ALA's Banned Book Week ignites oral and written conversations

This Sunday, September 24th,  begins the American Library Association's week-long celebration of the "Right to Read."They are focusing this year's celebration on the First Amendment, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances," (https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/United_States_of_America_1992.


This is a perfect time for students to explore their right to read what they want, when they want. They are shocked when they hear that some schools ban fairy tales written by the Grimm brothers such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (violence and sexual innuendo-Snow White lives with seven men), and Little Red Riding Hood (violence and alcohol infractions-underaged Little Red carries wine to her Grandmother). Then their attention is hooked when they find out that they have probably read at least one banned book since they started their formal education, and more than that through their independent reading.

In many elementary, middle, and high schools, teachers are often required to offer a second "safe" book when a controversial fiction or nonfiction book will be taught. Some do so just to keep possible challenges at bay. I remember being shocked when I found out that a parent of a student at a magnet school for only extremely high achieving high school students challenged the teaching of Ken Follett's, Pillars of the Earth. Her upset began at the start of the book when a number of medieval men and women were traveling between towns on foot and one of the women stopped along the side of the road to give birth. She felt this description was too graphic for her high school senior involved in the study of geriatric illnesses.  In support of the right for teachers and administrators to choose what books their charges will study, many high schools in the same district started "We Read Banned Book" clubs for staff and students at their schools.

This list of the "Ten Most Commonly Banned Books" on the Butler University site (http://libguides.butler.edu/c.php?g=34189&p=217684) would decimate many middle and high school English program of studies if a person or group chose to challenge their inclusion in the district's students education. 

1.  1984 (George Orwell)
2. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Mark Twain)
3. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
4. The Color Purple (Alice Walker)
5. The Great Gatsby (F.Scott Fitzgerald)
6. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Maya Angelou)
7. Lord of the Flies (William Golding)
8. Of Mice and Men (John Steinbeck)
9. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Ken Kesey)
10. To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee)

Although many books are challenged by a person or group, not all of these are restricted in some form, such as not permitted in the school library or kept to specific grade levels, nor do they end up being banned-not allowed in school libraries or programs of study.

My product, "Writing Activity - Banned Books Research Project," gives students the chance to choose a banned book to read-with parental permission- and to research the reason(s) it has been banned.  Students will explore various facets of book censorship in schools to become more proficient in their reading, critical thinking and writing skills. Whether they choose to investigate the legal, historical, moral or societal aspects of this issue is up to each individual student and his/her personal interest in this topic. In order to illustrate the points for book censorship in the schools, students will read a frequently banned or challenged novel, either from the included list, or a choice of their own. Next, they will research when, where and why it was challenged or banned.  In the last part of the paper, each student will develop his/her opinion on whether the book should be banned or restricted, using points from the paper to support his/her conclusion. 

Here is a student project and five websites for teachers to use to plan their introductory discussion. Students will not only find the sites informative for their research, but will also uncover other links that will aid them in their investigation. Besides Teacher Notes, this packet offers a Permission Slip form students must get signed for the book they will read and research, specific project requirements for students, a list of 60 commonly banned books, and much more. Here is the link: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Writing-Activity-Banned-Books-Research-Project-321767 $3.00

Banned Books links:

http://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks

http://www.bannedbooksweek.org/censorship/bannedbooksthatshapedamerica

http://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks

http://libguides.butler.edu/bannedbooks?p=217686

http://libguides.utoledo.edu/bannedbooks/banned-challenged-books

Students love to argue their viewpoint about the unfairness of restrictions- and they almost always find some aspect of a limitation unfair. This project 

Shows them how to research and support an argument by exploring the fundamental right to read, Helps them to determine the best places to find the reasoning behind Pro and Con challenged book arguments, and 

Lets them create and defend their opinions with logic and facts. 

After completing this project, they will  look at the books they read for class or for personal enjoyment with a clearer understanding of the controversy surrounding book banning.

Enjoy a Teach It Now Day Every Day.

