The end of the school year is here and I could not be more excited. I am not sure how you have been feeling this year, but this has not been my banner year. In fact, Taylor Swift’s Anti-hero – “It’s me, hi, I’m the problem, it’s me”- has definitely felt like the era I’m in right now. But, onward and upward, right?
With state testing done, our challenge is to keep students engaged until the very last day, while keeping myself and my team of teachers from having a mental breakdown.
So, what do you do? Easy: You try out any and all things that you have ever wanted to try, but didn’t have the time or the bandwidth to do throughout the school year.
I have always wanted to do an author study, but just couldn’t find an author that fit my students’ interests and our timeframe. So, to finish this school year strong, I created my own version of an author study using Jason Reynolds.
This was an easy decision because Jason’s books are always the ones that students want to read. AND he has written in practically every genre, so there is a lot a teacher can pull from. With the idea that an author study is a deep dive into the works of a single author along with allowing students to evaluate or analyze different writing aspects across texts, I decided to have my students use Jason’s writing to help them reflect on themselves and the growth they have made this year.
The foundation of this author study is not a study of Jason, or of his completed works, or even of a specific writing technique. It is a self reflection. By using several excerpts from Jason’s novels, students will be given different mirrors through which to view themselves so they can answer the question: Who am I?
Here’s what it looks like in my classroom:
- The way this author study is designed takes about 3 weeks: however this could easily be modified to fit two weeks or less.
- Week 1 is focused on answering the question: Who is Jason Reynolds? I always catch myself assuming that students know who the authors are that we read in class. They don’t. This week allows students to explore, through several different interviews, who Jason Reynolds is. The hope is that they realize he isn’t JUST an author. Students will determine who Jason Reynolds is and create a one-pager sharing what they learned.
- Week 2 is focused on students reading and connecting with Jason’s characters in his novels. They will answer the question: Who is character name? Students will get the opportunity to select 2 different excerpts from a selection of Jason Reynolds’ books. They will answer questions as they read about the character. After reading the selections, they will choose one character to complete a one-pager about.
- Week 3 is focused on self reflection. Students will answer the question: Who am I? Ideally, the student not only uses the texts read the week before, but uses materials that we have covered all throughout the year. The hope is that students see themselves differently through all the “mirrors” they have “looked in” this year. Especially, though, through the excerpts by Jason Reynolds. Students will complete a one-pager based on their answer to this question.
- Each week ends with a one-pager that is specific to the question being asked. The one-pager can be on paper or slide. The one-pager also requires students to select several different reading responses (from Marilyn Pryle’s Reading Presence) to include on their one-pager.
Here are the materials students are using in class:
At the end of the year, I usually revert back to doing a lot of activities on paper or in our notebooks. Students spend so much of the last month of school testing and reviewing on their laptops that I want the last few weeks of school to look and feel different.
- Week 1
- Student Choice – Jason Reynolds
- This document includes links to different interviews/clips of Jason Reynolds. Students use the listening guides below to help them gather the necessary information they will need for their one-pager.
- Who is Jason Reynolds? Listening Guides
- This document was modified from a TED Talk guide and can be used with any interview or video clip of Jason Reynolds.
- We will be doing one as a whole class before they get to select 2 more to view and complete listening guides for on their own.
- Who is Jason Reynolds? Reading Response Types
- These responses came from Marilyn Pryle’s Reading Presence (link above), but were altered a bit to accommodate the goal of this project.
- Who is ______? One-pager
- Here is the outline and rubric for what students are required to have on their one-pager. Again, slightly altered to meet the needs of this specific project.
- Student Choice – Jason Reynolds
- Week 2
- [excerpt] Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds
- This is the excerpt we read in class together to fill out the reading guide.
- I have selected excerpts from five Jason Reynolds novels. Students will choose 2 of these excerpts and complete the reading guides for them.
- Who is Character’s Name? Reading Guides
- Similar to the listening guide from week 1, this has been slightly altered for the focus of this week, which is on the characters that students will be reading about.
- Again, these are designed to help students complete a one-pager at the end of this week.
- Who is _______? Character Reading Response Types
- These reading responses are similar to what students completed the week prior, however a few have been changed to be character specific.
- Who is _______? Character One-pager
- Directions remain mostly the same, but students will choose one character out of the 3 they read about this week to complete the one-pager.
- [excerpt] Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds
- Week 3
- Who am I? Reflection Response Types
- These reflection responses came from a Google search of what questions to ask your students at the end of the year.
- Students will use these types of responses for this final one-pager versus Pryle’s reading responses.
- Who am I? One-pager
- Basically, this one-pager outline remains the same with only a few modifications each week so that it matches our focus.
- Who am I? Reflection Response Types
Ultimately, I always want my students to leave my class a better version of themselves than they were at the beginning of the year. That is my “why.” I hope that the last lesson my students learn from me this year is that reading is self reflection. Reading is not something you do; it’s who you are. And what we read has an impact on who we become.
Just a fellow teacher in the classroom, Ashley Anderson
I just started this unit yesterday, so some of these things might work great, some of them might not. I would love to know what is working in your class and what is not. What are some things you are doing in class these last several weeks? You can connect with me on Twitter @Teaching_IsLife or on Facebook at facebook.com/movingwriters.
Ashley Anderson is a 10th grade English teacher at Dickinson High School in Dickinson, TX. She is in her eighth year of teaching. Before entering education, Ashley was a Captain in the United States Air Force and managed marketing and communications for several private aviation companies. She loves cold coffee, doing sudoku, and cheering on her Gators (students) at all of their extracurricular activities. She lives with her husband, Chad (who is also a 10 grade English teacher and on her team at DHS), and her two daughters Avery (#AveryMonster) and Audrey (#BabyBop). Ashley feels blessed every day to be part of a profession with so much passion and commitment. She is excited and humbled to be part of the MovingWriters team.
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