Review & Giveaway: How To Teach Your Children Shakespeare

I've never met him, nor have I even seen him in action, but Ken Ludwig is a great teacher. Before I looked through How To Teach Your Children Shakespeare, his new book on exactly that, it would have been difficult for you to convince me that I could believe it simply by reading the first chapter.

Yet there I was, following his directions to memorize and then understand a single line of poetry from A Midsummer Night's Dream ("I know a bank where the wild thyme grows"). As actor John Lithgow notes in his foreword, Ludwig's enthusiasm radiates from these pages. I could hear him speaking to me, as if I was sitting in a workshop learning from him in person. That's hard to do on the written page.

Ludwig frames the book around twenty-five key passages from The Bard's plays. You'll find out how to convey the literary, historical and cultural significance as well as teach the meaning behind words that will often be unfamiliar to kids. Ludwig correctly pushes you to model passages out loud, as any English teacher will tell you is key for the literacy of struggling and still learning readers.  Even the beautiful rhythm of this poetry is a part of his course-in-a-book. How To Teach Your Children Shakespeare is thorough and detailed, but wholly accessible.

This is a book for teacher or parents interested in imparting this timeless knowledge to kids (or even adults). This would be an incredibly awesome giveaway if it was simply a copy of the book, but this copy is signed by Mr. Ludwig himself!

As always, I'm giving this book away to a lucky reader. Email teachforever@gmail.com with the subject "Shakespeare" by 11:59pm CST on Wednesday 1/15/14, and I'll pick a winner from that lot at random. Thanks to Crown, Broadway, and Hogarth and Random House, Inc. for providing a copy for the review and giveaway.

If you can't wait, you can pick up How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare on Amazon today.

Ideas For Getting Your Students to Write More

Get them blogging: Blogging 2 Learn - Point your students at this site to help them get started with their own blog. The book below was written about a 9 year old student who started blogging about her school's poor food choices, a great example of the power of this medium.

Start a penpal project: Penpal Exchange Helps Students Squash Red-Blue State Divisions [GOOD] - This is even more engaging and easy if you integrate it with Skype in the Classroom as noted below.

Connect with inspiration across the planet: 'Skype in the Classroom' Connects Kids to NASA and Global Experts [GOOD]

Provide the optimal atmosphere:  Coffee Shop Buzz Is Good For Your Creativity and Why Distractions Can Actually Be Good for Creative Thinking [Lifehacker] - How can you recreate the ambient noise and occasional distractions needed for creativity without letting your classroom descend into chaos?

Use hip-hop and other music: Taking back the mic: Hip-hop as a STEM learning tool [The Root DC Live / WaPo]

BONUS: You could try a six word story, something I wrote about in A Lifetime in Six Words? Possible.

Using Comic Books & Graphic Novels in the Classroom

This is a guest post by elementary teacher and frequent contributor Adrian Neibauer. You can reach him on aneibauer@cherrycreekschools.org.

Photo courtesy: Enokson

WHY use comic books/graphic novels in the classroom?

The short answer: I teach by whatever means necessary…even comic books.

The long answer: I use comic books/graphic novels in my classroom because I intend to change the way teachers look at literacy instruction. I want to give teachers supplemental literacy instructional tools: comic books and graphic novels, in order to increase their male students’ level of intrinsic reading motivation. I want to prove to parents and educators that I can adequately teach students to use critical thinking skills and reading strategies with comic literature.

Here are some great resources for those just starting out:

• The Graphic Classroom
• The Twelve Best Comic Books for the Classroom
• No Flying No Tights - Graphic novel review website
• Free Online Comic Books
• Graphic Novel Reporter
• MAKE BELIEFS COMIX! - Online comic creator for kids.
• First Second Books 
• FREE COMIC BOOK DAY! It happens once a year, but you get free comics!

Most local comic book stores have $1.00 comics. It is probably the cheapest reading material I can find, and it is great for buying multiple copies for a guided reading table. Just be sure to read/preview any/all comics you purchase.

