Naomi Watkins, Ph.D. Secondary ELA and Library Media Specialist Utah State Board of Education 801-538-7616
From: Watkins, Naomi Sent: Thursday, November 19, 2020 11:21 AM To: library-media@lists.uen.org Subject: November 2020 Secondary ELA & Library Media Newsletter
Secondary ELA & Library Media News: November 2020
With the holidays quickly approaching, I hope that you take time to rest and rejuvenate with sleep and reading and/or watching something that’s long been on your list. As always, thanks for all that you do.
What are you currently reading, listening to, and watching?
My Current Reads: Home Bodyhttps://rupikaur.com/books/home-body/ by Rupi Kaur & Keep Movinghttps://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Keep-Moving/Maggie-Smith/9781982132071 by Maggie Smith
My Current Music Listen: “Chinatown” by Bleachers, featuring Bruce Springsteen https://open.spotify.com/album/10fSu9RLAJlasIup4ylHPM?si=iVNQnfi3Raelas4fv-YQAA
My Current Podcast Listen: You’re Wrong Abouthttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/youre-wrong-about/id1380008439. (Description: Mike and Sarah are journalists obsessed with the past. Every week they reconsider a person or event that's been miscast in the public imagination.) I’m currently listening to their deep dive into the life of Princess Diana because I’m also watching...
My Current Watch: The Crown, Season 4 on Netflix
Educator Spotlight Keith Smedberg, Olympus High School https://twitter.com/TheOlyCenter/status/1121490487976714240
[cid:image002.jpg@01D6BE66.32B6C9F0]When I was a kid, I thought being a teacher would be great. You get your summers off, long holidays, and you get to work in a school with kids, it was something I could totally get into! My first choice was physical education (PE), because you know, sports, what could be hard about sports? As it turns out, sports medicine, kinesiology, and athletics were harder than I imagined and not my scene. So, I decided to go with my love of the natural world and changed my major to biology education. I began my career teaching biology at a high school just outside of Chicago. After two years, I answered the call of the mountains and moved to Utah. In 1995, I was hired by Granite School District and began teaching science at Westlake Junior High. Over the next 17 years, I taught at several schools including Churchill and Valley Junior High. In 2000, I went back to school and earned a Master’s degree in Instructional Technology and a library endorsement. This led to my current position as a Library Media Education Technology Specialist (LMETS) at Olympus High School. What a trip! Had I known the library was so going to be so wonderful, I would have done that from the start! The best part of being a librarian is encouraging students to read for themselves and not just for school assignments. I want my students to enjoy books, not just analyze books and chapters. Every book that a student enjoys, increases their ability to read and better readers make better life long learners. Some of my favorite authors include Douglas Adams, Jason Reynolds, Libba Bray, Alan Gratz, Tom Green, Neal Shusterman, Mary Roach and Cory Doctorow. When I was in high school, I enjoyed Tom Robbins and Robert Ludlum. When I am not working, you’ll find me skiing or outside enjoying this great state with my wife and three children. National American Indian Heritage Month November is National American Indian Heritage Month. The Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum provide programming, exhibits, and teacher resources: https://nativeamericanheritagemonth.gov/
From Debbie Reese, Nambé Pueblo scholar and founder of American Indians in Children's Literaturehttps://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/, read “We Can Do Better: Rethinking Native Stories in Classrooms.”https://ncte.org/blog/2018/11/can-better-rethinking-native-stories-classrooms/ The key ideas are to choose books that are tribally specific (that name a specific tribal nation and accurately present that nation), written by Native writers, set in the present day, and relevant all year round, keeping Native peoples visible throughout the school year.
From PBS Utah, celebrate with films featuring Indigenous voices: https://www.pbs.org/articles/2020/11/what-to-watch-native-american-heritage-... Save the Date: Scrible in ELA Classrooms Save the date for Monday, December 7 from 3:30-5:00pm for a virtual webinar and Q&A with ELA educators from across the U.S. who have successfully used Scrible in their classrooms. More information forthcoming! Art and writing can help heal during times of trauma and loss For many years, teen submissions to the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards sponsored by the Alliance for Young Artists and Writershttps://www.artandwriting.org/ testify to the potential for creative expression to help in hard times. Now, the Art and Writing Awards has published Healing Through Creativity: An Art and Writing Anthology and Discussion Guidehttps://www.artandwriting.org/classroom-guides/#healing, exploring work by teens on the theme of grief and loss. The free anthology includes accompanying Educator Guides providing visual arts and English Language Arts lesson plans, created by Red River Writing Project teacher-leaders, that help students respond to grief through the healing power of art and writing. [cid:image003.png@01D6BE65.AA6C58D0]Using Notice and Note Signposts to create empowered readers, even at a distance The WRITE Center will continue their webinar series in December by hosting Kylene Beers and Bob Probst in a presentation that demonstrates how their Notice and Note Signposts approach can work both in class and online. In this interactive workshop, they will discuss how the Notice and Note Signposts—both fiction and nonfiction—help all readers read closely to become empowered readers and writers. Yes, writers! Presenters will use picture story books, poetry, and current fiction and nonfiction as examples.
