Author Archives: Amy Rasmussen

You Should Read the Book ______________________

Amy Rasmussen, AP English, Books, Readers Writers Workshop March 23, 2014 Comments: 4

Our Compass Shifts 2-1Like a lot of other people I know, I like books lists.

My friend Kelly posted a list on Facebook last week, challenging her closest friends to join her in a read-a-thon. I thought the list looked dull, the majority of the titles classics I had to read in middle and high school. I’d read 49 books on that list of 100, and the author had asserted “most people haven’t even read 6.” I was a lit major in college. I get it.

And I like to read. Most of my students do not.

I watch for interesting book lists because I am always adding titles to my classroom library. I watch for books that my students will read–like the books on this post: 21 YA Novels that Pack a Serious Genre Punch or this one:  15 YA Novels to Watch Out for This Spring.

See, these lists are more like temptation for bibliophiles like me than “These are the best books ever and you should read them” lists, which do little for the book addict in me. Huge difference.

I have a growing contention with anything “you must read.”  (Okay, not anything. I do require my students to read short works that we study for craft, and analyze and discuss together.) Too many students have told me it’s the force feeding of “boring” books that has made them hate reading.

I know that some might contend that it’s the way those books were taught, not the books themselves that turned kids off to reading. I get it. And I’m guilty of it, too. It’s not like I have never taught a whole class novel, but I doubt I ever will again.

I have a few colleagues who agree with me and many more teacher friends from across the nation who are more interested in developing readers than teaching books; my #UNHLit13 peeps Shana, Erika, Emily, and Penny for sure. Heather, too. She saw Kelly’s Facebook post, and I knew her ire was up when she commented: “I still have to ask. What makes these books more of a must read than any other book out there on the market?”

The topic must have lingered because she blogged about it here: Recommended Reading–Reading Lists. Heather’s question is a good one:

Who gets to decide what the BEST or the TOP or the MUST READ books are for

any given category of interest?

I recently read Janet Potter’s 28 Books You Should Read If You Want To and saved it to use as a mentor text at the end of the year when my students do their final personal reading evaluation. Potter asserts “What [book lists] miss is that one of the greatest rewards of a reading life is discovery,” and she produces a lovely list of ways we can decide which books we choose to read. That is what I want.

I want students to choose to read. 

“You should read the book that your favorite band references in their lyrics.

You should read the book you find in your grandparents’ house that’s inscribed “To Ray, all my love, Christmas 1949.

You should read the book whose main character has your first name.

You should read the book that you find on the library’s free cart whose cover makes you laugh.”

I am with Janet Potter.

Really.

You should read the book you choose to.

I hope that I can provide enough opportunity, enough time, enough titles that my students will have some kind of positive experience with books. I hope they will notice when people are reading, and they’ll peek at the cover and be curious enough to search out the title.

That’s what readers do.

We notice books. We notice others reading.

 

Dear Readers, how about we write our own list. Complete the sentence in the comments.

You should read the book ________________________________________.

Reel Reading for Real Readers: Girlchild by Tupelo Hassman

Amy Rasmussen, AP English, Book Trailers, Books, Readers Writers Workshop March 20, 2014 Leave a comment

Oh, man. I love and hate this book. You have to read it. Then we need to talk about it. It’s that kind of story, a hauntingly beautiful coming of age story.

Here’s the book trailer:

And a NY Times review

 

I would love to hear what titles are keeping you up lately. Please share.

Recommended Reading – Books Lists

Readers Writers Workshop March 19, 2014 1 Comment

stacking-up-and-defying-time-1_l

Take a minute and look over this list:

http://www.listchallenges.com/kaunismina-bbc-6-books-challenge?ref=share

How does it make you feel? Like a victor because you have read most of them? Or like a failure, because although most of them were probably assigned to you in high school, you have read less than a respectable amount of them?

I’m not sure who created this list or why, but the idea of a must read list is not unique. In fact, the website this list came from is actually a website of lists:

Best Loved Titles of All Time

Top 25 Fantasy Books

The 50 Best Books for Kids

I could continue, but I have to ask a question:

Who gets to decide what the BEST or the TOP or the MUST READ books are for any given category of interest?

Honestly, to me these lists are a bit ridiculous. Take the specific list I shared with you. Arguably, most of the books listed are adult novels that are major literary classics, but then you have seemingly random ones like Lovely Bones, Charlotte’s Web, or Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Really, I love Charlie and the Chocolate factory, but how can you honestly compare it to The Holy Bible, or A Brave New World? Then, what about other classics like Invisible Man or The Scarlet Letter? Those didn’t make the list, but The Little Prince did?

