Teaching with Tamara: ELA Edition

The Bailey School Kids was a really popular book series when I was growing up and it makes my heart so happy that they are being republished! Students were drawn to the older books because the characters were relatable and the books were short. The newly published ones are being made into graphic novels which is even more exciting! Third graders at Bailey Elementary School were getting a new teacher because the class clown and troublemaker, Eddie, drove their other teacher nuts! The principal comes in to introduce their new teacher, Mrs. Jeepers. She had moved from Romania into the creepy house in the neighborhood and had a strange accent. With her glowing green eyes and matching brooch, the group is convinced that she's a vampire!  The book refers to Miss Viola Swamp, which is a character in Miss Nelson is Missing. I read it every year on the first day of school and my students and I make a list of student behaviors that made Miss Swamp show up. I refer back to that lesson the res

 I had every intention of reading Stella Díaz Has Something to Say by Angela Dominguez this week, but due to a nasty case of the stomach bug, I'm sharing a favorite novel of mine instead.  I first encountered this book in Mrs. Blodgett's eighth grade language arts class and I still remember the experience I had to this day. It spoke straight to my soul. And the ending... Well, it has sparked fury in the hearts and minds of my students as well as my own.  WARNING: IF YOU START READING THIS BOOK, YOU MUST FINISH IT! Nothing but the Truth  is a great way to teach the types of conflict because it is centered around an issue between ninth grader, Phillip Malloy, and his English teacher, Miss Margaret Narwin. Phillip dreams of going out for the track team but cannot because his failing grade in English makes him ineligible. He devises a plan to be switched out of her homeroom and into an “easier” English class. The situation quickly gets out of hand and is soon picked up by the schoo

In 1921 Pura Belpré leaves San Juan to travel to New York for her sister's wedding. She ends up making it her home.  Pura works in a garment factory at first, but then sees that the library needs a bilingual assistant.  She gets the job and notices that there are no folktales from Puerto Rico. She starts a story hour for the children and lights a candle before she begins. At the end of the story, the children blow out the candle. Pura learns to make puppets too.  She ends up writing her  stories down and mailing them to a publisher.  Soon she is a published author and travels all over planting her story seeds in the hearts and minds of children new to the island of New York. Planting Stories: The Life of Librarian and Storyteller Pura Belpré is a great children's book to read aloud as an introduction to the Pura Belpré Award.  The Pura Belpré Award was established in 1996 and is a recognition presented to a Latino or Latina author and illustrator whose work best portrays the La

 Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut written by Derrick Barnes has been in my classroom library since I first saw it displayed in our school library! I actually read it while my students were selecting their library books haha.  The story is told from the perspective of a pre-teen boy getting his hair cut. The descriptions that Barnes uses are almost poetic. The way he described how confidence from a haircut can make you feel like a whole new person, like royalty, was so heartfelt. This book is a love story to his hair. I have to agree with Barnes when he says how much a good haircut can make someone feel so amazing that it can impact the grade they make on a test. Now, let's look at this from another perspective... what if he had a bad hair day? Maybe he woke up late or his family had to choose between a haircut and paying the electric bill. His day would have still been affected but in a negative way. Imagine a student coming into your class with his hood on, knowing full well that we

Ghost Boys  I'm not sure where to begin with this book... Maybe I should start by saying that African American literature that highlights injustices has always been a favorite of mine because, most of the time, it forces the reader to look at the situation from multiple perspectives. You may go into reading the book with one point of view, but have conflicting feelings by the end of the book. I believe that this is the type of literature we should be exposing America’s youth to because it gives them the opportunity to become empathetic to someone else’s circumstances. It also shows them that there are always two sides to everything and that we shouldn’t be too quick to judge. However, I will note that this isn’t a book I would read in my classroom. If it is shared in the classroom, then it should be with older students, perhaps seventh and up, and there should be explicit written permission from the parents and school administration due to the content. As Kate Messner, the author o

For my last graphic novel, I listened to the audio version because I kept getting lost when I was reading. For this graphic novel, I wanted to read it in its entirety, but I'm 31 pages into the 136-page book and I already have a headache. I feel like a student who struggles with fluency. Due to the font, I can't tell the difference between a period and a comma, so I keep having to reread the sentences for them to make sense. Also, all the letters in the words being capitalized makes it harder for me to distinguish between the letters. Not to mention the "weird" way it isn't exactly read left to right, depending on how big each picture is. This process has been very confusing, to say the least, but I am going to muster through. I say all of this to ask, did anyone else struggle while reading the graphic novels this week? I definitely have a new respect for people who can read them fluently! It has also given me insight into how incredibly difficult it can be to swi