Graphic novels are a bit longer and more expensive, but they make some great ones for potential novel studies…especially if you want to read a classic and compare it to the graphic novel version.

SMART board USERS:
I created interactive SMART board lessons for each of the eight essential reading strategies I intended to teach: Inference, Questioning, Prediction, Summary, Connections, Visualizing, Determining Important Ideas, and Synthesis. I also included an introduction to reading comic literature so that every student enters each lesson with a basic schema regarding how to read a comic book/graphic novel. I intended for this curriculum to take about nine weeks to teach, with one week dedicated to each of the reading strategies and the introduction. However, I want to reiterate that this comic curriculum is only meant to supplement already best reading instructional practices taking place in the classroom; therefore, teachers can use these lessons as they see fit in their classroom.

• Comic Book Curriculum Chart [Google Doc]
• Comic Conventions [PDF]
• Comics and Reading Strategies [PDF]
• Comics and Reading Strategies [SMART Notebook]
• Comic Book Survey [PDF]
• Intro to Comics [SMART Notebook]

NON-SMART board USERS:
Throughout this process, I encountered some challenges. Each interactive SMART board lesson took considerable time to create. At times, I struggled with embedding various comic examples from my newly purchased books within each lesson. I do not own a scanner, so I relied on the Internet and my document camera to display the graphic novel example(s). There is a growing popularity in digital comic literature, but as with any new technology, it is not free. In the future, I plan to pursue this option.

Marvel's Digital Comics is a great resource for grades 4-5 or for anyone with a projector. You can view free samples of tons of great comics. NOTE: Always preview any literature, even comic literature, before showing it to students.

Marvel Kids is geared for the younger grades (K-3).

BOOK RESOURCES:
Adventures in Graphica by Terry Thompson is by far the BEST book of teachers wanting to get some comics and start teaching. Terry has amazing lessons that are ready to use for any classroom!

Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud. Great for anyone interesting in a more in-depth analysis of comic literature. It is written in comic format, which makes some of the heavier concepts easier to understand.

Basically, use what you have available. Teach student to read comics correctly, and then you can easily make the transition to regular text. DO NOT let anyone tell you that comics are easier reading than traditional literature. I own a copy of the graphic novel adaptation of the 9/11 Commission Report. It is a DIFFICULT book!

Finally, present comics as just another medium for traditional genres. There are comic mysteries, memoirs, short stories, poetry, you name it. Don’t feel like you need to be an expert. Kids love learning/exploring new and uncharted territory together with you. Just have fun reading!

Why a Handwritten Draft is Still Necessary for Writing Papers

There's no doubt that computers have made some parts of the writing process easier. As a teacher, I am extremely grateful that I don't have to attempt to read my students' handwriting, for example. I can require them to turn in all speeches and papers in a typed format, because our campus has a computer lab where they can do their work if they don't have a computer at home. Most computers will also tell you when you've made a mistake in spelling or grammar, allowing you to fix those before you turn in the paper (although I have discovered that not all students understand what the squiggly green and red lines under their words mean).

But while the computer may have added some conveniences, it has had some drawbacks in terms of the thinking process itself. I've only started to understand some of these, and I'm seriously considering requiring a handwritten first draft of every speech and paper I assign in my Speech and Philosophy classes. Here are a few reasons why.