Connie

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Connie

Three ELA Activities that Nurture Students' Writing Gardens

To paraphrase an old adage, "Spring has sprung, the grass is riz, it's time for students writing to fizz!" These three lessons, each with more than one activity, offer endless possibilities for middle and high school students to blow away the doldrums that entangled their brains during winter's dullness.

In Writing: Write Right! Time for Spring Cleaning, students have the opportunity to

• expel the roadblocks that stymie their chances for writing success before they can mine their hearts and minds for ideas where they can incorporate sensory imagery with the Writing Hang-Ups activity,
• mine their hearts and minds for the ideas and the emotions that they want to express with the Airing Out Musty Memories activity, and to
• choose the sensory imagery that will help them to accomplish their writing goal with Making Sense out of Scents.

Students may use these activities to sweep away the cobwebs that have clogged their creative endeavors.  Now, their analytic and creative writing pieces will blossom. As for these tasks where students had to spring clean their writing homes to erase fears, to find ideas and to allow the sense of smell to permeate their pieces? Consider them done.

Download these three Common Core and Bloom’s Taxonomy aligned activities that come with detailed Teacher Notes from

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Writing-Write-Right-Time-for-Spring-Cleaning-656412  for $2.00.

April, National Poetry Month, is the perfect time for teachers and students to take an excursion on the Lesson-Up Express.  Poetry Activity: April Excursions-Poetry in Motion offers two tickets:

Option 1- A Literary Connections Tour
This ticket offers students the chance to find poems, poets and lyrics that fit the themes of any novel or narrative non-fiction book that they are studying.  To complete this trip, students will work individually or in teacher-chosen groups to analyze a poem (teacher or student selected).  See the Teacher Notes for finding poems that connect with story themes.


Stops on this tour include:
A. Atmosphere Alley
B. Poetry Junction
C. Imagery Island
D. Theme Mountain
E.  Project Pass: On this final leg of this tour, students must prepare the final draft that includes the analytic results of each of their stops on the tour in a poster or in a travel brochure format.

and

Option 2- A Poetry Camp Trip
If students choose this ticket, they will create five original poems from the types written on the tree branches on the cover of this offering and/or types they choose with the teacher’s approval. After they have composed the poems, they will put them in a literary magazine that they created, and will illustrate  each one with original or found images.

Activity 3- Poetry Performance Buffet is Required
All students will present either the results of their Literary Connections Tour or two poems from their Poetry Camp Trip at the Poetry Performance Buffet at the end of the month. See the download for complete details on how to manage this aspect of the project.

This packet also includes Teacher Notes and is aligned with Common Core Standards and the Bloom's Taxonomy thinking skills.  The last page reveals tickets to the Poetry Performance Buffet.

With this packet, April will be the Coolest, not the cruelest month. Download it from https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Poetry-Activity-April-Excursions-Poetry-in-Motion-639372 for $3.00.

Finally, to strengthen the roots of students' comprehension and writing skills, check out  Reading Comprehension - Writing About Reading.  Teachers can never have too many ideas for secondary students to explore when their brain isn't sparking any thoughts, or when we want them to write to a prompt.

This packet,Writing About Reading, offers teachers two new activities
1. Quotation Journals: What did the character say?  What did the character mean? (Note: this is terrific for nonfiction pieces as students can explore the author's point of view, tone, etc.), and
2. Writing Journal Topics (30 writing ideas).

As always, a Teacher Notes page details the Common Core Standards and Bloom's Taxonomy objectives that apply to this packet. Download it from
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Reading-Comprehension-Writing-About-Reading-1118924 for $2.00.

When students have the chance to read text, to write about it and then to speak about what they wrote, they will remember so much more about what they are studying. At the same time, they will add depth to their comprehension, writing and thinking skills.

These eight lessons which offer almost a complete 9-innings, coincide with another Spring rite-the start of Major League Baseball.  Teachers, here is your triple play! Have a powerful  teaching season.

