Teaching Reading During COVID: Technology With a Purpose by Janel Prinkey

Online Libraries: A Godsend in the Age of Covid

For years in my Reading classroom, I have asked my students to read outside of class for 20 minutes--only on days that end in “y”. Typically, I’m met with one of two reactions: an eager grin that signified “Challenge accepted”, or a coy one that meant “Not going to happen, Ms. Prinkey.” This year was different, not due to the students I teach, but the added obstacle of checking out books to students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Every Reading teacher knows that the easier it is for students to find a book to read that interests them, the better chances are that they will actually read it. 

For context, you should know that I am also responsible for maintaining and curating my school’s high school library in addition to my duties and responsibilities as a 7th and 8th grade Reading teacher. The prospect of having to quarantine books after students used them, and having to have students place orders for books, had me almost in tears. Then came a likely solution: signing up for online libraries.

By having my students sign up for the Free Library of Philadelphia, as well as our local library, students no longer had to touch physical copies of books, yet they had access to the latest and greatest much more quickly than they would if they had to wait for me to place an order, wait for the purchase order, process and label the new books, and then check them out to students. The instant gratification was real. 

This is a process I intend to keep moving forward, after COVID-19 has been tamed, through the establishment of our own virtual library. The problem that I ran into this summer when I did my research was that eBooks are expensive! I thought there was no way that our district could afford the kind of experience that I wanted for my students. But then, what felt like a miracle happened--I found the Connected PA/NJ online library consortium! Once my district purchases access for my students this July, I should have close to 3,000 titles for my grades seven through twelve, small school for merely $3,200. Compared to the near $30 per book price of traditional eBook buying, this is a steal. If you do not have the money to subscribe next year, you still get access! This is a unique feature to this consortium, as it allows you to access the titles once you’ve subscribed to them just once, they never go away!

 And that is not considering the program offered through Mackin called Comics Plus which allows simultaneous access to graphic novels and comics for an entire school for under $1,000. With this subscription, and the collections I will purchase through the consortium, I should have access to approximately fifty eBooks per student at my school!  I hope to report back next school year with how successful this process was. Until then: unbridled excitement.

Edpuzzle: A Flipped Classroom, Modern Day Read-Aloud

Another essential component of a Reading classroom is the class read-aloud. In my curriculum, I teach students to differentiate between different genres of both fiction and nonfiction, and often find that I simply do not have time to read aloud in class. Interruptions through announcements and pep rallies sometimes stretch a book out way beyond the three weeks that it should have taken. Enter Edpuzzle.

I decided to ask students to read and work on their independent work in class when I realized that many of them were simply not doing it. By recording myself reading aloud to students and then using Edpuzzle to edit the video and incorporate questions I would ask students in class, I’m realizing something wonderful. Students who would not typically raise their hands are typing their answers in Edpuzzle with fervor. And their experience is richer for it.

I have also been able to read more to the students without the interruptions of daily life at school. Using Edpuzzle, we have read Restart by Gordon Korman, Prairie Lotus by Linda Sue Park, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, and are in the process of reading Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly. After that, I hope to read The Benefits of Being an Octopus by Ann Braden, and possibly another book before summer!

Our flipped classroom works like this: I assign students one chapter of our current read-aloud (or two if they are short), for a total of about 20 minutes for homework. Then during class we read silently and answer questions about our independent reading books for about twenty minutes. This leaves us with about 20 minutes of our class to be able to work on our skill assignments and writing practice. If there is time left, students scramble to get their headphones, eager for the next chapter of The Hunger Games, no longer giving me that wry smile, but instead enthusiastically participating in our virtual read-aloud. “The Hunger Games was boring at first, but got better toward the middle and end. I’m definitely reading the next one! [Catching Fire]”- An Edpuzzle response from a reluctant reader. It is not a perfect model, but it is working well for us!

I am thankful for both of these technological tools because of their seamless integration into my classroom. They have made a very stressed Reading teacher very happy.

Author Bio: 

Janel Prinkey teaches 7th and 8th grade Reading for a rural school district in Western Pennsylvania. She is an avid reader and writer and enjoys spending time with her Yorkiepoo, Arya. When she is not traveling the world, she is either playing mediocre golf or spending time with her family and friends.

