Teaching Dare to Dream . . . Change the World

A few weeks ago, I hit that time of year in my sixth grade classroom I usually dread.  Poetry.  I've never been a big fan of poetry myself. Teaching poetry to sixth graders usually feels to me like trying to make a trip to the dentist sound fun.  They don't buy it.  So we slog through two weeks of rhyming couplets, dubious metaphors, and allusive symbolism before we all breathe a huge sigh of relief.

This year I wised up.  Wrote a grant that got me a class set of Dare to Dream . . . Change the World books.  This collection of poems edited by Jill Corcoran features writing by some of today's top KidLit writers and poets.  Each spread couples a biography of someone who has made an impact in some way with two poems that relate to that person.

Nicole and I (well, mostly Nicole) had the pleasure of putting together a Teacher's Guide for Jill.  We honed in on as many of the Common Core Standards for grades 6 through 8 as we could and then tried to create engaging activities and diverse writing assignments.

Then, I got to teach it.

And the results were . . . in a word . . . magic.

Never before had I had kids asking me, as they came through the door, who the poems would be about for the day.  Never before had I had my students making observations about mood and tone and meaning that were unsolicited!  Yes, you read that right.  We would read a poem, and they would INTERRUPT me to say, "Mrs. Fry, I think the poet is trying to show us that the narrator is angry at the cows because the cows are free and he isn't.  That's why he's cussing at them. It makes sense now."  Yeah, for real.

And their writing was truly inspiring and inspired.  Kids who had struggled all year to put thoughts on paper were suddenly writing with abandon, and finding voices that had seemingly been buried. 

One of my favorite days was when we did Nicholas Cobb.  Nicole's brilliant lesson starts with kids being introduced to Nicholas Cobb who was a young kid who raised a lot of money for homeless people. We then read the poems on those pages.  Next, we examined a large image of a homeless camp under a bridge, listened to sounds of traffic overhead, got under our desks to simulate being under a bridge, and wrote sensory descriptions of what that would feel like.  Finally, we turned those descriptions into some wonderful poetry.

The two weeks went way too quickly.  I will extend it next year and incorporate ALL of the poems, since they are too rich to skip.  And my students will benefit from the standards-based, but interactive curriculum that goes with it.

If you want to check out that curriculum, click here: Dare to Dream Teacher's Guide.

Creating Your CCSS-Aligned Curriculum Guide

Where do I begin?

Your Common Core State Standards (CCSS) document—get to know the standards for your target age group.  Note that the standards range from basic understanding to deep analysis (purposely reflecting Bloom's Taxonomy).  Pick 5-8 standards that you think you can cover in your curriculum guide - you don't need to touch on ALL the standards as students have the entire year to meet their grade-level CCSS.

Get organized!

Figure out what sections to include in your curriculum guide.  As a teacher, here's what is most useful:

 - a Prior Knowledge section with discussion or writing prompts that students complete BEFORE they begin reading.  A good prompt relates students' prior experiences to themes in the book, and gets them excited and motivated to read.  For Dare to Dream . . . Change the World, a poetry anthology, we have students find examples of poetry in commercials, songs, greeting cards, and nursery rhymes so they realize poetry is all around them! [Check out the curriculum on our Sample Curriculum page!]

 - a Vocabulary section that includes a list, with definitions, of  grade-level vocabulary students will encounter in the novel.  In addition, it is really helpful to have a handout where students decipher new words in context (using phrases from the novel).  Here's an example from a "Context Clue" handout for Losing It that teachers are loving: “You have to drink when you run, Bennett.  No wonder your head hurts! Most headaches are caused by dehydration, you know.” Dehydration might mean . . .

- Chapter Questions that help students process important themes, while hitting key Common Core Standards. A good set of questions spiral from basic understanding to analysis, and vary in what they ask the student to do. For instance, students might draw a response, complete a graphic organizer, or write a mini-dialogue from the perspective of a character.  Here is a sample prompt for Laurie Halse Anderson’s CHAINS: Create simple sketches for Elihu Lockton, Curzon, and Isabel. Add a large speech bubble to each character. Write the words, “The real meaning of liberty is . . .” at the top of each speech bubble. Then, do the following:

·         Finish the opening sentence from the perspective of the character.

·         Support your claim with examples or evidence from the text.

·         Provide a concluding statement that summarizes your position.

- a Pulling It All Together section where students take what they've learned from your book and do something with it.  It can be a writing assignment, a project, a debate etc. Given the push for informational text in the CCSS, this is an ideal place to include some nonfiction reading to supplement your book.  For Losing It, we researched and wrote our own text about bullying and then guided students through a debate about what should be done with bullies in schools.   

 Get Writing!

It takes some time to create a good curriculum guide, but it's well worth it if you want teachers to be able to simply pick up your book and teach it!  Books that are chosen by teachers for their classrooms have longevity, as well, since teachers tend to use them year after year.  

Nicole and Erin, both teachers and curriculum developers, can help!  You can contact us as commoncorespecialists@gmail.com if you have questions or would like us to create a curriculum guide for your book.

Your Book and the CCSS

The adoption of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) by all but four states presents an unprecedented opportunity for publishers and authors. For the first time, teachers across the nation are teaching the same English standards. 

What are the Common Core State Standards? The CCSS are specific benchmarks, divided by grade level, that students should master by the end of each year in a certain subject. At this point, there are only standards for Language Arts and Math.  The L.A. standards are divided into Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening, and Language.  They are pretty specific.  For instance, one of the Reading Standards for 8th grade reads:

                3. Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including its relationship to the characters, setting, and plot; provide an objective summary of the text. 

How do you align a book to the CCSS?   Provide teachers with a comprehensive curriculum guide that includes context vocabulary, spiraled chapter questions, short but engaging writing prompts, and related informational text.  A good portion of what is in the curriculum guide should reflect the CCSS.   An aligned curriculum guide is more than a few pages (ours are 30 + ) and provides the handouts, activity prompts, and specific lessons that teachers NEED to teach a novel.  For examples, check out the guide for Jill Corcoran’s  Dare to Dream . . . Change the World or Erin Fry’s  Losing It.

Why should publishers and authors provide a curriculum guide to teachers?  School districts, librarians, and teachers will be more apt to buy classroom sets of new books if they have the materials to teach them. Teachers love teaching new novels but they rarely do, because it takes many hours of preparation. If publishers or authors lift this burden from teachers, especially now with the adoption of the CCSS, those books are more likely to make their way into the hands of students and classrooms.

Don’t publishers already create curriculum guides?  Not really. Sometimes a publisher or author provides a page of discussion questions or general suggestions of things to do with students while reading a book. While these can be good starting points for teachers, they aren't usually standards-based, nor are they as valuable as a well-written curriculum guide that truly guides teachers through a book or novel.  

In future posts, we’ll look more closely at what exactly curriculum guide looks like and the steps it takes to create one.  A really good CG, like any solid curriculum, takes time to develop—as well as a working knowledge of the standards, how teachers teach, and how students learn.

Nicole and Erin feel passionately that standards-based curriculum can be teacher-friendly, engage students, AND be pedagogically sound.  Stick with us as we show you what that looks like.