Margin Notes

John Schu primes readers with personal reflection of the books of their heart within the first few pages of his book, The Gift of Story: Exploring the Affective Side of the Reading Life. I love the following questions that Schu uses during his school visits where he shares his love of stories.  

“Is there a book that changed your life?  

Is there a book that feels like a best friend to you?  

Is there a book that you have read so many times that most of it is tattooed to your heart?  

Is there a book that everyone in this room should know about?  

Is there a book that calms you and helps you find your way back to joy? 

Is there a book that helped you understand yourself or a classmate better?  

Is there a book you wish you could give to everyone you meet?” (Schu, 2022, p. 2) 

Book love and joy is something we must sustain and sometimes reclaim throughout the year in our reading communities. These questions are a wonderful resource to add your toolbox for supporting your readers to reflect on their own book love. Sharing “the book of your heart” is a powerful way to exchange book love between your readers. Try it tomorrow!  

On our continuing mission to engage students with writing, what better way than to have them write about who they are and perhaps even what they like to write about, while highlighting that they are all authors. One way to do all of this is by having students write their own author bio, that they can include with any writing pieces throughout the year.

To begin the lesson, a craft study on a varied selection of author biographies would be ideal. Below are a few example mentor texts that I would select. As we move through them, I would ask students to notice what makes each one similar or different than the pervious one. In other words,  what elements do author bios require, and which ones can be included by choice?

• Karina Yan Glaser has had many jobs, including waitressing, community organizing, and teaching literacy in family homeless shelters. She is now a full-time writer, as well as a contributing editor to Book Riot. She lives in Harlem, New York City, with her husband, two daughters, and assortment of rescue animals. On of her proudest achievements is raising two kids who can’t go anywhere without a book.
• Alex Gino loves glitter, ice cream, gardening, awe-fun puns, and stories that reflect the diversity and complexity of being alive. They are the author of George and You Don’t Know Everything, Jilly P! George was a winner of the stonewall Award, the Lambda Literary Award, and the Children’s Choice Book Awards, among a host of others.
• Dana Alison Levy was raised by pirates but escaped at a young age and went on to earn a degree in aeronautics and puppetry. Actually, that’s not true- she just likes to make things up. That’s why she has always wanted to write stories. Her previous books, The Misadventures of the Family Fletcher, The Family Fletcher Takes Rock Island, and This Would Make a Great Story Someday, have garnered starred reviews, been on multiple Best Of and state award lists, and were Junior Library Guild selections. Also, her kids like them. Dana was last seen romping with her family in New England.

Some examples of what you and your students may tease out from author bio mentor texts is that they must include third person voice, state where they are from or currently live, and that they might contain the author’s interests, pervious jobs, literary accolades, points of pride, and a note about the people they share their life with.

Next, it’s your students’ turn to write one, keeping in mind the essentials while also getting the opportunity to make it their own. Their author bios can be as factual or as imaginative as they would like, and in this way, each student may decide whether this assignment is fiction or non-fiction, or a combination of the two.

Some possible extensions to this writing opportunity might include having students to work collaboratively by interviewing each other and writing a bio for their partner. Another possible extension could be having them represent their bio by including a self-portrait and designing the interior of a book jacket, for example.

Chanelle Coates can be found at a local cafe with an iced vanilla latte in hand, reading, writing, and painting with watercolours. The rest of her time she spends thinking about skincare, re-watching Grey’s Anatomy, and FaceTiming her partner Sam.

How do you pass the time on long car drives?  

My family listens to podcasts which is how we discovered APMStuidos’ Smash Boom Best. This is a debate podcast for families and kids. Each episode has guests debate two topics throughout three rounds. The judge is given points to award after each round to help decide the winner. This setup brought a lot of joy to our car ride as we paused the show to discuss and defend where our points would be given. Naturally, this discussion, opinion defense and evidence gathering led me to think about the classroom.  It would be a great resource for a grade 3 – 6 classroom.

How could this be used in the classroom? 

• Use the scoreboard available on the Smash Boom Best website to track points and start discussions. 
• Discuss the elements of a debate using the Listening Party Kit to see how the debaters defended their point of view.  
• Adapt their lesson plans to have students create their own debate. 
• Try out persuasive argument techniques with their section on how to build a strong argument.  
• Practice creating and defending an opinion through listening to an episode, the scoreboard tracker and a verbal or written defense. 

There are so many ways to incorporate this educational and entertaining podcast into a classroom. Leave a comment if you give any a try!  

A trend in contemporary poetry collections is the inclusion of prose writing. In general, prose is a writing style that does not follow a structure of rhyme or meter. It uses words to compose phrases that are arranged into sentences and paragraphs and is used to communicate concepts, ideas, and stories to a reader. However, prose poetry is a type of writing that combines the elements of poetry, such as meter, repetition, alliteration, language and literary devices with elements of prose.

To introduce students to prose poetry, I recommend using the work of  Lang Leav, a poet and novelist whose poetry collections feature beautiful examples of prose poetry. She has such a way with words and presents her ideas through her writing in unique and gripping ways. Some titles you may wish to explore with students include:

Three Questions by Lang Leav

Crossroads by Lang Leav

A Dream by Lang Leav

The Redwood Tree by Lang Leav

Until It’s Gone by Lang Leav

Her by Lang Leav

Lover’s Paradox by Lang Leav

Talk Again by Lang Leav

Students can explore these titles as a class, in small groups, and/or independently, and notice and name the moves they notice, and the impact they may have on the reader. They can then experiment with writing their own prose poetry, revising a piece they are currently writing to include a move inspired by something they saw today, or reflect on the impact of this blending of forms.

