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End-of-Year Reflection: Top Five Classroom Success Stories of 2019

Teaching Reflections for 2019

One of the most important things we can do as teachers is reflect, and so that’s why I love this annual blog post.  It’s been my new year tradition for the past several years (2015, 2016, 2017, 2018), and choosing only five memorable teaching moments is always so hard, but here goes: My top five classroom success stories of 2019!

This year in review…

Teaching Gatsby for the first time in forever and writing the unit plan for it.  A little bit Disney Frozen on the brain here, but it works.   In the past, I had taught The Great Gatsby mainly in parts or just as a movie-viewing experience.  So this time around when I was able to teach the novel as a whole to my group of junior honors, I was very excited to unpack everything it has to offer.  Most students love the idea of the 1920s and the mystery of Gatsby, so I just played off of that enthusiasm. I started the unit with problem-solving questions and station rotations that introduced the time period and the novel.  Once we began reading, I loved having students track the colors, do guided close reading exercises, and analyze the characters. We closed with a “My American Dream” project, and it was really incredible to see what students aspire to become.  I was very pleased with the way the unit turned out. Check out my complete unit, my movie-viewing guide, and my escape game here. 

Teaching The Great Gatsby

Island challenges for Lord of the Flies.  I cannot even begin to tell you how much fun teaching The Lord of the Flies was after I decided to create the challenges. I had wanted to do something like this for a while with Flies, but never got up my nerve.  Finally, I just dove in and did it. I am SO glad I did.  Read more about all the challenges on this post.  Get my entire unit plan here. 

Teaching The Lord of the Flies

Teaching The Lord of the Flies

Teaching The Lord of the Flies

Vacation Bible School. It seems like VBS makes my greatest hits list every year, and that is fine with me. I enjoy the themes, the decorating, projects, crafts, and energy created by a week of studying the Word with kids.  This year’s theme was The Incredible RACE. We traveled all around the world learning about different cultures and God’s love for us.  We decorated our hallways like an airport and our classrooms like the inside of an airplane and the country we traveled to each night.  What an awesome trip!

Teaching Vacation Bible School

Teaching Vacation Bible School

First Chapter Fridays.  As soon as I saw this idea from my friend Lauralee over at The Language Arts Classroom, I knew I had to work it in somehow.  Each Friday, I would start class with one chapter, or a piece of a chapter, from a book that I thought my students would be interested in. I related the books to holidays as well.  See all the books I shared over on my Instagram, and I also took it up a notch by including pictures of our weekly destinations because my classroom library theme is “Books are an Adventure.”  See the video of me explaining my weekly process here, my classroom library set up here, and get my classroom library materials free here. 

Building a Classroom Library

Christmas Nativity bible escape games with the younger students.  If you’ve been reading my blog for very long, you know how much I love escape games for the classroom.  I create them every chance I get, and my high school students love them. This year, I was working with the PreK-4th grade students on Wednesday nights at church, and we were planning to study Paul’s escape from prison.  I was in charge of the activity rotation, so of course, I thought – escape game! Since it was December, it only made perfect sense to do an escape game for the Christmas Nativity story. I ended up creating two games: one for the PreK-K level and one for the 1st-4th grade level. It was completely worth it.  I always enjoy it when my high school students are playing, but I can’t even tell you how much fun it was playing the break out games with my “littles.” None of them had ever played one before, but they figured it out quickly and ran with it.  Grab these two games here. 

Classroom Escape Games, Preschool, Nativity

I would love to hear about your greatest teaching moments and classroom success stories this year. Share below!

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Filed Under: bible themes, Christmas, Christmas lessons, church event, Creative English Lessons for Teens, Escape Games, Great Gatsby, literature ideas, Middle and High School English Lessons, novel, novels, secondary ELA, secondary English Teachers, secondary lessons, teacher ideas, teachers pay teachers, teaching ideas, teaching strategies, teaching tips, Vacation Bible School Leave a Comment

A Movie Review of HBO’s Fahrenheit 451 from a High School English Teacher

Finally… the moment my students and I have been wishing and waiting for – an updated movie remake of one of our favorite novels: Fahrenheit 451.  We always have a little fun playing the role of director, choosing which of our favorite actors and actresses should play Montag, Beatty, Mildred, Clarisse, and all the other memorable characters.  However, we do always wonder… would Bradbury actually approve of any screen adaptation of his magnum opus?  I had so many questions before watching HBO’s hot, new adaptation: Who would play Montag?  Would it capture the theme accurately? What would be removed or added? And most importantly… would it be a good fit for using in class?  Keep reading for the answers. WARNING: There are spoilers.