1. You can make mistakes on a handwritten draft. There's something extremely satisfying about crossing out an awkward sentence or drawing an arrow to indicate that this example should go there. You can spread out your piles of notes and grab one when you want it, or toss it across the room for a 3-point shot into the wastebasket.
2. It allows for non-linear thinking. Typing something onto a computer monitor is a very linear process, but not all students are linear thinkers. The free flow of ink or graphite on paper can include doodles, heavy cross-outs (the kind that relieve frustration as they practically tear the paper), emotional exclamations, margin notes, mind mapping, diagrams, or any other kind of expression of ideas that doesn't flow from I.A. on down.
3. It uses different parts of the brain. Different neuron pathways are forged through hand-writing than by on-screen writing. Even professional writers sometimes break away from the computer screen and jot down notes on character, plot, and setting, because the sheer physical action stimulates the imagination differently. For further stimulation, try writing a few lines with your non-dominant hand—your thinking becomes really creative then!
4. It helps you discover what you want to say. According to Daniel Chandler, in his article "The Phenomenology of Writing By Hand," there are two kinds of writers: those who have fully formed ideas in their heads and simply write to record them ("Planners") and those who discover what they want to say as they write ("Discoverers"). In my experience, most students are Discoverers, and therefore must have a rough draft before they even begin to contemplate what they will turn in for their assignment. If this first draft is handwritten, it allows the student more time and more direct experience of the discovery process—simply because hand-writing is slower, and the connection between hand, pen, and paper links you to the world of ideas you're exploring.
5. It looks like a rough draft. This may be the most important consideration. A paper that's typed up and neatly printed out looks like a final copy—no matter how underdeveloped the ideas, arguments, or communication within it might be. Many students stop there, since they have a paper that appears to be ready to turn in. At that point, the teacher's reaction (mine, at least) is often, "Did you not even read over your own paper before you turned it in?" But if you hand write it first, you have to develop ideas in a state that makes it clear that the paper is not ready to turn in. You're far more inclined to clarify your arguments, then get the paper into a presentable format.

Technology has made many parts of education more convenient and efficient. But there aren't any shortcuts to good thinking. By hand writing the first draft of a paper, students still have to move slowly through the steps of a more complete thinking process, and that's good for everybody.

This guest post was contributed by Kathy Teel, who is a college teacher, mom, and professional writer. She's currently a member of one of the fastest growing online education communities and writes on topics like education, teaching, learning, and parenting for Online Schools (www.onlineschools.org).

Contest: Pitch Your Children's Book Idea, Win Access to Thousands More

How many times have you looked at a children's book and thought, "I could have written this"?  Or maybe you're a parent or elementary teacher who never has enough books to keep up with voracious young readers?  Have I got something for you!

BigUniverse.com is an awesome children's literature website where you can read, create and share children's books online.  The site allows teachers and parents to give kids access to thousands of books, makes it easy for them to create their own, and they can keep track of and share their favorites with you, siblings or classmates.  Teachers can find leveled books and recommended reading lists, then assess students after reading, all in one comprehensive online location.  Here's a demo on reading and sharing.

When I first learned about the site, my mind immediately began swarming with ideas for children's books that could make math interesting and fun (probably without the reader even realizing they were tackling intimidating math concepts).  This inspired me to get together with BigUniverse.com for a great contest:

The Contest
Pitch your children's book idea!  Give me a quick summary of the plot, the skills you aim to teach (or how your idea would benefit young readers), an example of text or images you'll use, and who your potential children's book would be aimed at.  Don't write the whole book: imagine you are sitting down with me and you have about five minutes to sell me on your idea.  Remember, the best ideas can usually be explained in the fewest words!  Check out this demo of BigUniverse's author tools to get an idea of how easy it would be and the great resources at your disposal.

The Prize
A Six Month Premium Membership to BigUniverse.com!

How to Enter
Post your pitch in the comments below.  Emailed entries will not be accepted.  Entries must be 500 words or less.  The contest ends at 11:59 PM CST on February 20, 2010.  Anyone with a good idea for a children's book can enter (excluding employees of BigUniverse.com, of course), but there will be only one winner!  Good luck!

Chivalry May Be Dead, But Literacy Ain't

In addition to trying to make geeks cool, this month's Wired magazine also revealed some fascinating research on student literacy in the digital age.

Stanford professor Andrea Lunsford studied five years worth of student writing in and out of the classroom (just about anything written in any medium you could imagine). What she found among the tweets, texts, academic essays and assignments is staggering:

"I think we're in the midst of a literacy revolution the likes of which we haven't seen since Greek civilization," she says. For Lunsford, technology isn't killing our ability to write. It's reviving it—and pushing our literacy in bold new directions.

