Walking hormones. Balls of energy. My little "rutabagas." That's how I would best describe my 150 9th grade Pre-AP Language Arts students.
On the first day of school, I explain to my inquisitive, wiggly students that I want them to transform their writing in my Language Arts class from "potato" to "rutabaga." "The spider jumped." That's bland.
That's boring. Dull. Like a potato without any of the fixings. I asked the students to fix it and make it "fancy" using imagery. This was the result from one of my more eager students: "The menacing spider darted cursory glances at my fear-stricken face with eight pitch-black eyes. He seemed to size me up, tempting me to make a shaky movement. In a blink, he leaped into the air like Michael Jordan in his prime."
"Now that kind of writing is like a fancy vegetable...like a....um...rutabaga!" I exclaimed.
I had never had a rutabaga before. Little did I know that rutabagas are pretty ugly and they don't taste fancy at all. Nevertheless, later that week, my desk was flooded with rutabagas. My 9th graders may be acne-scarred, fidgety, and will come to deeply regret their fashion choices, but they are my rutabagas!
My Project
The vast majority of the books my students have read in their English classes thus far have been fiction. As an ELA teacher, I can't deny the power of a good narrative, but I also wish to prepare my students for life beyond classroom walls. Many of the books and materials students will read independently in college will be nonfiction. Indeed, one college freshman once returned to my classroom and noted, "Mrs. Anderson, It's just hard. They're expecting us to come to class having read this really tough material without any story to it, and be prepared to discuss, critically analyze, and write about it! I don't even understand half of it! I'm used to things being read aloud to me and having characters to relate to." Likewise, many careers involve reading technical manuals or instructional materials that can be difficult if students are not used to reading nonfiction independently.
To prepare students for a world beyond school walls, I plan to design a real-world relevant, challenging nonfiction book project for my 9th grade Pre-AP English students.
The books I have chosen represent a range of high-interest topics such as multicultural studies, social justice, women's studies, history and politics, leadership, science and technology, and sports. Students will have the freedom to choose the book they feel is most relevant to their life and create a project that demonstrates their comprehension and analysis of the concepts therein, building their reading stamina and learning about a new topic in the process!
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