1) Characters/Characterization: Not everything about the characters was 100% spot on, but that is to be expected, I suppose.  So what works and what doesn’t?

  • Beatty –  Captain Beatty is our resident manipulative, maniacal manager of the fire. He’s the villain through and through, loving to control the narrative and burn anything that gets in his way.  Right. Right? Well, maybe not.  Beatty’s ambiguity is what makes him so compelling, confusing, and complex.  In my opinion, the film does a nice job of painting a picture of Beatty of which Bradbury would approve.

  • Faber/Granger – These fiction-loving fellas aren’t named characters in the film, but their archetype is certainly present.  In fact, they play a huge role in the film in terms of propelling the conflict.  In the novel, the bulk of the conflict is driven by Montag’s internal struggle, but the film really hinges on both the person v. person and person v. society conflict with the “Eels” to move the plot. I suppose that’s a pretty decent substitution.
  • Montag –  I’m not sure anybody can really live up to our Guy Montag.  He’s always the hardest one to pinpoint and agree upon when we do our exercise in class of picking the actors/actresses.  Everyone just always has a different idea of who he should be.  He fumbles through most of the book trying to figure himself out, so maybe that’s why he is so hard to pinpoint.  HBO’s Montag experiences a similar struggle, but I am still not quite satisfied for some reason. Montag the confused – yes, I can get on board with that.  Montag the superstar – nah, I’ll pass on that interpretation.  Maybe my hopes were too high. That said, I would give Michael B. Jordan a B+.
  • Ms. Blake – What a powerful scene. Glad she – and it – was included. Enough said.

  • Mildred –  Initially, I was bothered by the fact that Mildred wasn’t included.  The more I think on it, though, I can accept the choice.  In the movie, she wasn’t just an obsessed robotic tv watcher, she WAS the robot.  Clever.  In the text, Bradbury needed a vessel to paint the picture society’s bad behaviors, etc.  On the big screen and with today’s special effects, it is possible to just make it evident in other ways.  Figuratively, too, it speaks to the whole idea of how little she actually contributed anything to Montag or society at all and how truly forgettable she was. Gone like a freight train (puns are intended), gone like yesterday. Wait, who was Millie again?
  • Clarisse – Clarisse provides the most mystery in the book, and the kids always love her.  Bradbury is even quoted as saying he is Clarisse in the book: full of wonder and curiosity.  It’s with Clarisse that the film falls of the wagon in the characters/characterization category.  Clarisse is supposed to be light and airy and a picture of innocence, but in the film, she is too dark and brooding for my liking. And then there’s the whole spark between Montag and Clarisse.  Not. My. Favorite.  My students always think they’ve “picked up” on something between Montag and Clarisse when they read the scenes with her, and I always stress how incorrect that reading is. Clarisse is a catalyst for Montag’s path toward the truth. In that that way – and only in that way – might she serve as a femme fatale, luring him to the light.  Am I surprised “Hollywood” used her character as a way to provide some on-screen romance? No, but it’s just textually inaccurate. As an aside here: My students didn’t like her in the film either.

2) Setting:  So much of what Bradbury penned was futuristic – and dare I say prophetic – in the 1950s.  Today, though, just about every bit of it has come to fruition, and what hasn’t can be computer generated for the movies.   I was pleased to see the infusion of the large screens; they are, in fact, everywhere: in homes, in streets, and even on the skyscrapers.  Bradbury’s biggest fear was the detrimental effects of people’s over consumption of and obsession with television. The TVs are ever present and “large and in charge.”  However, I’m not so certain the intended dystopian city that Bradbury envisioned really seemed “all that bad” in HBO’s version.   The setting, for me, kinda fizzled out.