This generation (and I'd like to be so bold as to include myself) is writing more than ever, mostly in text (by the very nature of blogs, social media, etc) and doing more of it outside of school for perhaps the first time in history.

The greatest skill that we've developed is called kairos, which essentially means we're able to adapt our writing style for different audiences. While it may be hard to get a particular student to write a five paragraph essay, that same student might go home and write everything from "sprawling TV-show recaps to 15,000-word videogame walkthroughs." It's nothing short of a revolution.

Thus it is the best argument for incorporating not only new technology, but the many new forms of writing and art that the digital age has inspired into your classroom. There's many simple ways to do this, across the curriculum:

1. Incorporate student blogging.
2. Use Internet memes as creative writing prompts. Take your typical Facebook-style meme: "Answer these 25 questions about yourself, then send it to your friends." You could actually have students pass them around instead of just having them turn it in immediately. That sounds like a fun first day activity to me!
   
3. Display student work publicly, but let them know at the beginning. Take advantage of their skill at writing for particular audiences and have them write for them. A project that will be displayed by the main entrance at school should elicit a different response than something you'd put on the classroom wall. Imagine what would happen if you could get a local art gallery, museum or library to host student work!
4. Borrow the Internet's best ideas. Maybe your students could create a PostSecret project, recap whatever popular TV show about vampires is on this week, or explain the ins-and-outs the Nintendo Wii. You don't necessarily need the technology to tap into the power of these ideas.

I'm interested in your reactions and ideas based on this research. I'll be looking for them in the comments.

25 Free Summer Reading and Writing Resources for Teachers

If you're looking for materials for summer school courses or if you just want to get a head start on next year's lessons, the Internet is a great place to begin. Sites like the Online Books Page can provide you with reading materials and help you choose reading lists. Other, such as SparkNotes and Pink Monkey, can help you develop a greater understanding of the books you are about to teach. Whatever you are looking for, you are sure to find at least one useful site in this list of reading and writing resources for teachers.

Free Books

The Online Books Page - This site is one of the best places to find free unabridged books online. There are currently more than 35,000 listings, with new books being added regularly.

Project Gutenberg - Project Gutenberg was the first site to offer free e-books and is still one of the best spots to get free unabridged books online. The site has nearly 30,000 books in its collection and links to thousands of other books that can be read or downloaded for free.

Bibliomania - Thousands of free books can be found at Bibliomania. The site also offers free study guides to the most read books and other helpful resources for teachers.

The Literature Network - In addition to an excellent database of free electronic books, the Literature Network also provides forums and quotations for students and teachers.

Librivox - Unlike the other free book sites on this list, Librivox focuses on audio books. The site's volunteers have recorded thousands of the best-loved books in the public domain.

Literature Summaries and Study Guides

Schmoop - Schmoop is a relatively new site dedicated to making reading, writing, and history fun for both teachers and students. The site offers a wide range of study guides and teacher resources as well as tips on using Schmoop in the classroom.

Litsum - LitSum is one of the best places online to get free study guides and literature summaries. The site offers more guides than anyone else and also provides topics for discussion, character analysis, and other helpful teaching resources.

CyberGuides - CyberGuides are standards-based literature study guides that are delivered as web-based instruction. Each guide has a student and teacher edition. CyberGuides are available for k thru 12 teachers.

Pink Monkey - This site offers a wide range of student friendly book summaries, chapter notes, and study guides that can be viewed for free online or printed for a small fee.

SparkNotes - SparkNotes have always been among the most popular literature study guides. You can find thousands of free SparkNotes guides online. Other resources include a searchable grammar guide and SparkCharts for teachers.

Educational Materials, Lesson Plans, and Classroom Activities

Learn Out Loud - Learn Out Loud is the Internet's largest directory of free learning resources. The site focuses more on audio and video, but lists some free text-based resources as well.