Being one that reads a lot, people are always asking me for lists of books that I would recommend for reading and generally I say, “I don’t know what kinds of books do you like to read?” How can I honestly recommend books to someone whom I don’t know what they like to read? I could easily suggest Divergent or Maze Runner, but if you hate dystopian you won’t like those. I could suggest anything by Sarah Dessen or John Green, but if you don’t like reading about the growing pains of young adults you will find their books a snooze. To me, the books I choose to read go well beyond merely a list. There has to be some connection or interest before I will agree to go on a journey with that author.

So please, for all of you book lists creators out there, I beg you, if you insist on making random lists, please at least give an explanation as to why your list includes what it does. You’ll really be doing the rest of us a favor.

Photo credit: susivinh / Foter / CC BY-ND

A Text Study with Paired Passages that will haunt your heart

Amy Rasmussen, AP English, Books, Readers Writers Workshop March 17, 2014 1 Comment

This wasn’t my typical spring break. This year I spent most every waking hour either snuggling a tiny new grand baby or chasing her 17 month old sister. Grandmother heaven. Especially since my daughter and my only grandchildren live 1300 miles away from my home in Texas.

I spent my late evenings reading a handful of books from my towering TBR pile. Two have left scars on my heart. And as I look at my beautiful and innocent granddaughters, I pray: “Please protect these babies.”

The girls in these books were not so blessed. Both suffered abuse and heartache. I know it’s fiction. I get that it’s not real. But the haunting images so artfully crafted by these authors have shaped my thinking in ways that I’d never considered. My compassion swells for those trapped in darkness and fear.

And I hope I can serve as rescuer to anyone who needs a person to trust. I know many students come to school hurting, hungry, hopeless. If only we can offer solace and provide peace, comfort, safety. If only we can help them fight their way to light and love, and help them be the actors in their own inspiring stories instead of always being acted upon–

My students will want to read these books, so I will chat about them and share these passages.  They are rich enough for text study and I’m sure will inspire some insightful conversation.

from My Book of Life by Angel by Martine Leavitt p122

Skills Focus:  tone, symbolism, hyperbole, metaphor

The worst thing was

Serena ending up being stolen

by someone else’s story–

just a character in his story,

and the ending she wanted to have

got him instead,

just a part of his stupid story . . .

that was the worst thing of all.

I threw up again,

maybe with a chunk of heart,

and Call came in and I said,

do you see any bits of heart in there?

He said, you’re losing it,

said, this could all be over in a minute

if you take your candy,

and I forgot to answer because I was thinking,

he can’t have her anymore,

I’m writing a new end to her story,

I’m taking Serena’s story back.

Question:  Explain how the author uses the word story in this poem?

 from Girlchild by Tupelo Hassman p40

Skills Focus:  tone, details, euphemism, diction

Babysat

The metal flash of a pair of wire strippers, the unexpected shine on a Phillips head, these things cause the same fear in me, the same gut-tightening, ass-puckering panic as the midnight gleam of a switchblade. Chain locks have the same effect. And lightbulbs. You can find all of these at your local hardware store.

Sometimes Carol goes with Tony to Guido’s Pizza and leaves me at Ace. Tony is her boyfriend and he says having a six-year-old around all the time cramps their style, but I don’t like him anyway, be cue when I’m with them he either hogs the Close Encounters game or he hogs Carola and I never get a chance at either one.

Ace smells like orate hand cleaner and WD-40, and I pretend not to hear the adult talk that passes across the counter between the men of the town about certain women of the town as they pay the Hardware Man for their wood screws and drill bits. I also pretend like I never have to go potty. Because I don’t need help, but the Hardware Man will want to help me anyway. And when he helps me, the lights go out.

Question:  Explain how the author creates a tone of dread.

Paired passages question:  Explain how the passages are similar.

Reel Reading: Splintered and Unhinged

Book Trailers March 6, 2014 Leave a comment

ReelReading2I had the book Splintered by A.G. Howard on my shelves for a long while, but with so many other books towering my TBR pile, I kept skipping over it — until I got Unhinged. Now, I am a fan of both. Take a look and see why:

You will never think of the Rabbit Hole or Wonderland in the same way again.

Reel Reading: All the Truth that’s in Me

Book Trailers February 27, 2014 Leave a comment

ReelReading2This is cool. Author, Julie Berry, gives a book talk about her new book All the Truth That’s in Me.