3) OMNIS: This is a massive change from the book, but it may just be this detail that shows us – 2018 watchers of the film – how close we might actually be to Bradbury’s dystopian future.  OMNIS holds every piece of literature, art, and history in a DNA strand, preserving the long forgotten culture that the firemen tried to erase.  While there are underground members of society, like Granger and his “railroad” crew that memorize entire books in order to preserve them, it is this OMNIS that they work to protect and preserve. Once the OMNIS is introduced into the plot, it becomes the major source of the conflict, as it is the focus of the firemen’s revenge.  The twist is that this DNA strand has been implanted in a bird.  After some thought, I decided I might be satisfied with this change as I see connections with it and the prominent role of the Phoenix in the novel.   OMNIS becomes a symbol of hope in a bleak, literature-loathing society that hints at the emergence of a better future. It’s a reminder that it doesn’t matter how much “graffiti” (books) the firemen decide to burn, there’s still hope out there for a free-thinking future — much like the Phoenix that is burned but rises again.

4) Theme: Ultimately, Bradbury wants readers to put themselves in the characters’ shoes: What role would you have played in this dystopian universe: perpetuator, bystander, fighter? Would you see the truth like Montag, or continue to fumble your way through the pursuit for emptiness happiness like Mildred. Would you fight to manipulate and cover the truth like Beatty or use truth to lead others to it like Faber or Granger?  It is the growth from within that he wants – that really can bring the change that this culture needs. Truth, knowledge, morality — all erased and replaced with what people see rather than what they think.  The movie does a good job of making that clear — maybe a little too clear (some points didn’t leave much to the imagination), but in order to bridge the gap to “modern audiences,” I can see the need.  Maybe that’s a tad ironic, and telling, in and of itself.  Nonetheless, tons of lines from the book are woven throughout, and I enjoyed hearing Bradbury’s voice.

5) The Ending: Bradbury’s ending is open, or so many of my students say, and most really do hate that.  I always pose the question to them, though, Is it really open ended? Throughout the entire book, Bradbury wants readers to realize that the value of books is to provide information, but more importantly to make people think.  On one hand, the open ending forces readers to do that. On the other hand, maybe the ending so open at all. Montag did figure out his purpose, and if you read it that way, then what else was there?  Either way, the movie definitely provides us with Bahrani’s idea of what he thought should be Montag’s purpose: keep the “books” alive.  But die?  I could see a case for his death in the book, but die at the hand of Beatty.  That idea should be torched.  In the movie, the books “rise from the ashes” to live on and that offers some hope, but having Beatty kill Montag gives the villain way too much power, and erases hope that the books — and future — will really be safe.   To link in another once “hot” film, President Snow said, “Hope, it is the only thing stronger than fear.  A little hope is effective, a lot of hope is dangerous. A spark is fine, as long as it’s contained.” (Sidebar: Does anybody else see the HG connections? I can’t unsee it.)  If Bahrani intended to remove that hope, that’s dark and maybe it’s a little too dark.  But perhaps that’s just me trying to look on the bright side.

Final thoughts: Is it appropriate for class?  HBO rated the film TV-MA for violence and language.  That said, just about any novel we pick up is going to have violence and language or worse.  I am not a fan of it either, and I don’t want to convey that at all.   Otherwise, it’s pretty benign. All in all, I did think it was time well spent showing it to my students. It brought up so many conversations; and we really did decide that the book is better.  It doesn’t get much better for my little English-teacher heart.  In my school, anytime we show a film, we have to get our principal to approve it.  So, I did that, and I wrote a parent letter and created a set of questions student would answer during the viewing.  He was fine with that, and I had zero parents ask for an alternative assignment.  I do have older students, but if you cover your bases this way you should be fine.  (See my Teacher Talk Video on Facebook here about dealing with novels with difficult content.)

  Get the letter I drafted and the questions HERE for free!

Fahrenheit 451 Literature Guide, Novel Unit Plan, Ray Bradbury

If you teach Fahrenheit 451 as a novel unit, stop over to my teacherspayteachers store and take a look at my complete unit plan. Also, did you enjoy the memes above? I have to brag on my students. Those were all their original work, and I have to admit, I laughed out loud at most of them.

