Margin Notes

If you are like me and are far into the trenches of your fantasy sports league and have searched the internet high and low to figure out how you are going to accomplish a win every week (and hopefully going to survive until playoffs), you may have stumbled across The Fantasy Footballers podcast, and listened to the advice of the guys through their Start ‘Em/Sit ‘Em segment.

Every week, the hosts give their opinions on which players are must starts for your lineup, and which are ones better left to your bench. This always includes a quick ranking, some stats, the team they are going against and some explanation of why they feel a certain way about these players and their weekly matchups. This got me thinking about this routine and all the ways we can use it to help our students enact the ELA contexts and concepts, and support skill descriptors in Interactions, Reading, & Representations.

Here’s my thinking!

Moves I notice the podcast making that connect to NB ELA Contexts & Concepts:

• Supporting and defending
• Communicating effectively and persuasively
• Developing thematic and technical vocabulary
• Referencing texts for verification
• Writing to influence and inform
• Conveying personal ideas, opinions, and commitments
• Analyzing critically

Possibilities for students may include:

• Choosing a topic important to them and contrasting/comparing elements of it based on their opinions. Ie). Books vs Movie Versions, Breeds of Dogs, Going to College or Getting a Job, TikTok or Instagram. Etc.
• Express and support ideas and opinions with evidence.
• Summarize and present content to communicate facts, ideas, and opinions.
• Ensuring they are using subject specific language to convey their opinions.
• Have them consider how their opinions may change in the future based on new information.