While I like that Berry doesn’t come right out and reveal the setting of the book, and I like historical fiction myself, I have a difficult time getting my students to even give it a try — unless the book is set in the time of the holocaust.

I enjoyed reading this book though, and I believe it pairs well with early American literature. I’ll share this video of the author with my students, and maybe when I add my recommendation to her voice, I can get this intriguing and thought-provoking narrative into at least one student’s hands.

Thanks for being our writing coach, Mr. Lightman

AP English, Grammar, Readers Writers Workshop, Writers Workshop February 24, 2014 Leave a comment

I’ve done a lot of thinking about structure lately. My students need to learn some. They’ve finally got some great ideas, but they are struggling with effectively sharing them in their writing.

I’ve become hyper aware.

I notice when an author introduces a topic. I notice when he builds a paragraph with reasoning and evidence. I notice when he concludes with a sentence that alludes back to the main idea. I notice balanced ideas in balanced sentences, and I get a thrill when the author captures meaning through structure and not just words and phrases.

Like this passage by Alan Lightman in his little novel Einstein’s Dreams (53-54):

There is a place where time stands still. Raindrops hang motionless in air. Pendulums of clocks float mid-swing. Dogs raise their muzzles in silent howls. Pedestrians are frozen on the dusty streets, their legs cocked as if held by strings. The aromas of dates, mangoes, coriander, cumin are suspended in space.

As a traveler approaches this place from any direction, he moves more and more slowly. His heartbeats grow farther apart, his breathing slackens, his temperature drops, his thoughts diminish, until he reaches dead center and stops. For this is the center of time. From this place, time travels outward in concentric circles–at rest at the center, slowly picking up speed at greater diameters.

Who would make pilgrimage to the center of time? Parents with children, and lovers.

And so, at the place where time stands still, one sees parents clutching their children, in a frozen embrace that will never let go. The beautiful young daughter with blue eyes and blond hair will never stop smiling the smile she smiles now, will never lose this soft pink glow on her cheeks, will never grow wrinkled or tired, will never get injured, will never unlearn what her parents have taught her, will never think thoughts that her parents don’t know, will never know evil, will never tell her parents that she does not love them, will never leave her room with the views of the ocean, will never stop touching her parents as she does now.

And at the place where time stands still, one sees lovers kissing in the shadows of buildings, in a frozen embrace that will never let go. The loved one will never take his arms from where they are now, will never give back the bracelet of memories, will never journey far from his lover, will never place himself in danger in self-sacrifice, will never fail to show his love, will never become jealous, will never fall in love with someone else, will never lose the passion of this instant in time.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

I love it when an author becomes our writing coach.

Thank you, Mr. Lightman.

Reel Reading: Einstein’s Dreams

AP English, Book Trailers, Books, Readers Workshop February 20, 2014 Leave a comment

When Mrs. Mueggenborg recommends a book I always look into it. I don’t always like the same books Tess does, but more than anyone I know I trust her judgment when it comes to books. Tess was excited about this one and openly shared her intrigue.

Einstein’s Dreams by Alan Lightman, a thin little novel, with a whole lot of weight. Check out these clips and see for yourself:

 

And this interview with author Alan Lightman.

Crunch Time – Standardized Test Prep

Heather Cato, Writers Workshop February 17, 2014 Comments: 2

A couple of days ago Amy and I were lamenting over the reality that in a short six weeks students from all over the state of Texas will sit down with their sharpened No. 2 pencils and begin taking our version of “accountability” called the STAAR test. For 9th and 10th graders they will have five hours to answer 30 multiple choice questions, write 2 short answer responses, and write 2 essays.

Six Weeks – a mere 30 hours (at most) to make sure the students sitting before us are equipped with the skills they need to pass.

Let’s face it, we are all in crunch time!

Choices are going to have to be made and lessons are going to have to be cut, or scaled down, in order to make sure that the last remaining hours are maximized. If you aren’t feeling it already, you should feel stressed!

But before you start running around in full-blown panic, might I offer you a solution:

Don’t sacrifice anything!

The conversation with Amy got me thinking about the reading test vs the writing test. What if, instead of stressing out about the reading portion of the test, we double the time we spend working on the writing portion? A few days ago, I studied the released questions from last year’s 9th grade End of Course Reading Exam (see below). What is one striking feature about the questions I studied?

