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My mom read this book aloud to me. -
Tried to follow along in the book when watching the movie. -
First full-length chapter book I remember reading as a class. -
My friends and I would pretend to be Animorphs at recess. -
Checked out these books repeatedly from my elementary librarian: Mrs. Kuba. -
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Also as part of Dad's Summer Reading program, I read Ender's Game. This was my first space-based text. -
As part of Dad's Summer Reading Program, I read Among the Hidden and realized books can be an escape from reality for the first time. -
My 6th grade teacher read Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets aloud to the class. This was the first time I realized teachers select texts to teach because they enjoy them. -
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Wrote my first "book" and read it to kindergartners who had my former teacher. -
Read books like "A Child Called It" where the protagonist had a rougher life than mine. -
A long-term sub taught a unit around Romeo & Juliet. This was the first "classic" text I remember reading as a kid and loving. This was the first full-length play that I read. -
My high school put on this musical. After seeing it, I signed up for theatre tech work as an extracurricular activity. This provided me with more opportunities to interact with plays and musicals. -
Read "Tuesdays with Morrie" as a whole class novel, solidifying my belief that in order for a text to be good, it must be felt in your heart and those emotions must be extreme. -
Took AP Composition. This teacher was critical of my writing to a degree that made me believe I was a bad writer. I was so insecure about my writing for years after this.
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College Writing was a 5 credit hour class that combined Comp I and Comp II into one class. My professor, Heal, taught this course in a way that made me fall back in love with writing. More importantly, Heal, made me believe in myself as writer. I will never forget Heal's lecture titled "Semicolonoscopy." -
Subtext, subtext, subtext. In taking this acting class, I learned so much about making inferences about a text. This class helped me uncover a literacy skill that is a strength of mine. -
This was the first class that made me think about how I can write scripts that are for students in my classes. -
I got permission from the author and the publisher to adapt this picture book into a play that was performed at multiple local elementary schools in an assembly setting. I directed my university's traveling children's theatre troupe that year. -
Taken as an independent study, I had to orally perform written texts in multiple settings across my university. This course helped me realize the importance and meaning behind punctuation in written text. -
In my 4th grade student teaching placement, I read "The Westing Game" aloud. I employed all of my theatre skills and fully committed to voices and the subtext. -
Although it wasn't my first audiobook, the audiobook that made me fall in love with the medium was "Wlll Grayson, Will Grayson" by John Green and David Levithan. -
The first whole class novel I taught was The Outsiders by SE Hinton. -
Shared my love of this genre with students. -
The first YA author I went to listen speak about his writing craft was Markus Zusak. Since then I've heard many other authors speak. This is one of my favorite hobbies. -
I started to read at least one professional development book every summer. This was the first of many. -
Memories of reading this book aloud with my cohorts are treasured. The shared experience of this text did so much good for our class community. -
When moving to MA from IA, I listened to a lot of audiobooks on the drive. It was in this trip that I feel in love with comedian memoirs in audiobook form. -
I "fangirled" so much when meeting Jacqueline Woodson. She has famously stated that she writes because she has questions. If you look at the events in her life paired up with the books she wrote, you can infer the question that inspired her writing. -
Teaching this text inspired me to go down many research rabbit holes about the civil rights movement. -
This was the first text I read about restorative justice practices. This was also the first text I read on my journey towards becoming an antiracist educator. -
I used the close reading framing that this text outlines when creating my Bring Your Own Book (BYOBook) Unit that also followed the book club structure from "A Novel Approach." Many other teachers used my unit as a model and have designed their own BYOBook Units at my school. -
Because I was teaching a unit on graphic novels, I developed a greater appreciation for the text type. -
Fell in love with this middle grade novel and simply cannot stop recommending it to others. -
This text helped me develop strategies for teaching writing with an inquiry mindset. I also led PD with colleagues about these strategies.
