(Part 2) Top products from r/ELATeachers

If I could go back in time as a senior in high school, above all, I would just do more reading, and I would read widely. I did not start on the path to English teaching until I was 26, and although I did great in college and I feel that I am a successful teacher now, my weakness is my reading background. I would suggest using an app like Goodreads so that you can track your progress as you chip away at the literary canon, work by work. The texts that are going to help you the most and serve you for the rest of your career are the ones that most authors allude to, so, I would suggest that at some point you familiarize yourself with these from a literary standpoint:

• The Bible
  
• Homer's The Iliad and The Odyssey
  
• Virgil's Aenid
  
• Ovid's Metamorphoses
  
• As many Shakespeare plays as you can read (and I just want to mention that the Cambridge School editions are the best for teaching)
  
  As far as resources that will give you a head start, I suggest:
  
  
• Shmoop (but only after you've exhausted your own abilities with a text)
  
• How to Read Literature Like a Professor
  
• How Literature Works
  
• Any Introductory Textbook to Critical Theory
  
  Considering pedagogy resources, by the time you are in an education program, there will be new research and new buzzwords, so I won't waste my time here, but these are my favorite resources when it comes to inspiring my teaching:
  
  
• Rick Wormeli (Seriously, this guy is amazing)
  
• Teach Like a Pirate
  
• Reading in the Wild
  
  Lastly, if you go into an English education program with a near-perfect understanding of grammar, your life will be so much easier. I suggest these three resources for brushing up:
  
  
• No Red Ink
  
• Teaching Grammar Through Writing
  
• Language Exploration and Awareness
  
  Good luck, and let me know if you have questions! If you do anything on this list, just read!

Peter Smagorinsky: "Teaching English by Design"
Great resource for planning complete units and for literature activities.
http://www.amazon.com/Teaching-English-Design-Create-Instructional/dp/0325009805

Edgar Schuster: "Breaking the Rules: Liberating Writers Through Innovative Grammar Instruction"
Good introduction to grammar instruction and the controversies surrounding it. (A bit iconoclastic, but I agree with his approach. The anti-grammar-nazi.)

6+1 Traits of Writing. There are different books and websites. http://educationnorthwest.org/traits

This is the "mandated" writing strategy in my county, but it is really good. There is a book specifically for middle school that has great writing instruction ideas.

Wow thank you for your advice, I really appreciate that. I shall note them down at once.

Are you using any tables/forms that might be useful in this case that you are currently using for your classes? Are there any writing practices that you would suggest to your class for the sake of improving their writing in general?

Question though, which Hacker book on grammar are we talking about? https://www.amazon.com/Bedford-Handbook-Diana-Hacker/dp/0312419333 is the one I found on Amazon, and I'm just not sure if that's the one you are talking about.

Lots of experience.

First, here are four books I recommend related to this (in rough order of practical to theoretical):

Book Love

Readicide

In The Middle

Free Voluntary Reading

Second, if ALL you did was make sure they read books and developed a love for them, it would be good.

The best way to "keep them accountable" imo is to conference with them semi-regularly to talk about the book they are reading. Something else I do is go around and write the page number they are on. This can give you data on reading rate over time. It also helps to know who is reading and who is faking.

Now, your student population will affect how/when/if you do this. But, I imagine it will be helpful for about 90% of high school populations. Maybe 100. (Free Voluntary Reading backs this up with many many studies)

It can be a struggle, but if you make it part of your culture, you will get buy-in. Consider that I work at an alternative high school with "difficult students". One of my most resistant readers this year ("I ain't reading books. I hate reading..") Has finished like 6-10 books in half a year. She probably hasn't read that many in her last 3-5 years of school combined.

One important key is getting good books.

The most common argument against high school SSR is "I don't have time to that with all the content I have to cover." Depending on how nice I was feeling, I would say, "You don't have time not to." Otherwise, I might say, "Quit wasting student time with so much 'content'. "

Absolutely! We read the first book as a class and assigned the students books from the series to read (except the last one. Essentially, it doesn't matter what book in the series you read, they follow the same basic plot structure and pattern). I split the class into two groups and made them book writing groups. They worked as a group to develop the plot of their books, and developed a general synopsis for each chapter (to bring continuity to the chapters). The students each got to write and edit their own chapter and someone else's. Finally, we printed them up and put them into this: http://www.amazon.com/Blank-Series-Unfortunate-Events-Journal/dp/0060586567/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1398739082&sr=8-1&keywords=the+blank+book

It's a lot of fun and the books came out looking and sounding amazing! :)

I'm with you. I always feel guilty that I don't make (enough) time for SSR, because my kids genuinely seem to love it, and watching me read independently with them, I believe, is really important.

That said, I've been using the [Notice and Note] strategies to help with close reading, and often try to give the kids a strategy to look for during their independent reading time. I don't do this all the time (again, time constraints!) but do my best to do so. It's a great resource if you haven't heard of it before!(https://www.amazon.com/Notice-Note-Strategies-Close-Reading/dp/032504693X)

What about The Surrender Tree? It is a fantastic verse novel about the Cuban War of Independence. Not sure if Cuba is too close to the other countries you mentioned.

It combines English and Spanish, is intended for 7-12, and hits the flowery language very well! It’s a beautiful text that I’d highly recommend.

Look at

https://www.amazon.com/English-Brushup-John-Langan/dp/0073513601

I use this book with really low level high school students. There are a lot of chapters we don't cover because we just don't have time but it definitely ramps up to more complex grammar skills.

We also had success with IXL (the grammar) online accounts but funding got cut last year so we switched to books.

180 Days is a book by Kelly Gallagher and Penny Kittle. They’re high school ELA teachers that co-taught for a year. It’s a great book that has lots of practical advice!
https://www.amazon.com/180-DAYS-Teachers-Empower-Adolescents/dp/0325081131

The Alchemist I think checks most of the boxes. Your kids will love it.

https://www.amazon.com/Alchemist-Paulo-Coelho/dp/0062315005/ref=dp_ob_title_bk

Plan backwards. For each unit figure out your final, summative assessment, determine how long you want the unit to be, and then plan lessons with objectives that focus in on whatever skills or content knowledge you plan on assessing in the final project.

It's worth investing in a copy of Understanding by Design to help you plan your units, especially if you haven't studied teaching in undergrad or grad school.

You might want to check out some of the poems in Tupac's The Rose That Grew From Concrete. I also pulled some poems from the book Paint me Like I am.

I use Goodreads Listopia sometimes. I also grab a copy of every anthology I can get my hands on, especially those that are organized thematically. Retellings is awesome, and I have totally exploited it for my AP literature classes.

Some suggestions:
Golden Boy by Tara Sullivan.

Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass by Meg Medina (but this might be a little young for your kids)

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein

Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys

I'd also second Feed.

You should pick up Joy Write: Cultivating High-Impact, Low-Stakes Writing by Ralph Fletcher. It helped me set up my writer’s notebooks last year. In terms of what kind of notebook to use, I just had my students decide on their own. I also had them stick this to the inside cover in case they were running short on ideas. Also, here are a few slides I used to introduce the concept to colleagues.