Since we got back from winter break, my classes have just been wrapping things up, reflecting, and working on final essays and exams for common assessments. I thought I might write about what I’m reading this month instead of about what’s going on in my classroom.

I just finished Matched by Allie Condie a few weeks ago. I got it from a library book sale for my classroom library in the fall, and I picked it up in December to test it out. I enjoyed it for the most part, but it didn’t really hook me the way most YA dystopian fiction does. I couldn’t put down Westerfield’s Uglies series once I started them, for example, and I finished all three of The Hunger Games books in a weekend. Compared to those series, the pace of Matched seemed a little slow to me, although I was intrigued by the world she was building, and it left me wanting to know more about how it came to exist and what other parts of the Society are like. I think I’ll get the rest of the series and read those soon. Maybe.

I’m currently reading 3 books: Fear: Trump in the White House by Bob Woodward, Hacking Assessment by Starr Sackstein, and 180 Days by Kelly Gallagher and Penny Kittle.

I am a huge fan of Bob Woodward’s work. I’m a total nerd for all things politics, and I was probably the most excited person in the room when I got to attend a meet and greet with Woodward in college. All of the other students that attended probably thought I was a little weird. What other college student in the late 2000s loved Bob Woodward that much? How many even knew who he was? Anyway, Fear starts out with the campaign and then dives into Trump’s first year. I have always followed presidential politics closely, and so most of the information is just a more in-depth look at events that I am at least vaguely familiar with. Still, I think it’s interesting stuff and definitely an important read.

I am loving both Hacking Assessment and 180 Days. I’m trying to get through as much as possible from both this weekend, because we’re starting a new semester on Tuesday. Most of my students will be new to my classroom, so it’s a great opportunity to implement changes and try new things.

From Hacking Assessment, I’m planning on frontloading a lot of work with students on self evaluation and peer feedback to create more of an ongoing feedback loop. I also really like the feedback form on page 53, and I am going to use a similar one.

I have been slowly moving toward more of a workshop model in my classes, and 180 Days has given me a nice push in that direction. I’m currently thinking about how to fit that in with the district curriculum for my 10th graders, and I think it will work. I’ve written before about how independent reading from choice books is already ingrained in the English classes at my school, so the only tweak I think I’m going to make there is increasing reading conferences with students.

Beyond independent reading, we as a district use StudySync for the majority of our work in 10th grade ELA, which provides students with a variety of excerpts from longer works for study. The StudySync lessons often focus first on reading comprehension and vocabulary for one text, and then on literary analysis and/or author’s craft mini-lessons with the same text. I think the lengths of the texts and the mini-lessons will lend themselves well to a workshop set up, although I’m not sure yet what role the reading comprehension and literary analysis questions will play in that. I’ll have to do some experimenting to see what works.

One common thread I’m taking from both 180 Days and Hacking Assessment is the importance of student choice and voice. I’ve already revised the first major writing project for my 11th graders to give students a great deal of choice in both the prompts they can write about and the formats that they can use for their writing. I need to look at the 10th grade StudySync curriculum and find creative ways to build in more room for student choice there as well.

My mind feels like it is so full of ideas lately, and I can’t wait to get started on some of these changes.

What are you reading and thinking about right now? What are you excited about in the literature world or in the teaching world?