  • Why does the author use sentence fragments to begin the article?
  • The author includes quotations from Gupta primarily to —
  • In which line does the author use figurative language to explain why people participate in the simulation?
  • What is the primary purpose of paragraph 1?
  • Why does the author include details about the “scissors” style of high jumping?
  • The author includes the information in paragraph 4 to —
  • The author organizes the selection by —
  • The author ends the selection with information about Fosbury’s later life in order to show —
  • The poet uses these lines to emphasize the importance of —
  • What does the poet mean by the lines “suddenly everything is a metaphor for how/short a time we are granted on earth”?
  • What is the most likely reason the poet ends the first stanza after line 13?
  • What is the primary purpose of paragraphs 1 and 11?
  • In paragraph 6, what is the effect of the author’s use of figurative language?
  • By having the narrator tell the story to Marge, the author allows the reader to function as —
  • The author uses ellipses primarily to —

Ok, so I gave it away… Look at all these questions that have students considering the motives of the author, or the writer, of the passage. Just a little under half of the questions ask our students to put themselves in the shoes of the writer and consider the author’s craft of the piece.

Wait a minute, isn’t that what we are trying to do when we ask students to write themselves? Don’t we want them to consider craft, purpose, style, voice, etc. as they put pencil to paper and write their own pieces?

So my challenge is this:  If you are faced with too much curriculum to cover and not enough time, consider stepping back and focusing on developing your students as writers.

If we empower our students to critically think about composing their pieces as a genuine writers, not just test takers, where they confidently make stylistic choices in their own writing, they will be able to approach a reading passage with a critical writer’s eye, and in turn be able to examine another writer’s stylistic choices.

Amy and I think we are on to something. She is making these choices during her own crunch time with first-time 9th grade test takers and second-time 10th graders (and a handful of re-testers who haven’t managed to score high enough–yet).

What  are you doing with your own six weeks?

Making Workshop Work in my AP English Class

Amy Rasmussen, AP English, Pedagogy, Readers Writers Workshop February 16, 2014 Leave a comment

Our Compass Shifts 2-1It wasn’t as bad as I thought.

For those of you who read my post on Thursday where I bemoaned the weak essays my students produced on their most recent mock exam, you know what IT is. My students’ lack of application–the skills I’ve taught merged with their own deep thinking.

All in all, scores, compared to those in the fall, showed improvement, especially in multiple choice. I must celebrate that.

I know that year after year it’s the students who are readers who score well on the exam. The best readers are also the best writers. That’s not surprising.

What is surprising is the arrogance of many of my students, or maybe it’s not as much arrogance as naïveté. They think they know more than they do. They think their skills are sharper than they are.

I know this because they told me.

Friday morning, I began class with the opportunity for students to reflect on their performance on the mock exam. I put a large sheet of paper on each table and asked students to have a silent conversation with their table mates.

“Write what you feel you did well? And then respond to the writing of your peers.” I gave them about two minutes and then moved the papers among the tables and had students read and think and respond again.

Then I had them turn the papers over and write again. This time: “Write what you think you need to improve on. Remember to think about all the different parts of the exam.”

This is where I learned the most about my students. They wrote things like:

  • I need to manage my time better.
  • I need help with the synthesis question (or rhetorical analysis or persuasive).
  • I need help understanding the multiple choice questions.
  • I need help organizing my essays.

And on and on and on. They all know they need help with something. This is good.

But when I asked:  “Did any of you write ‘I need to become a better reader?'”

Silence. In both class periods. Not one of my 49 AP students thought to write “I need to be a better critical reader.”

Therein lies the problem.

Students misread the prompts, and on the synthesis, the sources, as often as they lacked organization in their essays. A lot.

The AP Language and Composition exam is as much a reading test as it is a writing one. I imagine the other AP exams are as much about reading as their contents, too. Students must be critical readers to do well.

So, how does this matter when it comes to my instruction?

Simple. If I want my students to keep improving,  I need to not only continue to get them to read MORE, I must keep teaching them how to read BETTER.

We’ll study short passages, looking for connotative meanings and nuances. We’ll discuss the function of this and the organization of that. We’ll slow down and discuss more.

I heard Kylene Beers say once, “The smartest person in the room is The Room.” I know I need to allow more time for class discussions where students can learn from one another.

I know I need to more effectively model how to think as we read. I learned from Cris Tovani to teach kids to keep the little man in their heads focused on the reading at hand. Too often students do not know that they have to train the little man before he will stay focused.

Tomorrow, we get out the training net.

Tomorrow, I change the balance up a bit. I revise my instruction yet again.

The constant reflection, the feedback, the changes — all parts that make readers/writers workshop in an AP class, or any other, work.