* When: December 10, 3:30-5p (PST) / 6:30-8p (EST) * Registration: https://www.writecenter.org/webinars.html
Conversations with Authors of Young Adult Literature Rebecca Harper, director of the Augusta University Writing Project in Augusta, Georgia, has put together an impressive schedule of conversations with authors of young adult literature as part of the AU Writing Project Book Club and invites you to join. All educators are welcome, even if you haven’t read the book. Join one or more of the year’s final meetings, and watch this newsletter for an announcement of the spring line up.
* Nov. 21 at 10 a.m.—Gary Schmidt, author of Orbiting Jupiter * Dec. 5 at 10 a.m.—Jerry Pallotta, author of the Alphabet Books series * Dec. 7 at 6 p.m.—Katie Henry, author of Let’s Call it a Doomsday Register at bit.ly/AUWPBookClubFall20https://nwp.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=74fb19be0914ed81636ed0372&id=38cae5a606&e=7731425af4 and a Zoom link will be emailed to registrants the day before the book club.
Latinx KidLit Book Festival The first ever Latinx KidLit Book Festivalhttps://www.latinxkidlitbookfestival.com/ will be held virtually on Friday, December 4th and Saturday, December 5th, organized by members of Las Musas Bookshttps://www.lasmusasbooks.com/ and a dedicated team of volunteers. This unique and free event will bring together Latinx kidlit authors and illustrators and engage readers and educators from all over the U.S. and beyond. This festival is for everyone–not just members of the Latinx community. All lovers of kidlit are welcome! They are attempting to reach as many teachers and librarians as possible so students far and wide can tune into this amazing event. Personal invitations will be sent to librarians and educators in October. This invite will include links to educator materials to use with students before, during, and after the festival, as well as instructions on how to enter to win a class set of books by authors featured in the festival. If you'd like this information delivered to your inbox, please fill out one of these forms: Form for schoolshttps://latinxkidlitbookfestival.wufoo.com/forms/k1qcaf1h117l7gc/ Form for librarieshttps://slack-redir.net/link?url=https%3A%2F%2Flatinxkidlitbookfestival.wufoo.com%2Fforms%2Fx1y4m0pb0ru7cwc%2F
The Redford Stories Project
The Redford Stories Project is a learning and storytelling initiative providing educators and students with dynamic and integrative tools to actively engage in the movement for environmental justice, protection, and repair, and to develop their capacity as storytellers. This initiative supports educators in bringing an environmental context and content to any class, and brings educators and students into dialogue with youth activists, filmmakers, and environmental and social justice leaders to create a learning community at the nexus of joy for learning, transformational storytelling, and global justice. This year, the Stories Project invites young people ages 10-14 to participate by creating 90-second Apple Clips films about an aspect of environmental justice that is particularly meaningful to them for showcase in April 2021. Learn More →https://educatorinnovator.org/elevating-student-voice-environmental-justice-and-redford-center-stories/
Utah’s 21st Annual Do the Write Thing Challenge (see attachments for more info) The Office of the Governor and the Utah State Board of Education invite you and your students to participate in Utah’s 21st Annual Do the Write Thing Challenge. The Challenge offers 7th and 8th grade students across the state an opportunity to examine the impact of youth violence on their lives and then write what they think should be done to change the culture of violence. Personal responsibility is emphasized by encouraging students to make a commitment to do something about the problem. The program ultimately strives to help them break the cycle of violence in their homes, schools, and neighborhoods. Two writings per participating schools will be selected as state finalists and will be invited to attend a recognition luncheon where the top two authors will be announced in April 2021. State finalists will receive a scholarship deposit to their My529 Education Savings Account. The top two essays will be published and placed in the Library of Congress as Utah’s national finalists. Teachers are encouraged to incorporate the Challenge into their regular classroom curriculum. Lesson plans can be found on the website at www.schools.utah.gov/prevention/dtwthttp://www.schools.utah.gov/prevention/dtwt. Rules, entry forms, and additional information are also available on this website. The following is a list of ideas for the classroom:
* English: use as an essay or poetry-writing assignment; * Health: discuss personal safety and well-being of others; * Civics: conduct an exercise on personal and civic responsibility; * History: use an historical perspective to examine youth violence. The deadline for entries is January 15th, 2021. The 2020 challenge involved more than 2,400 students participating in classroom discussions about youth violence with more than 1,100 submitting essays from 24 different teachers. We look forward to increasing these numbers in the 2021 Challenge. If you have any questions, please contact Cuong Nguyen at cuong.nguyen@schools.utah.govmailto:cuong.nguyen@schools.utah.gov or call (801) 538-7790. We encourage your students’ participation and look forward to this year’s Challenge.
Sincerely, Governor Gary R. Herbert
Secondary Literacy Director Meeting Dates, 2020-2021
Mark your calendars! To receive a meeting invite, contact Brenda McMurtrey at brenda.mcmurtrey@schools.utah.govmailto:brenda.mcmurtrey@schools.utah.gov
* January 20, 2021 from 1-3pm * March 24, 2021 from 1-3pm
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Have an item for the monthly Secondary ELA & Library Media newsletter, a research or teaching tip, or an educator spotlight nomination? Email brenda.mcmurtrey@schools.utah.govmailto:brenda.mcmurtrey@schools.utah.gov by the first of the month.
Naomi Watkins, Ph.D. Secondary ELA and Library Media Specialist Utah State Board of Education 801-538-7616