 

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Filed Under: book review, books, books turned movies, Catching Fire, fahrenheit 451 party, memes, movie, movie guides, movie lesson plans, novel, novels, Reading Strategies, real world connection, secondary classrooms, secondary ELA, secondary English Teachers, secondary lessons, teachers pay teachers, teaching ideas, teaching strategies, teaching tips, The Hunger Games Leave a Comment

Books Without Movies Your Students Will Want to Read… Anyway

 
With so many books being turned into money-making movie franchises, it might be hard to get your students to read something that hasn’t been recreated on the big screen. While I’m not opposed to the book-turned-movie selections (my Netflix queue is full and waiting for me to binge a few), I’ve always sought out books for my students that weren’t as popular.  I’ll chalk it up to erring on the side of wanting to be different.  Either way, the five books I’ve taught below haven’t hit the box office yet, and the fact that there’s some fiction and nonfiction on the list that leave my students begging to keep reading makes my nerdy English teacher heart happy.
  

1. Columbine by Dave Cullen – This is a nonfiction piece that reads like fiction. It was ten years in development and research by journalist Dave Cullen. In it, he dispels the myths that surrounded the tragedy with facts, evidence, and quotes – all while maintaining a safe distance from giving Eric and Dylan the credit and accolades they craved.  Its detailed characterization draws my students in from page one, and its complex structure challenges them while keeping students engaged from beginning to end. My unit guide for a high school English class is available in my store.

Columbine Literature Guide, Unit Plan, Nonfiction, Dave Cullen

2. Bleachers by John Grisham – John Grisham, in my opinion, is an author with timeless appeal. He’s in that space between modern and on-the-way to classic.  Bleachers uses the complex structure of flashback to tell the story of how a couple of stuck-in-the-past high school football stars have to embrace forgiveness in order to move on and realize that if you make high school your life, life after high school is a hard place to navigate. The complete unit guide is available in my store now.
Bleachers Literature Guide, Unit Plan, John Grisham's Foot

 

3. Mergers by Steven Layne – This science fiction flick would be perfect for 7th-9th graders who are obsessed with everything dystopian.  Inspired by a visit to a school one day where he saw a couple of kids picking on another kid because of skin color, Layne explores the idea of what it would be like if all races were erased.  I don’t think this text could be any timelier given current events, and a fellow teacher of mine is paring it this year with the classic To Kill a Mockingbird.   A complete unit guide is on my to-do list, and the author provides a short free one on his website.  You could pair that with my literature analysis task cards and have some very interesting book clubs!

 

4. The Children of Willesden Lane by Mona Golabek –  I was hooked on this true memoir the moment I found it, covered in dust, on the bottom shelf of the supply closet – and so were
my students.  Perfect for grades 7th-9th, The Children of Willesden Lane is the true story of Lisa Jura, a young girl who escapes Nazi persecution on the eve of World War II.  Mona Golabek, in authentic voice, tells the story of her mother’s real-life struggles through this time in history, and your students will immediately identify with the protagonist. Music and relationships weave together this beautiful plot.  A complete unit guide is on my to-do list as well, and the author provides some music clips and teaching tips on the book’s website.  I love to pair it with my no-prep, modern Making Literature Come Alive Creative Activities Pack for some fun work with this text, too!
 

 5.  Peeled by Joan Bauer – I used this novel with my high school yearbook class once our book was finished. It’s perfect for piquing their interested in mystery, and it ties perfectly in with our journalism class. A reporter for her high school newspaper, Hildy Biddle is just waiting for a chance to prove herself as a real journalist. Not content just covering school issues, Hildy’s drawn to the town’s big story–the haunted old Ludlow house. It’s a fun, quick tale that you won’t have to beg your students to read.  I’ll be putting together some of the materials I used for it soon!

… And a couple of other excellent picks that my students love with movies that are so bad, they might as well be in the category of those without movies because there’s no way they’d be worth giving class time for them are Macbeth and Fahrenheit 451. I have complete, modern unit plans for both of these in my store now!

What can you add to the list? Comment below.

Sign up for my monthly newsletter – “Teaching Tidbits” – that is delivered directly to your email inbox each month.  Each month you’ll get announcements, tips for teaching, updates on new and revised resources, and, of course, an email-only exclusive FREEBIE!

Filed Under: book review, books turned movies, fiction, nonfiction, novels, Uncategorized 5 Comments

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