On Saturday, I attended an inaugural Kappa Delta Pi conference that was put on by students at James Madison University. I was curious to see how the students would pull off hosting a conference, and they did a stellar job: door prizes, coffee, breakfast, lunch, and four quality sessions. I also wanted the Bridgewater College students in the teacher education program to have the opportunity to experience this professional learning conference, and I was pleased when three freshmen and a senior attended.
At my first session, given by Pam Sullivan on “Helping Your Students Fall in Love with Literature,” I had the chance to take a Shelfie of three young adult books and share their importance in my life. My Shelfie used to be posted here (a photo of The River, Allegiant, and The Maze Runner), but I learned that if you delete a photo from the cloud, then that photo is removed from your blog post as well!
In my first year of teaching, early 90’s, students seemed drawn to Paulsen’s, The River. The ninth graders enjoyed the survival aspect and small size of the book. I think it’s a timeless pick.
More recently, my son hooked my daughter and me on the Divergent series. My daughter is reading Allegiant, while I’m a step behind (which she loves) reading Divergent.
My son is now finishing up Dashner’s Maze Runner series. He asked his girlfriend to the middle school dance by putting post it notes throughout the book…WILL….YOU…GO…TO..