Reading Specialist Blog

Shovel after shovel deep, very deep I have to bury all of the things inside of me Day after day week after week shovel more, shovel less Let the dirt surpress Let the people stare Let them think that I don't care Shovel after shovel dirt flying everywhere people asking questions But I have no answers They lie there deep Buried beneath the surface Beneath the facade of everything will be okay I can't let them break me Break my barriers Release my secrets covered under the blooming flowers and ripening fruit Let them believe my garden is simply a garden not my hiding place not my escape from the torture of daily life it's just a hobby something to fill the void something that releases frees me into just being me the way God created me All my flaws All my pain All my fears Melting underneath the blazing sun No one will know What is buried deep What is in the roots what the source is it will be our little secret Buried beneath the m...

Writing Goal: Stay on target . . . I mean, topic. For thirteen years, it was always the same. Bud, Not Buddy. The Outsiders. Cousins. Holes. I would try to hype the students up to read these long, lengthy books while I wasn't even sure I was excited to read the books. There were times the students were more excited than I was about the reading. It took me a while to figure out why. It wasn't the length of the book, it was the genre. Most of the books that are selected for the novel study are realistic fiction, nonfiction, or something along those lines. And it got me thinking, where are all of the fantasy and science fiction books? Then I dug a little deeper and looked at our textbook. Where are all of the fantasy short stories and science fiction excerpts in the unit of literature? We have maybe Summer in a Day or Dark and Golden Eyes They Were. The Lightening Thief if we were super lucky. I just don't quite understand the lack of using such rich texts in...