楼凤天堂

This blog was written by 楼凤天堂 member聽Deanna Stephan.聽

 

Even though my quick trip to Houston for 楼凤天堂-CEL 2018 feels long ago, the lessons I walked away with have been playing on repeat in my mind since then:

 

1. How can English educators continue to provide windows and mirrors on the world through relevant instruction?
2. How can English educators evaluate their own biases in order to curate relevant materials and raise student achievement?
3. How can English educators authentically pique student curiosity to drive instruction?

 

It is those ubiquitous questions that have been guiding my planning of book clubs for next school year.

My district has been implementing the Reading Workshop model at the high school level over the past few years, so there has been a sharp increase in the amount of minutes students have been reading independently. During this time period, in order to live and breathe Reading Workshop in the classroom, I took a step back from book clubs.

Due to a master schedule change at my high school, we are in the midst of creating our 2019/2020 instructional calendars now. This moment feels like the right one to re-integrate literature book clubs back into the classroom, alongside Reading Workshop, and other forms of student-centered instruction.

Luckily, my English 9 colleagues here in the building have been thinking about making the same instructional adjustments next year. We have been collaborating to build a list of robust book titles from which students can choose during the corresponding unit.

To increase the number of titles we want to offer, I posted one simple question on Twitter: 鈥淲hat suggestions do you have for Lit Circle books that would pair 鈥渨ell鈥� with Romeo+Juliet?鈥�

Like any effective 鈥渢weacher,鈥� I inserted a slew of hashtags after that question: #DisruptTexts, #楼凤天堂, #楼凤天堂Village #CEL18 #SchoologyAMB — though if you check out the original tweet, it says, 鈥�#SchoologgAMB鈥� because even English teachers make typos!

Those three questions led to my simple request for a few book titles. I was hoping to get six or seven replies. I should have known better! I have received many titles in return from the Twitterverse! That is the thing about being a 鈥渢weacher鈥�: you鈥檙e never alone and someone is always willing to help!

Below, you鈥檒l find lists for books that pair well with Romeo and Juliet.聽In sorting through all of the tweets, I had quite the English teacher moment. Alongside the suggestions was an entire backchannel conversation between authors and teachers about how much these books mean to teachers and students. I paused — real live authors, like Jennifer Niven, Barbara Dee, and Jacqueline Woodson, were involved in curating a book list!

 

Romeo+Juliet Book Pairings

 

by George Orwell

by Jennifer Niven

by Benjamin Alire S谩enz

by Alex Flinn

by Ann Rinaldi

by Rainbow Rowell

by Nicola Yoon

by Kwame Alexander

by Jacqueline Woodson

by Sara Farizan

by Samira Ahmed

by Adam Silvera

by Malorie Blackman

by Jean Ferris

by Simone Elkeles

by Ibi Zoboi

by Laura Resau

by Gareth Hinds

by Sharon Draper

by Pamela L. Laskin

by Suzanne Selfors

by Mary Pearson

by Gordon Korman

by Sherry Garland

by Barbara Dee

by Walter Dean Myers

by John Green

by Randa Abdel-Fattah

by S.E. Hinton

by Nicola Yoon

by Zora Neale Huston

Tristan and Isolde

by Isaac Marion

by E. Lockhart

West Side Story

by Rebecca Serle

 

Compiled by Penny Kittle

 

Thank you to the many 鈥渟omeones鈥� who helped to compile this robust list of book titles:

 

Deanna M. Stephan is an English聽educator聽from Glen Mills,聽Pennsylvania.聽 Follow her on Twitter:聽