Enjoy a Teach It Now day every day,

31 ELA Writing Activities - "March Maneuvers - Sprint Into Spring"

Mother Nature continues to imprison much of the country in her wintry grip on this first day of March. Teachers are desperate for a few academic ice picks that will chip away the, doldrums encasing their students' brains and freezing their motivation to learn. Thirty-one Common Core aligned writing activities aimed to tone up students’ - and teachers’ -  winter-weary brains will do the trick.  

Teachers, say, "Hello!" to March Maneuvers - Sprint into Spring -  just the chisels you need to engage, inspire and motivate your students during Mother Nature's, "Which Season Am I- Winter or Spring?" month.

What's Included

• Thirty-One writing activities with directions and writing requirements
• A March calendar of celebrations with at least 2 events per day for each day of the month.


5 Sample Activities
1. Choose one of the celebrations under today’s date. Even if you don’t know why this topic became a day of celebration, imagine a reason for its existence. Explain the: Who, what, where, when and why behind its formation. Also discuss any ways people celebrate this day.
2. Write a persuasive essay that supports either promoting or abolishing this celebration.
3. Research the real reason this day came to exist. Explain the: Who, what, where, when, why and how behind its formation. Also discuss any ways people celebrate this day.
4. Choose a character from the literature you are currently studying and show his/her opinion about this day. Be sure that you are writing from this character’s point of view and not your own. 
5. Compose a scene from a book that creates a word picture of a fervent follower of this holiday. 

*General Writing Activity Project
1. Following the teacher’s time-frame and specific requirements for this project, create an

  advertising campaign for this holiday that includes newspaper/magazine, radio and television ads. 
2. *Create three recipes for this day to share on a Food Network show. They can be appetizers, snacks, main dishes, soups, salads, desserts or sides, but no more than two can be from the same category. See the complete list of activities (31) and a March calendar with over 135 Celebrations when you download this product from 
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Writing-Activities-March-Maneuvers-Sprint-into-Spring-584169.

Think warm breezes and sunny days with March Maneuvers - Sprint into Spring

Happy Teaching,

TEACH IT WRITE - BUILD POWERFUL ACADEMIC HOMES

Dystopian Novels Generate a Teacher Utopia 16+ Teaching Ideas

Good can come from dystopian cultures, well, from the study of dystopian novels, anyway. This 10-page product for Middle and High School ELA teachers, offers 16+ lessons for the study of dystopian books. Although the directions and descriptions for each lesson reference Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, I use these details to add clarification- and to offer more lessons for my Brave New World Unit Plan,  (http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Brave-New-World-Unit-Plan-5021), which was my initial goal. When I saw the universality of the lessons that I was creating, I decided to offer suggestions about how teachers could adapt these activities to fit any dystopian novel, or any novel, for that matter.

After detailing 3 Novel Preview Lesson Ideas, this packet includes 12 lessons for the topic, Novel Study Lesson Ideas: Exploring the Elements of Literature. I created from 1-5 activities for each element: Character, Plot/Conflict, Theme (and Theme Topics), Setting, Symbols, and Point of View. For the lesson on Setting, this packet contains a brand new handout with two activities -  Issues, Issues, These are the Issues. 

Under the Extended Study- And Then There was More heading, I suggest 16 utopian/dystopian novels -some classics taught in many schools- for independent reading, small group or whole class study. Here is a working list. So many terrific novels for this genre that work with adolescents exist, that I had to make some difficult choices.

*These books appear on Barnes and Noble’s “The Top 100 Bestsellers of 2014”

Animal Farm (George Orwell)

*Fahrenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury)

*Nineteen Eighty-Four (George Orwell)

Men Like Gods (H.G. Wells)

The Time Machine (H.G. Wells)

Lord pf the Flies (William Golding)

A Perfect Day (Ira Levin)

*The Hunger Games trilogy (Suzanne Collins)

*Divergent series (Veronica Roth)

*Four (Veronica Roth)

*Maze Runner series (James Dashner)

The Circle (Dave Eggers)

The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)

Oryx and Crake (Margaret Atwood)

*The Giver (Lois Lowry)

Uglies (Scott Westerfield)

After that I give links to two products that tie into the study of dystopian literature and propaganda from my store: "Writing and Thinking Activity-Unconventional Inventions": http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Writing-Thinking-Activity-Unconventional-Inventions-18339 ($2.00) and "Thinking/Writing Activities 'Utopian and Dystopian Society Novel Projects'": http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/ThinkingWriting-Activities-Utopian-and-Dystopian-Society-Novel-Projects-1124376 ($2.50).

