier is a reading specialist at Great Bridge Primary School in Chesapeake, VA, with an additional 15 years as a kindergarten teacher. She has her B.S. in Special Education, a master’s degree in Special Education and a certified reading specialist. She is the immediate past president of the Virginia State Reading Association.

Let’s face it: education is, and always has been, a pendulum. It seems as if the people who lead the charge in our educational system feel we have to choose just one way make our children proficient in academics. Then, politicians promote it, college professors seem to be apathetic to it, and, for the most part, teachers accept it, knowing that in a few more years the pendulum will indeed swing back to the other side and strategies and mandates will change yet again.

In the meantime, our students suffer and I wonder, why is there never a middle? We seem to forget pendulums have a middle, directly under the “point of support.” Why then can’t we choose the middle? Isn’t that what we want to be for our students—a point of support?

For our current opposing strategies, consider the sanctioned/safe method of study—Common Core Standards—and, on the other end, a technique that is a little less structured and a little more risky—Project-Based Learning. As often happens, neither of the two “ends of the swing” seem to be the right fit for every child, in every subject, in every situation.

The problem with not recognizing the middle is that we become shortsighted. We start to think all students can learn the same way, and even worse, we believe the same student will learn everything he or she needs to know using that same preferred method. Given our country’s pride surrounding diversity and embracing differences, we should already know this progression just doesn’t make sense. And given current statistics, this theory doesn’t make proficient students, either. 

I do get it. Schools are under significant pressure to perform within the confines of the Standards, and in the minds of administrators it is much easier to perform under what is presumed a stable and more “in the hands of the adult in the room” setting. A given set of standards with specific skill sets does provide a jumping off point for most students and a more discernable way to evaluate progress.

These skill sets, although important, will not provide necessary critical thinking, team-building, creativity, and communication skills needed for our students to survive in today’s real-world scenarios. Furthermore, they will not even provide the skills needed for the students to pass the newest test on the block, Smarter Balance.

On the other hand, PBL provides the opportunity for the student to choose. The teacher no longer does the evaluation or synthesis. Students are actually given the opportunity to formulate their own ideas regarding a given thought or practice. Administrators claim to want this type of learning atmosphere and student, but it has been my experience that they don’t want the methods that will provide them. The push-back for teachers who choose PBL in a Common Core world is often devastating to teachers and students.

Don’t get me wrong. I am in no way trying to say there shouldn’t be specific skill sets all students must know. On the other hand, I am also not saying that supplying the students with “big questions” in which they have to work as a team to examine solutions, ideas, and/or processes is not a necessary part of a true education. So, what is the answer?

• Create assignments that use skill sets included in the Common Core, with the core ideas and values that exist in any respectable project management atmosphere.
• Allow students to use their problem-solving skills. This is a necessity to being successful in life.
• Engage students in reading—anything and everything—and teach them how to talk about it.
• Ensure students have a strong skill-set base in math, reading, and writing. This includes being able to evaluate what’s important, what’s not, and what’s different or the same about both.
• Teach students that every idea, thought process, and text has a sequence. Figure it out and you open the door to meaning.
• Allow students to fail. There is something to be said for the idea that failure builds knowledge and character.

Or…simply find the middle and use a little bit of everything.

Pam Andreavich is a middle school writing teacher at a charter school in Middletown, DE. She is an executive board member for Delaware’s Odyssey of the Mind program.

Happy New Year! Each year, educators are fortunate to have two opportunities to celebrate a new beginning. Filled with the anticipation and excitement of a brand-new school year, we often make resolutions to improve various aspects of our instruction. Now, as we ring in 2015, it’s a perfect opportunity to consider three small changes that will positively impact our students’ learning as we transform our literacy teaching to support them in meeting higher standards.

Strive for balance

Balance. It’s something we all aim for in our personal lives—a balanced diet, a balanced budget, a balance between work and play. Maintaining balance is essential in the era of higher standards. I’ve heard of many questionable instructional practices and shiny packaged programs being mandated in the name of Common Core. It’s time to use common sense! Wise teachers, like you, know better than to abandon the research-based stages of gradual release and proven practices like read-aloud, guided reading, and independent reading.

