Teaching with Tamara: ELA Edition

     Researching a book for this week's blog was difficult for me. I grappled with using a book with a culturally diverse character or a character that faced adversity due to physical challenges/differences. I found various books, but none made me eager to share with my students until I found Perfectly Norman by Tom Percival and Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Peña. Perfectly Norman won the battle, but Last Stop on Market Street is also an incredible book.       Perfectly Norman is about a young boy who was perfectly normal until he grew wings. The fantastical aspect of the story takes the pressure off of how his body is different because growing wings isn't something that could realistically happen. Norman wears a coat to cover his wings because he doesn't want anyone to see that he is different than other people. Throughout the story, Norman's coat seems to hold him back from freely being himself. At the end of the book, Norman decides to re...

       Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson is a  wonderful  story for teaching SEL in any  grade from  Kindergarten through upper elementary.  The story is about a little girl, Maya, who is new to the school. The students can tell by her appearance that her family doesn’t have much money. Maya ends up sitting by the young girl who is narrating the story. Maya smiles, but the girl doesn’t smile back. As the weeks go on, Maya continues to reach out to her classmates at recess; they continue to shun her.  One morning, Maya didn’t show up. The teacher, Ms. Albert, holds a lesson about kindness. The narrator realizes she missed out on the opportunity to show kindness to Maya.       One of the moments that spoke to me was when the teacher introduced Maya and asked the class to greet her; most of the class didn’t. This situation speaks volumes about their classroom culture.  If  the teacher had established clear e...

 Lose your memory. Find your life.      Restart by Gordon Korman is a realistic fiction about a middle school-aged boy named Chase Ambrose, who develops amnesia after falling off his roof. The book begins with him in the hospital  unable  to recognize anyone, including his  family,  and  most  astoundingly, himself. Chapter two introduces a new character, Shoshanna Weber, and  is told  from her perspective. She explains how her twin brother, Joel, was sent to a different school, similar to that of a boarding school, due to being bullied by Chase Ambrose and his two friends, Aaron and Bear.       As Chase tries to return to life as it was, he starts to question who he is.   He knows that he’s a jock, but why would that make other students run when they see him coming?  At lunch on his first day back to school, Chase mistakenly sits at a table with Brenden Espinoza instead of with his football ...