As a plug for all of my Teacher-Seller colleagues, I follow these suggestions by mentioning that ELA teachers will find lessons, activities and unit plans for 12 out of the 16 novels that I name here on TpT. I hope that this mention will send you all some sales, my friends!

I close the packet with a Parent Permission Slip since many of these novels reveal controversial issues and may be restricted in some school districts for various reasons. 

Many teens and preteens love reading dystopian literature. These lessons will engage them and will hook those students who need a lift onto my favorite train, the I Love Reading Express.

Download Teacher Resource - Dystopian Novels Generate a Teacher Utopia from http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Teacher-Resource-Dystopian-Novels-Generate-a-Teacher-Utopia-1502333 ($3.50).
 

Happy Teaching,
Connie

"Comprehension and Writing lessons - "Trick or Treat"

No matter their ages, students are always looking forward to Halloween when the calendar flips to October. 

The four activities in this Middle School and High School packet, Comprehension and Writing Activity - Trick or Treat? enable teachers to keep their charges on task with lessons that address four of the elements of literature.

Here are the activities and their directions:

Trick or Treat? Plot Soup
Directions – Various situations (the Rising and Falling Action) arise during a story that affect the Plot. They are either Helps or Hurdles for the Protagonist and the Antagonist. For this activity
• choose two situations each that the protagonist and antagonist faced
• summarize each event
• discuss whether the situation’s result was a Help or a Hurdle to the Protagonist or Antagonist.
•defend your reasoning by using story details in your explanations.

Trick or Treat? The Flavor of Personalities
Directions –Characters’ personalities are as varied as the candy that fill store shelves. They may be sweet, sour, nutty, smooth, sticky, hard or soft, for example, or a mixture of many of these qualities. For this exercise, choose four characters and decide which candy most matches each one’s personality. Defend your choices with details and examples from the story. Conclude this activity by choosing the Character Candy you prefer, and explain your choice.

Trick or Treat? Setting it Up
Directions – Choose either the Protagonist or the Antagonist, and discuss how the Setting influences this person and his or her decisions. In addressing this topic, consider any of the following ideas to ignite your thinking: How does the Setting influence the character’s main goal? Is the Setting a help or a hindrance to this person’s objectives? What is the character’s effect on the Setting? What is the Setting’s effect of the character? Use this form for your thesis statement and your Pre-Writing notes. Include citations that support your thesis. Include this sheet with your rough draft(s) and Final Essay copy on the Due Date.

and,

Trick or Treat? And the Symbol is….
Directions – Symbols represent a specific person, place, thing or idea. Sometimes this meaning is clear. In other cases, the symbol needs more analysis to determine its meaning. 
For this activity
1. Examine the following Halloween Symbols, and determine what each one represents.
2. Next, list three qualities that illustrate the symbol’s connotation. 
3. Finally, decide if the story has a corresponding Symbol. If so, explain your conclusion, using details from the story for support. If the story does not reveal a parallel Symbol, then write, “No Matching Symbol” after you address the first two components required for this exercise.

As always, these activities utilize Bloom's Taxonomy verbs to promote students' thinking and writing skills, and are aligned with Common Core Anchor Standards that teachers may use as guidelines to fit their state-specific standards. This information is included on the detailed "Teacher Notes" page.

Engage your students by channeling their Halloween anticipation with these four activities.

Download this 4 lessons in one  packet from http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Comprehension-and-Writing-Activity-Trick-or-Treat-1484248 ($2.00)

Happy Teaching,