Now, more than ever, children need to hear rich literature read aloud on a daily basis. When carefully-selected literature is surrounded by collaborative conversations, listeners’ comprehension of complex text soars. Not only do we surround texts with discussion, but we also use them as mentor texts to demonstrate the strategic moves of proficient readers. Then, we scaffold as our readers try out what they’ve learned during guided practice. The descriptive feedback we provide, whether in small-guided reading groups or in individual conferences, is the key to nudging readers toward independence. Finally, to apply all of this learning in authentic context of self-selected books, students need ample time to engage in supported independent reading. Learners thrive in classrooms where caring educators know their readers, are knowledgeable about books, and can put the perfect book in each reader’s hands. With the words of great literature singing in their ears, students in balanced literacy classrooms are more likely to become confident, capable readers.

If you’re looking for more ideas or research to support the need for independent reading check out IRA’s recent Position Statement on Leisure Reading and Scholastic’s Open a World of Possible campaign. For more common sense information on finding balance in the Common Core Era see IRA’s Literacy Implementation Guidance for the ELA CCSS or Regie Routman’s recent blog post on Scholastic Administrators Site .

Notice the world around you

From your interactions with adults to conversations with children—words matter. No one educational researcher has had a greater influence on my thinking about words than Peter Johnston and his books Choice Words and Opening Minds.

From him, I’ve learned that every word I say in my classroom has a profound impact on the way students view themselves and view each other. For the new year, I challenge you to add one simple question to your daily conversations with students. Ask your students, “What do you notice?” Since this questions has  no one “right” answer, it invites children who typically don’t participate to join the discussion. In addition, your avid noticers will find something interesting to share about any topic. In fact, just before Winter Break, we were studying the digraph “ch.”

Here’s the brief noticing conversation we had:

Kira: I notice that the word Christmas begins with a “ch.”
Christian: So does my name!
Me: Hmmmm! What do you notice about the words Christmas and Christian compared to the ones we’ve written on our “ch” chart?
Aarav: They make the /c/ sound and the words on our chart make the /ch/ sound.

This simple, yet powerful, exchange would not have happened if my students weren’t avid noticers. As Peter Johnston says, “To notice—to become aware of—the possible things to observe about the literate world, about oneself, and about others can open conversations among students who are noticing different things.”

“Let It Go!”

I know you love the penguin unit that you’ve been teaching for the last 20 years. I know because I used to teach one, too. I spent hours creating the activities and, over the years, bought a lot of penguin books for our classroom library. Certainly, if we’re going to focus on helping students achieve higher standards, we can’t do everything we’ve always done plus more. Because our instructional time is precious, we have to focus our attention on the learning experiences that will propel students toward higher standards, which may mean giving up the beloved penguin unit. In our school, we have meetings where we celebrate “brave abandonments.” We cheer and encourage teachers who make intentional decisions to abandon a routine, practice, or activity to make more instructional time for authentic and purposeful literacy experiences. In the words of Elsa from Frozen, “It’s time to see what I can do. To test the limits and break through.” As you ring in 2015, ask yourself, “Can I let something go to make more room for meaningful literacy experiences?”

What other small changes would you suggest to your colleagues as they transform their literacy instruction to meet higher standards? Share your stories at social@/.

Maria Walther is a first-grade teacher, literacy consultant, and Scholastic author. Her latest book Transforming Literacy Teaching in the Era of Higher Standards comes out this month. Find out more at her website or follow her on Twitter.

Just when we, as a society, begin to think we are making headway with social justice and tolerance, we are reminded of how much more there is to do. Young adult authors take this challenge seriously and continue writing thought-provoking fiction and nonfiction to offer contemporary adolescents a view of past struggles. The National Book Awards provided the impetus for this project when the 2014 Longlist for Young People’s Literature included Steve Sheinkin’s The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights and Deborah Wiles’ Revolution: The Sixties Trilogy, Book Two while Jacqueline Woodson’s Brown Girl Dreaming won the award. We wondered what choices teachers have from recently published works to help them blend civil rights into literacy instruction. Here are the texts and ideas we came up with.