ReadWriteThink - A partnership between the International Reading Association (IRA), the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), and the Verizon Foundation, the ReadWriteThink site is an excellent source of literature lesson plans for grades k thru 12.

LitPlans - This site offers literature lesson plans and other helpful materials. Most of the lesson plans are geared for middle school and high school teachers, but elementary and college-level teachers may also find useful resources on the LitPlans site.

Harcourt - This trade publisher provides teachers with free books, classroom activities, lesson plans, and other materials. Most of Harcourt's free materials are designed for elementary school students.

Scholastic - Scholastic offers a summer reading challenge, lesson plans, story starters, and many other useful materials. The Scholastic site also features a "Back-to-School Planning" section that's perfect for teachers who are working on next year's reading and language arts lessons.

Writing Prompts and Instruction

The Teacher's Corner - The Teacher's Corner has an excellent selection of daily writing prompts for every month of the year. Prompts can be printed or displayed on an LCD projector.

WritingFix - This site offers interactive writing prompts, lesson plans, and resources for the writing classroom. Other special features include a daily prompt generator, columns and advice from teachers, and student samples by grade level.

The Teaching Portal - The Teaching Portal is a Lightning Bug resource specifically designed for teachers of all levels. The site offers writing prompts, advice, and useful programs to help educators teach writing in the classroom.

MIT OCW - The Massachusetts Institute of Technology offers several free online writing courses at the college level that would be of interest to teachers. Most of the courses include lecture notes, reading lists, writing assignments, and other learning materials.

Purdue Online Writing Lab - Purdue University's Online Writing Lab (OWL) offers more than 200 free resources for writers and people who teach writing. The site also provides style guides and special help for ESL teachers.

Magazines, Blogs, and Other Reading Materials

Yes - Teachers can get a free, one-year subscription to Yes! Magazine when they visit the Yes site. This ad-free quarterly magazine publishes articles about education, the economy, communities, art, and other topics.

Teacher Lingo - This online community for teachers is a great place to start your own blog or read blogs written by other teachers.

TeacherVision - This site lists a selection of popular teacher blogs with frequent updates.

Books 4 Teachers - Known as the site "where teachers come to read," Books 4 Teachers is a good place to find book recommendations, lesson plans, and other useful resources.

The Free Library - The Free Library offers unabridged literary works from classic authors. The site also features free articles and scholarly papers--more than five million entries in all.


Guest post from Karen Schweitzer who writes about online colleges for OnlineColleges.net.

The Math Concept Splash and More Great Resources on Scribd

I just received this email and wanted to pass along some great resources to you.

Hi Mr D,

I am a retired math teacher from Leominster, MA who is part of a team that offers Mass Summer Institutes each year that are funded by the Massachusetts Department of Education. During the institutes, we teach algebra and geometry content while modeling the use of many strategies that support all learners in middle school and high school. I've posted dozens of sample strategies on Scribd, a document-sharing website.

My favorite strategy is the Math Concept Splash, which I've modified from the pre-reading Word Splash strategy, which we learned about in our district from The Skillful Teacher: Building Your Teaching Skills. In the example we were shown, vocabulary words, phrases, sentences, and ideas from an assigned-reading article were “splashed” on a page and students were asked to brainstorm what they knew and thought they knew before actually reading the article.

As math teachers, we wondered how we could use the splash as a strategy in our middle school and high school classes. I created this Functions and Relations Splash based on using multiple representations—words, graphs, table of values, and equations—to use in several ways: to check for prior knowledge from a previous course or chapter; to review before a chapter or semester exam; and to review for state assessment tests. Since the initial time we learned about splashes, teachers from our district and our summer institutes have created more than 50 splashes for grades 5 through AP Calculus.

Here are 3 links from Scribd that will help math teachers understand how to use a splash in math class.

1. The Splash Intro Sheet created as a teacher guide to using a concept splash in math class.
2. The Functions and Relations Splash created for algebra through pre-calculus classes to review math concepts.
   
