As soon as I heard Amanda Gorman’s poem, “The Hill We Climb,” I knew right away that I wanted to purchase a copy of her book. I pre-ordered the book in January 2021, and I have been waiting a long time for it to arrive. I was pleasantly surprised when her book, Call Us What We Carry, arrived today.

I think that as an ELA teacher, we need to introduce our students to more than just the poetry that they will find in their textbooks. Gorman has poems that are relevant to right now. I’m sure that not all will be a fit for my 6th and 7th graders, but those about COVID are relevant to them at this moment. The poem from the Inauguration is a relevant right now poem.

It’s difficult to try and explain poems that were written in a time period in which the students were not born. They know what they study in history class, but usually students don’t “study” to retain. They “study” to pass their test and then forget. Analysis of literature is lost to many of them because of this fact. It’s why I collect literary texts to use.

We need to expose our students to different writers and poets. We need to show them that there is an expanse to the written language that even they have the ability to master. They won’t learn that by studying old, dead, white men. They need the Maya Angelous, the Anna Quindlens, the Pablo Nerudas, the Nikki Giovannis, and the Amanda Gormans to expand their thinking. To introduce them to a different point of view.

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These two education books have been life changing in my classroom this year. I was introduced to the books last year when my school district decided to start using Jennifer Serravallo’s Reading Assessment Kit for Fiction. The district placed heavy emphasis on teaching reading due to the fact that so many students were struggling with comprehension. Through the Reading Assessment program we were taught to conference with students and identify where their comprehension issues were. Once identified, practical strategies were taught to the students in small groups.

Why these education books?

This year, the focus is on all students and not just those lower struggling readers which the kit identified. The kit had a few strategies in the teaching book, but nothing like this. The Reading Strategies book is designed with strategies for fiction and non-fiction texts. The strategies range from fluency to engagement to specific areas such as Plot, Main Idea, Character, Theme, Text Features, etc.

After using the strategies in the Reading Strategies book last year, I asked my Reading Coach if we were going to get the Writing Strategies book. This, too, has been phenomenal this year! I am utilizing the strategies in the book to help my struggling writers, and trust me, I had some struggling writers! Read more about that here.

The Writing Strategies book is perfect for any grade level, as is the Reading Strategies book. It’s easy to identify where your students are and to access the best strategy for the student. In my whole class assessment, I had multiple students struggling with character motivation and identifying change. I used the strategy in the book that talked about influences on characters. After our lesson, the students were able to easily identify changes based on influence.

Out of all of my education books that I use as references, these two are the only ones that are sitting on my desk within easy grasp. I use them weekly to plan out lessons.

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