Every fall semester I teach a middle level/secondary language arts methods course to my teacher candidates. Basically, what that means is that in one semester, 15 weeks, I need to give them as many pedagogically aligned best practice strategies that they can take with them back in the classroom. How do I condense what took me 23 years to learn in the classroom into 14 - 80 minute sessions? I am still working on the magic sauce, but one takeaway is that I continue to tell them that in order to teach, no matter the content area, they must "live their craft." What that means in the language arts classroom is that if you want them to be an avid reader, you must be an avid reader. If you are going to teach them to write, you must be a practicing writer. The other more uncommon advice I give them is to pretend to be a librarian. It has helped me to get access to so many advanced copy books and it has helped me to continue putting my reading in this blog for well over ten years.
Pretending to be a librarian (in addition to an English teacher) also brings me resources like NoveList K-8 Plus (really only available through your institutional library). There is a really cool feature on their site where I can browse by genre (photo above). You also get access to their webinars and there is another section for creating book displays as well as a grab and go list on topics that you choose. I just downloaded one for social justice and limited it to books for teens. I got books like Return to Sender by Julia Alvarez, The Epic Fail of Arturo Zamora by Pablo Cartaya, Stella by Starlight by Sharon Draper, Indian No More by Charlene Willing McManis, and Sylvia & Aki by Winifred Conkling. I pulled titles that I did not know yet and will check with my local library for these books, but it is a great way to make a TBR list.
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