Taylor Floris is an aspiring English and Business teacher, currently completing her Bachelor of Education degree from the University of New Brunswick. In her spare time, she can be found cozied up, with a coffee in-hand, indulged into the life of fiction and poetry.

As teachers, we often seek out learning opportunities that provide a means for analysis and recognize the intentional writing choices of authors. One opportunity you may wish to try with your students is analyzing poetry though a “gallery walk”.  Here is how it works:

1. Choose poems you want your students to analyze for craft (I will link some of my favourites at the end of this post!)
2. Create stations around your classroom with a copy of each poem taped to the middle of a piece of chart paper.
3. Model annotating a poem, where you think aloud for your students.
4. Place students in small groups to move through the stations that each feature a different poem.
5. After reading a poem students will record the moves they notice the poet making on the chart paper.
6. After they have had time to do this, each group will rotate.
7. From here, they will read the next poem, consider the annotations made by the previous group and add any further annotations that they notice.

The goal of this learning activity is to engage students in texts to notice craft moves that they may not have without a targeted reading purpose and collaboration, so a nice debrief is to then share the final collection of annotations for each poem either as a whole-class or with one final “gallery walk”.

Some potential exit slip questions could be:

• What is a craft move you noticed in a poem today that impacted your reading of the poem? How did this move deepen your understanding of either the poem or the intentional moves writers make?
• What is a craft move another student made that helped you see something new?
• Did you see any craft moves in the poems you read today that you would like to try in your own writing? Tell me how or when you might use it.

Here are some poems you might consider using:

Good Bones by Maggie Smith

Home by Sarah Russell

The Rose That Grew from Concrete by Tupac Shakur

Blank Sonnet by George Elliott Clarke

And Lang Leav’s poem “Leaves”

Taylor Floris is an aspiring English and Business teacher, currently completing her Bachelor of Education degree from the University of New Brunswick. In her spare time, she can be found cozied up, with a coffee in-hand, indulged into the life of fiction and poetry.

Sometimes I Feel Like a River helps us explore our connection to the natural world. This beautiful collection of 12 short poems captures the essence that our feelings are as innate as the natural wonders around us. This journey through a range of emotions universal to all human experience helps readers discover the connection between emotions as a natural part of our lives and the natural world. The author leaves us with the words to attentively experience and explore the world around us through a mindful nature walk.

This newly published book has tons of potential as a mentor text for repetitive interactions while also exploring and connecting with our own emotions and the emotions of others. Daniel’s words and Bisaillon’s illustrations are the perfect springboard for a sea of talk as readers are supported to make connections, notice, wonder and take to heart the essence of the author’s message. Daniel’s invitation for “A Mindful Walk and Roll” is the perfect short poem for students to read, discuss and carry in their pocket as they explore the outdoors no matter the season. I get excited just thinking about the short poem’s students could then write after studying the authors craft, exploring their own emotions and the natural world around them. Why not even explore creating their own illustrations using soft and wax pastels, cut paper, colored pencils, gouache, charcoal or even digital art like the illustrator to capture the wonder point that inspired their own Sometimes I Feel Like a … poem. Take it further and create a collective picture book for your readers to share with younger readers in their school community.

During the pandemic, The Paris Review created Poets on Couches, a series of videograms in which poets read another poet’s work and discuss it. From their couch, they describe their personal responses to the poem they have selected and comment on its craft. They share their noticings, curiosities, and connections to other writing.

The archives from 2020 and 2021 offer a wide range of poetry and reactions to it. Each post includes the transcript of the poem and a short video. This is a tremendous source of poetry and models of poetry discussions. You might incorporate this series by:

• inviting students to watch the video and then discuss how their responses to the poem are similar or different
• watching a selection of videos and creating an anchor chart of “what we talk about when we talk about poetry” strategies
• sharing some of the videos as a way to introduce students to new poems and poets
• using the videos as models for students to create their own Poets on Couches poetry responses

One of the most time-consuming tasks as a teacher is the gathering of mentor texts. For all your poetry mentor text needs, you must follow @Joseph_Fasano_ on Twitter. He is the host of a daily poetry thread. He begins the thread by posting a poem and includes the topics of the text. He, along with his almost 20K followers, continue the thread with posts of poems matching the topic.

Example poetry thread topics:

• Youth and Age
• Rest
• Paradox
• Heartbreak
• Choices
• Ghosts

How to use this:

• Explore how the same topic can produce varying themes
• Make your own collection of texts on the same topic
• On an online platform, follow the same pattern of the original poster starting a thread
• Students pick a topic of interest and practice the skills you are currently teaching
• Use the threads as research for a reading multigenre

I love it when readers come together to share texts and collaborate. Happy hunting!

If you have students who struggle to find reading material and seem to spend more time browsing than reading, here is something you can try tomorrow. Check out the magazine selection on SORA. Over 70 magazines are available at all times and there is no limit to the number of checkouts. If you wish you had more non-fiction choices in your classroom library, now you can- through SORA.

Here are just a few of the titles available:

For information about SORA, please have a look at the EECD Virtual Learning Sharepoint.

The New York Times Learning Network is always a go-to source for lesson ideas and mentor texts. They have just announced the winners of the 100-Word Personal Narrative contest.  These tiny memoirs are based on the NYT column, Tiny Love Stories. The Learning Network has created this step-by-step guide for teachers that includes mentor texts. The winning tiny memoirs are excellent student-written models for a mini-study on mini-memoirs or to generate ideas for longer memoirs and personal narratives by having students start with writing small to see where their thinking and writing take them.