3. The same Functions and Relations Splash as a PowerPoint presentation, showing how the teacher and students can use it in class to check for prior knowledge and to review.

There are more than a dozen additional Math Concept Splashes posted on Scribd and also directions for creating them in Microsoft Word and PowerPoint.

I've never used Scribd before I got this email. It's a pretty interesting platform for sharing documents, using a format called iPaper which the creators tout as a "a fast and light alternative to PDF". I quickly found some practice problems on radians and degrees, which I've been covering in my Algebra II class, so there's some potential for lesson planning there.

There's all kinds of content there, from recent issues of Scientific American to sample student answers from a math test. It's worth exploring. If you have any of your content or know of great stuff on there, please share it in the comments!

Help Your Students Prep for College Entrance Exams with VerbaLearn

Lifehacker might be my favorite website, because they're probably one of the best education websites out there without even trying. For example, they've found another great vocabulary study resource called VerbaLearn. It's perfect for students (or maybe you) who are getting ready for the SAT, ACT or GRE. One great feature is being able to create podcasts of vocabulary for iStudying, but the best part has to be the smart vocabulary lists that remove words once you've demonstrated mastery (so you can focus on the ones you don't).

A few months ago, Lifehacker wrote about Teach2000, a free flash card creating program that I imagined could help build a great lesson on how to study. Combine them with FreeRice, the addictive vocabulary game that raises money for charity, and you have the beginnings of a pretty good unit on study skills.

50 Cheap Mini-Lessons for Teachers: #31-40

Thank you to everyone who's been reading and responding to my list thus far. Since I posted mini-lessons #21-30 so late last night, I am rebounding to post the penultimate ten a little earlier today.

31. Share your good ideas with other teachers. I believe that most teachers work hard to have a positive impact on their students, but don't realize how easy it is to extend your impact far beyond the walls of your classroom. You can create a blog or website, but you don't have to if you just have some things you want to submit. You can also just share with your colleagues (#14) on campus. If your great ideas are applied in some other classroom, then those students just learned from you.
    
32. Follow the Star Trek: The Next Generation Rule of Vocabulary. Star Trek stories often rely on "Treknobabble", made-up or pseudo-scientific jargon that explains the universe in which the story takes place. In some cases, it's used as a poor substitute for good storytelling. In the classroom, we use jargon every day. Our jargon is a split between content-area vocabulary and "big words" we inadvertently slip into our explanations. In either case, without context and clarification, it all becomes meaningless jargon to our students. The solution is not to stop using advanced vocabulary, but to make sure you always break it down and explain it as simply and directly as possible. On a typical good ST:TNG, "We'll reverse the polarity of the tachyon emitter," is turned into a simple analogy like, "We'll turn the ship into a giant magnet!" In the classroom, "isolate the y variable" can become "move the y to the left side of the equals and everything else to the other". By using advanced vocabulary and explaining it consistently, you'll build your students' vocabulary and understanding. Plus, it makes for a much better story.
    