Participating in NCTE’s African American Read-In by Amy Bouch

Participating in NCTE’s African American Read-In

It is crucial for educators to read, suggest, and incorporate texts from as many backgrounds, cultures, experiences, races, abilities, etc. as possible. I strive to do this as much as I can, but I also appreciate that NCTE has an event, the African American Read-In, that focuses on centering African American books and authors during Black History Month. 

As posted on the NCTE website, “The National African American Read-In is a groundbreaking effort to encourage communities to read together, centering African American books and authors. It was established in 1990 by the Black Caucus of the National Council of Teachers of English to make literacy a significant part of Black History Month. This initiative has reached more than 6 million participants around the world.”

Although I first became a member of NCTE as a sophomore in college in 2010, I did not know about this NCTE event until last year (2020). One of the many great aspects about this event is that teachers can choose how to participate! There are endless options to have this event fit into every classroom. 

To help put my experiences and sharing into perspective, I teach 8th grade English. In my district, this means that I mainly focus on writing and grammar standards; there is a separate class that mainly focuses on the reading standards.

Last year in 2020, I highlighted several authors and books by giving book talks about books I had read (or hoped to read in the near future) as well as playing YouTube videos of authors reading excerpts of their novels. I borrowed books from local public libraries as well as our school library and then shared those with students for them to read. I also incorporated some excerpts as model texts for our grammar study. For my first year participating, I was overall thrilled. My ideas for future years included having students give books talks or read excerpts as well as trying to connect through a video meeting with an author (I still hope to do this in the future!). 

This year in 2021, where lending books is a much trickier task and time and mental capacity is more limited for all, I focused more on highlighting authors through model texts in grammar study. I thoughtfully included to highlight two African American authors during two Friday remote learning days. 

To review the grammar that we had covered so far in 8th grade, we focused on Amanda Gorman and the biographical information on the main page of her website. Poetry, and Amanda Gorman, are having a huge moment right now, so I wanted to incorporate that. Personally, for the Super Bowl this year, the most important part was being able to watch Amanda Gorman’s poem after the coin toss. I wanted to make sure that students knew just how awesome and amazing it was to have a poem recited during the most-watched athletic event on television. The slides that we used for review can be accessed here.

The next grammar concept that we focused on was verbal phrases (shout-out to all the other 8th grade teachers who focus on this standard!). Jason Reynolds is an author loved by many (if not all!) teachers and students, so I wanted to highlight his writing and books as well. Jason Reynolds has a fantastic read aloud of the first chapter of his book Ghost, the first book in his highly-popular Track series. This excerpt also happens to have a perfect section for identifying and analyzing participial phrases. This excerpt, as well as more excerpts from books by African American authors and links to authors reading excerpts from their books, can be viewed here.

Earlier this year, I invited students to read Class Act by Jerry Craft and participate in the virtual author event hosted through the Words & Pictures Program by Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures. This experience wasn’t during the official African American Read-In event, but as I mentioned earlier, it is always great to incorporate a wide range of authors and texts!

Other suggestions for participating in the African American Read-In could include reading picture books, which is great for any grade level. Students could volunteer to read a book and then discuss grammar concepts, themes, and more. Parents and community members could also participate by reading and sharing about a book, poem, or article. When discussing the draft of this blog post with my friend/fellow teacher/writing feedback buddy, Janel Prinkey, she suggested reading pieces by various African American poets and comparing grammatical styles as well as incorporating “First Chapter Fridays.” Ultimately, as long as the reading selection is focusing on African American authors and texts, you are participating in the event and helping to amplify more voices. If you have any further suggestions, please share in the comments!  

Overall--participate in the African American Read-In if you haven’t yet! Keep in mind you can incorporate voices from African American authors at any time in the year, and even participating a little bit is better than not at all. 

Amy Bouch is a reading-obsessed 8th grade English teacher at Chartiers Valley Middle School. She is also the Vice President of the Western Pennsylvania Council of Teachers of English (WPCTE) and a Teacher-Consultant for the Western Pennsylvania Writing Project (WPWP). When she isn’t teaching, she is making her way through all of the U.S. National Parks and traveling the world with her husband. Connect with her at abouch@cvsd.net.