This Read & Seed lesson will focus on practicing mindfulness in a fun and nature centered way. We will read A Quiet Place by Douglas Wood and Dan Andreasen, and create our own mindfulness wands. Participate in a Movement/Music/Finger Play activity by practicing some garden yoga. This lesson is aimed at connecting young learners to their natural world and promote school readiness skills. This Read & Seed activity is presented by The Gardens on Spring Creek by the City of Fort Collins. https://www.fcgov.com/gardens/files/read-seed-website-mindfulness-in-the-gardens.pdf?1589213978

At no other time in a person’s life does one search for a sense of identity, a definition of what self means on a personal level, than during adolescence. It is during the middle and high school years that we are provided meaningful opportunities to step outside of the principal parental/guardian dominated influence that shaped our identity for our first decade.

This unit explores the combined use of music and literature as a means through which youth and adolescence navigate the development of what I have defined as personal, projected and perceived identity. Lessons are organized using the three areas of scope as a guide through sequential and iterative modules designed to develop students’ lines of inquiry towards a deeper and broader understanding of how music mirrors and supports the psychological and emotional events impacting our sense of self.

"... When I first started teaching in 2015, I realized that many of my students didn’t fully appreciate that their stories were compelling. But then they started writing about growing up hearing gunshots and sirens at night, using fire escapes as basketball hoops, and a ritual I’d never heard of: dancing at Thanksgiving. One student wrote about how he and his brother, at ages 11 and 14, had to fend for themselves after their father was deported. As the students listened to each other, mesmerized, they came to realize that their own stories have the same effect on other people. That motivated them to learn literary techniques to weave their experiences into cohesive, artful narratives.

Many of the writers have since graduated and have become teachers and nurses; others are still in school or, having graduated, are struggling to find the kinds of jobs that they envisioned having, once they had earned a college degree. Yet, however their careers and their lives pan out, they know that continuing to cultivate their writing will give them some measure of power. Their stories of resilience and creativity reflect how American culture is enriched by their presence. To know them is to love them."

John Steinbeck’s novella Of Mice and Men tells the tragic story of George Milton and Lennie Small, two migrant ranch workers in Salinas, California. Published in 1937 and set during the Great Depression of the 1930s, Of Mice and Men explores the themes of loneliness and isolation. 

(Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) Primary Source Sets are designed to help students develop critical thinking skills by exploring topics in history, literature, and culture through primary sources. Drawing online materials from libraries, archives, and museums across the United States, the sets use letters, photographs, posters, oral histories, video clips, sheet music, and more. Each set includes a topic overview, ten to fifteen primary sources, links to related resources, and a teaching guide.)

In this class, we questioned the very parameters of what counts as American literature. Is American literature defined by geographical boundaries? Experiences? Histories? Themes? What is the difference between American literature and American history? Who determines what counts as American literature? How does the in-depth study of early American literature prompt us rethink representations of American culture today? In our global era, it is clear that past definitions of American literature must be revisited. This anthology moves to answer the question “what is American literature?” by framing the texts in new and provocative ways that fit the modern age.

Social distancing can be tough, and we are all in need of a little positivity! This week’s virtual Read & Seed will help us transform our neighborhood into that of something beautiful. We will read Maybe Something Beautiful: How Art Transformed a Neighborhood by F. Isabel Campoy, Theresa Howell, and Rafael López and create our own positivity posters with nature as our inspiration. We will also participate in a Movement/Music/Finger Play activity by singing The More We Get Together. This lesson is aimed at connecting young learners to their natural world and promote school readiness skills. This Read & Seed activity is presented by The Gardens on Spring Creek by the City of Fort Collins. https://youtu.be/qaKv_ozqklo

Social distancing can be tough, and we are all in need of a little positivity! This week’s virtual Read & Seed will help us transform our neighborhood into that of something beautiful. We will read Maybe Something Beautiful: How Art Transformed a Neighborhood by F. Isabel Campoy, Theresa Howell, and Rafael López and create our own positivity posters with nature as our inspiration. We will also participate in a Movement/Music/Finger Play activity by singing The More We Get Together. This lesson is aimed at connecting young learners to their natural world and promote school readiness skills. This Read & Seed activity is presented by The Gardens on Spring Creek by the City of Fort Collins. https://www.fcgov.com/gardens/files/read-seed-website-positivity-posters.pdf?1588101864

In the activities included below, students will closely examine images related to the Human Rights theme. Students will make connections to informational and literary texts that expand their understanding of global issues and their rights as citizens of the world. The activities included ask students to reference specific literary and informational texts, however, all activities may be adapted to fit with a number of different texts that touch on the same topics and issues.

Planting seeds can be hard work! They require a lot of care and a lot of patience, as we will learn from our story this week. During this virtual Read & Seed we will read The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss and Crockett Johnson. Participate in a Movement/Music/Finger Play activity by singing a garden song, and create seed tape to plant and start your own garden. This lesson is aimed at connecting young learners to their natural world and promote school readiness skills. This Read & Seed activity is presented by The Gardens on Spring Creek by the City of Fort Collins. https://youtu.be/3ER8I--SRbU

Planting seeds can be hard work! They require a lot of care and a lot of patience, as we will learn from our story this week. During this virtual Read & Seed we will read The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss and Crockett Johnson. Participate in a Movement/Music/Finger Play activity by singing a garden song, and create seed tape to plant and start your own garden. This lesson is aimed at connecting young learners to their natural world and promote school readiness skills. This Read & Seed activity is presented by The Gardens on Spring Creek by the City of Fort Collins. https://www.fcgov.com/gardens/files/read-seed-website-seed-tape.pdf?1590515650

This anthology is a curated collection of openly licensed primary texts, organized thematically, designed to be used as a reader in English composition courses. Includes personal essays, literature, video and audio files, Web writings, and long-form journalism, along with customizable assignments and instructor resources. This anthology was initially curated by Lumen Learning using materials from a variety of open sources.

In Lesson 1, students focus on the first stave of the novel as they identify the meanings of words and phrases that may be unfamiliar to them. This activity facilitates close examination of and immersion in the text and leads to an understanding of Scrooge before his ghostly experiences. In Lesson 2, students examine Scrooge’s experiences with the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future and discover how Dickens used both direct and indirect characterization to create a protagonist who is more than just a stereotype. In Lesson 3, students focus on stave 5 as they identify and articulate themes that permeate the story.

A Writer's Guide to Mindful Reading develops and enacts the mindful reading pedagogy described in Ellen C. Carillo's scholarly monograph Securing a Place for Reading in Composition: The Importance of Teaching for Transfer (Utah State UP). Offering a comprehensive approach to literacy instruction by focusing on reading and writing, A Writer's Guide to Mindful Reading supports students as they become more reflective, deliberate, and mindful readers and writers by working within a metacognitive framework. The reading selections, assignments, and activities in this innovative textbook move students toward this goal by providing opportunities to apply and reflect on multiple ways of reading and writing, positioning students to develop a metacognitive awareness crucial to transferring what they learn about reading and writing to other courses and contexts. Because many of the difficulties that students encounter when writing are related to the difficulties posed by reading complex texts, A Writer's Guide to Mindful Reading gives instructors the tools to help students develop a repertoire of reading strategies that will help them become stronger readers and—by extension—stronger writers.