Stella by Starlight (Simon & Schuster, 2015)
by Sharon M. Draper
Ages 9-12  
Historical Fiction

Young Stella chronicles her dreams of reading in a library, improving her writing, and living in an equitable world when she sneaks out of the house to write in her journal under the starlight. For a young African-American girl in rural, segregated South Carolina in 1932, these simple dreams sometimes seemed out of reach. Stella chronicles experiences and challenges of growing up, racism, and prejudice. She is profoundly impacted by her community’s encounters with the Ku Klux Klan and segregated classrooms that only receiv out-of-date worn books the white schools no longer want. In Stella by Starlight, Stella’s indomitable spirit and optimism shine through, taking the reader beyond challenges to a place of hope.

Teaching Ideas

Discussion: When Stella’s father asks her to come with him on the day he goes to vote in the presidential election, he indicates that Stella is his “standing stone.” What does her father mean by this reference? What does his reference indicate about Stella’s character and about her relationship with her father? What does her father’s reference to the need for a “standing stone” indicate about the situation he is likely to encounter as he goes to vote?

Writing project: Direct students to consider supportive people in their own lives. Identify one of those people they would consider a “standing stone.” Have students write several specific reasons why they consider that person a standing stone. Direct students to include a detailed narrative about a situation in which the selected person offered support and gave strength through a difficult situation. If a student feels as though s/he does not have a person to depend on, have the student write some of the qualities s/he would look for in a standing stone. All students should then write about how they can be a standing stone for another person in a difficult situation.

The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights (Roaring Brook Press, 2014)
by Steve Sheinkin
Ages 10-14
Non-Fiction

The story of 50 courageous men who stood on the frontline of the civil rights movement is chronicled in The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights. Only the African-American service members in the highly segregated U.S. Navy during World War II were required to load deadly ammunition and live bombs onto cramped ships at the Port Chicago base. After a deadly explosion that killed 320 servicemen and injured many more, the African American sailors demanded safer working conditions before they would load the ships with explosives again. The Navy classified this resistance as mutiny, and threatened the African-American sailors with death by firing squad if they did not comply with orders. Some of the men backed down, but 50 did not. This historical narrative recounts the painful Port Chicago disaster and ensuing controversial court-martial of 50 African American service members after the incident. The book is built on painstaking research of the facts, and is made richer still with the narrative of many of the men who experienced the incident. Images of original photos and documents throughout the book make this non-fiction text extraordinarily insightful and approachable for adolescent readers.

Teaching Ideas:

The epilogue offers an excerpt from the Navy’s official 1994 report of the Port Chicago incident stated although racial discrimination was institutionalized by segregated working and living conditions, “…racial prejudice and discrimination played no part in the court-martial convictions or sentences, and that there was nothing unfair or unjust in the final outcome of any of the Port Chicago court-martials.” Instruct students to consider the following question: Do you agree or disagree with this statement, and why? As students write their answers, they should include at least five references to evidence in the text to support their opinion. This writing activity could be used as an informal planning session to organize for a thoughtful classroom debate or as a planning activity prior to writing an essay after reading The Port Chicago 50.

Ask students to research a contemporary issue that involves civil rights issues. Each student will then compose a persuasive letter to a newspaper editorial page or blog like The Huffington Post stating a stance on the issue. The op-ed piece must be supported by the research.

Brown Girl Dreaming (Nancy Paulsen Books, 2014)
by Jacqueline Woodson
Ages 10+
Non-Fiction Novel-in-Verse

Jacqueline Woodson does not disappoint in her National Book Award-winning novel-in-verse Brown Girl Dreaming. She eloquently weaves a story of how who she was has made her into the woman she is today. Memories paint a picture of what her family means to her as well as her idea of home, which while it changes its physical location several times, stays the same in her heart. Through Woodson’s words we can see a child’s understanding of history as she moves from Ohio where being colored does not define her, to South Carolina where she must quickly learn to sit at the back of the bus and refrain from making eye contact with white people during the Civil Rights movement. Adolescent readers will benefit not only from the historical context in which the book is set, but also by the author’s examination of home, family, freedom, and sense of self. Teens are on a journey of self-discovery, and this novel poetically shows them someone else’s moments of impact as well as their effects.

