In 300 words, respond to this week’s Teaching Discussion prompt: This is the only text we are reading this semester that is aimed at the middle-school reader. It is also a graphic novel. Consider our test class and outline how you might teach the text you read this week, consider why it would be great to teach, how it would be hard to teach. Be ready to respond meaningfully (roughly 100-200 words) to at least one other classmate. ​

My Nephews love graphic novels. It's turned them from tepid readers to avid ones. There is always pushback from somebody about this, folks who say things like "I wish they'd read real books". That's nonsense. Reading is reading. So let's start from that place as you respond to this prompt. Thing of it this way: what is suddenly possible with a graphic novel that is not possible with a novel that is exclusively text? How can using visuals in a classroom--graphic novels, film, television, art, photos--in the ELA classroom help our students become better readers of all “texts?"

Next, consider our class: You are teaching a class of 30 8th graders at Whitman Middle School. The class you are teaching is majority white. There are two students who identify as African-American. Just over ½ of the class are young women.Your classroom is well-equipped. Students have ipads for use in the classroom and all of the students have internet access at home as well as at school. You have a number of students on IEPs ranging from high-functioning spectrum to ADHD mix. 

This novel is an example of "genre fiction" (as opposed to literary fiction) in addition to being YA. In your post to the discussion board this week, in 300 words, discuss how the conventions of this genre (fantasy) work with or against the conventions we see in YA. How could reading a novel like Barren Ground connect young people to the kinds of texts typically taught in a high school classroom? How could it connect young readers (or any readers) to our actual world?

THE TEXT
Barren Ground is certainly written for a YA audience. I think you will find many of the kinds of themes we've been talking about all semester long (a relationship to authority, like parents, often antagonistic, coming of age/loss of innocence, the experience of "firsts") . However, Barren is also an example of another genre--fantasy. As genre's go, this is a pretty popular one for all ages. Many of you are avid readers of the genre. I have to admit, I'm not really. I could barely get through The Lord of the Rings bbooks. 

No, most of my high level nerd cred comes from an unflagging devotion to the original Star Wars. Though I've come to believe that Rogue One is the best Star Wars movie ever made (it wasn't a boy who saved the universe--it was a girl!). 

Anyway, I'll be very curious what you have to say about this novel in terms of what fantasy allows you to talk about and connect to with students as readers and writers.

TEST CLASSROOM 
You are working with 11th graders at Bridgewater Raynham. We taught a 9th grade class early on in the semester. Let's use the same profile for the class, but place them in 11th grade--I think that's a good age range for this novel. And, to be clear, there is a lot more going on in it, as you will see, than horror/fantasy. 

Our Test Class for the Week: I'm returning to Brockton High, the single largest high school east of the Mississippi that is not in New York or New Jersey. You can check out the information about the high school in general from that post. 

I would love to see this novel taught in a College Prep 12th grade class. Their are certain elements of this novel about young adults that I think will resonate with seniors in college (the main characters are that age or a little older) and, also, the subject matter needs a class of more mature students to manage.

Your Prompt: For this prompt, I have a very specific question for you, a two parter. Question 1: what would you do in a classroom, what assignments, structures, class activities, assessments, etc would you design to help your students be better readers of other texts they might encounter in school and beyond? Question 2: What would you do, assignments, structures, etc. to help students develop a meaningful thematic relationship with this specific text, the story and its characters. 

You can privilege answering one or the other of the two parts, but I would appreciate it if you at least in passing address both parts of the prompt. ​