Teaching Ideas

Free verse is a form that allows more freedom than other types of writing, so it is hopefully one that adolescents will be comfortable using. The last two poems, “what i believe,” and “each world” sum up what Woodson has learned through the parts of her life that she shared with us in the novel. Students could be asked to produce a free verse poem that sums up what they believe after they are guided through the process of examining important things in their lives. As the students read the novel, have them journal on certain selected poems from the book making sure that it is a reflection on their own lives. For example, “other people’s memory” on page 17 would require them to talk to different members of their family about their birth and construct their own story of their birth to tell. In “as a child, I smelled the air” on page 95, students would have to examine sights, smells, and sounds of important places in their lives. Page 131 offers a poem entitled “sometimes, no words are needed,” which would guide students to think about such a moment in their own lives. Woodson demonstrates how she modeled a poem off of a Langston Hughes poem in “learning from langston” on page 245. Instruct students to pick one of their favorite poems and following the style of that poet, write their own stanza about the same subject from their own perspective. As their assessment for this unit, have them write their own free verse poem about what they currently believe about themselves and life.

The Fog Machine (Lucky Sky Press, 2014)
by Susan Follett
General Audience
Historical Fiction

Joan from Follett’s The Fog Machine examines a bookcase in one of the freedom summer schools that was set up in Mississippi in 1964. “Reading would be no fun at all, she thought, if you couldn’t imagine yourself into the story.” Follett manages in this beautiful tale to not only pull readers in and imagine themselves in the story, but she also forces them to question how they would behave during interactions that occur throughout the novel. The Fog Machine is a poignant tale of a search for equality and justice by different people during the time of the Civil Rights movement. Told from the points of view of C.J. who is a colored girl of 12 years old at the beginning of the novel, as well as sometimes from Joan, the little white girl that C.J. cared for at one point in her life, and Zach, a white boy C.J.’s age who impacts her in ways she could never have predicted, we see the varying perspectives of both races during the tumultuous times in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. We watch the characters grow up separately and interact with people that will help them to shape their own beliefs of what is right and how people should be treated. All of them will be forced to leave their comfort zones as they ultimately decide how hard they are willing to fight for freedom and whether or not the price is worth it. Lives separate and then intersect again throughout the novel leaving the reader with a sense of connectedness between the characters that the time in which they live attempts to destroy. It is a realistic story that breaks the reader’s heart at times with its truth, leaving one to ponder how things could have turned out differently for the characters at a later time in history.

Teaching Ideas

There is a historic timeline in the front of the book that is helpful for students to cross-reference events as they happen in the story, but also serves as a topic list for potential group projects. Have students pick an event from the list and ask them to research more about that particular topic. Students can have control over how they present the information they learn to the class, but they must be sure to also reference how the characters in the book felt, or what they did in reaction to the event or topic that the group has researched. They must also individually write a reflection on how they personally feel about the event or person now, and what they imagine they would have done if they were living in those times. As groups present their topics, all students should take notes so that at the end of the presentations each individual will turn in a completed timeline of events that were discussed, with three main points about each thing included.

The Freedom Summer Murders (Scholastic, 2014)
by Don Mitchell
Ages 14+
Non-Fiction

Andrew Goodman, James Earl Chaney, and Michael “Mickey” Schwerner were household names in Freedom Summer 1964 because of their gruesome deaths that were covered up by law enforcement in Neshoba County, Mississippi. The Freedom Summer Murders is a non-fiction look at these three gentlemen; who they were and what they stood for, as well as the story of their brutal murders followed by a look at the investigation into first finding their bodies, and then attempting to prosecute the guilty parties. The black and white pictures serve to enhance the story, and many highlight the racial tensions of the time. Students who read this book will come away with a better understanding of what was at stake for African Americans during this tumultuous time, as well as the risks that the freedom workers –black and white- took together in an effort to fight for civil rights. This book would work well paired with The Fog Machine, since the disappearance of these three young men was discussed in that work of fiction. There were some volunteers in that book who knew one or more of the men, and it was certainly an event that overshadowed the work of the characters during Freedom Summer.

Teaching Ideas

As a pre-reading activity, display a few of the pictures found in The Freedom Summer Murders without the captions on an Elmo, such as the ones on page 105, 109, and pg. 145. Instruct the students to journal about what they think is going on in these pictures. Tell them that they will see these photos again as they read the book.  As they come across each picture while reading, have them journal about each photo again now that they understand the context of the photo. Break the students into small groups and assign each group one of the pictures. Instruct them to create a t-chart of their reaction to the photo when it was taken out of context, and then their reaction as they came across it while reading and understood what was really going on in the pictures. Have each group share with the class and ask them to discuss how their reactions changed to the photos once the background on each was discovered.

Countdown (Scholastic, 2013) and
Revolution (Scholastic, 2014)
by Deborah Wiles
Ages 8-12
Historical Fiction

These companion texts are part of a trilogy set in the turbulent Sixties; each features a young teen girl growing up amid a tumultuous and changing world, one she often does not understand. In Countdown, Franny Chapman is 11 and living with her family near Washington, DC, in Camp Springs, Maryland, during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. The threat of nuclear war is not just for world leaders, but becomes very real for Franny and her family. Her younger brother annoys her since he always behaves himself. Her older sister Jo Ellen gets caught up in mysterious, secret meetings on campus at the University of Maryland. Her dad is in the Air Force and gets calls to report to base more frequently than he should while her mother tries to hold it all together. Uncle Otts, a World War I veteran, is determined to build a bomb shelter in their front yard. Amidst this turmoil, Franny is losing her best friend and perhaps gaining a boyfriend and trying her best to grow up no matter what is going on.

What makes both of these books remarkable, however, is Wiles’ documentary novel approach. Pop songs of the era, along with Red Scare reminders, overlay powerful images from that time period. Interspersed with the narrative are accounts of those who influenced our society. In Revolution, protest songs and poems are also embedded with the disturbing photos and memorabilia.

In the second book, the scene shifts to Greenwood, Mississippi, and the summer of 1964. Sunny Fairchild is 12, and she and her family, along with the community, prepare for the “invaders.” Freedom Summer is coming bringing the outsiders who will try to register Negroes to vote. As the tension builds in the community, Sunny tries to cope with a new family now that her father has remarried. Annabelle, who is pregnant, her son Gillette and little sister Audrey hope to fit into Sunny’s life, but she resists with everything she has. The tie-in between the two storylines is Jo Ellen Chapman who comes to Greenwood with SNCC, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, to help register voters.

Teaching Ideas

Have students select a song that reflects the times they live in. Prepare a collage using the lyrics of the song along with pictures from magazines and the Internet to explain the theme of the song. Each student should write a brief explanation of how the lyrics and photos suggest the theme the student has chosen. Alternatively, students could work in pairs for a team approach.

The author David Levithan, who used bleak photographs as the backdrop for his book Every You, Every Me (2011), advised Deborah Wiles on the juxtaposition of images and words when writing a novel. Students can create their own documentary novels by using original photographs and tying them together with a story line. Sharing can be done via PowerPoint, Prezi, and even easel paper storyboards.

Do these work for you? Do you have your own methods of including this type of historical fiction or nonfiction? Share your stories at social@reading or on Twitter at
@iratoday.

Judith A. Hayn, is professor of Secondary Education at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. She is a member and past chair of SIGNAL, the Special Interest Group Network on Adolescent Literature of IRA which focuses on using young adult literature in the classroom. Karina Clemmons, associate professor of Secondary Education, and students in the Masters in Secondary English Education program and Heather A. Olvey is a graduate assistant.