33. Find opportunities to work with kids who aren't in any of your classes. Become a coach, club sponsor, tutor or look for opportunities in the community where students like yours live. This will give you a great opportunity to study student culture (#8), but I found it very cathartic to work with my "other students." They always wanted to be there and provided a welcome respite even when my regular classes didn't go well. Most importantly, it gives you the opportunity to extend your positive impact beyond your classroom (see #31 above).
34. Don't be a hypocrite. Be the model, set the example for everything you expect them to do. As I noted in mini-lesson #27, your students will never let you forget the times when you don't do as you say and say as you do.
35. Learn to adjust on the fly. It's good to always plan ahead for the worst case scenario, or merely to have more planned than you think you can accomplish in one class period. However, you will never be prepared for everything. I once had to evacuate my classroom mid-period due to overwhelming paint fumes, so I took my kids to the library and continued an abbreviated version of my lesson (sans overhead, whiteboard, or almost anything else). As long as you keep calm (#3 and #5), you should be able to make the most out of any situation. If you don't know what to do, at least act like you do (#19).
36. Seek at least one good takeaway lesson from every professional development workshop you attend. You won't always be able to choose your own PD (#25), so you need to challenge yourself to find something you can use, no matter how bad a workshop may be. If anything, you can use bad PD as an example of what not to do in your classroom!
37. Don't waste your money on teacher resource books. I am referring specifically to books full of worksheets that claim to be engaging, hands-on, fun, amazing, can't-miss, student-centered, real-life activities. If you need materials for independent practice, you can find it for free online (#18), borrow from colleagues, find them in current / replaced / evaluation copy textbooks your school or district has on hand, or make your own. In my experience, I don't think I've ever come across a worksheet from one of these resources that had everything I needed. I always end up cutting and pasting things from multiple resources while adding in my own, like they used to do for newspaper layouts.
38. Read Teaching With Love and Logic by Jim Fay and David Funk. This is the most important teaching book ever written. It will either change your way of teaching or reaffirm why we do what we do, but you will be moved by this book. I haven't mentioned anything about classroom rules or much about discipline issues in my advice thus far; this book is the reason.
39. Share your amazing experiences with your students. I don't think most teachers appreciate how amazing most of their experiences are, especially for students who might never have left their hometown, had any family members go to college, flown on a plane, or even gone out to dinner at a restaurant that wasn't a fast food joint. Your role as a teacher is not just to teach, but to inspire. Opening up the world to your students, in the form of what you've done and what you've learned, is part and parcel of your job. If you've seen the "Freedom Writers" movie, there's a moment when Ms. Gruwell realizes her students haven't even heard of the Holocaust. She had taken for granted that they obviously already knew about it, and so she realized she had something more to teach than just reading.
40. Incorporate literacy into your classroom. Create a print-rich environment, a classroom where reading materials are readily available and clearly visible in your daily lessons. It is not difficult to find relevant books, free magazines, newspapers, and high interest books outside of your content area. Create a classroom library, even if you're a math teacher like me. Create a bulletin board where you post news articles about your content area. Then, once you have the resources on hand, integrate them into your lesson plans. You can build projects for any content area around magazines and newspapers. If you do enough research, you'll probably find a novel you can read as a class no matter the subject. At the very least, allow students to do reports on books and articles for extra credit or as an alternative assessment when appropriate. Don't think of it as doing someone else's job (if you're not a language arts teacher), because your students' ability to read and think critically is necessary in every subject, especially for those standardized tests everyone is so concerned about!

You can read the other 40 lessons here: 1-10, 11-20, 21-30 and 41-50.

50 Cheap Mini-Lessons for Teachers: #21-30

Sorry about the late night post, but I had a long day of [insert poor excuses here] that I just couldn't get away from! I can see by the comments, emails and links I've received in the last two days that this list is resonating with people. I'm very much humbled by this, and so will do my best to continue the list with ten solid mini-lessons for today:

21. Constantly reevaluate your methods. In contrast to mini-lesson #10, where I advised you to ask for feedback from your students, you must also put yourself through constant self-evaluation. There is no perfect method, curriculum or set of lesson plans that you can eventually settle into after x number of years teaching the same thing. If you believe this, you will quickly become irrelevant to your students and your profession. The process is rather simple: ask yourself, no matter how good your lesson is, "How can I make this more engaging, meaningful and effective?"
22. Keep your eyes open for applications of your subject in the real world. If you can't see it, how can you expect them to? This will be easy if you follow mini-lessons #8 and #12. You will find inspiration in unexpected places! Use what you find in every aspect of your classroom.
23. Add some relevant (and irrelevant) reading material to your classroom. You don't have to be a reading or writing teacher to have a classroom library. Besides bolstering your classroom culture, it makes it easier to tie literacy into any classroom. This also helps with the previous mini-lesson and the others referenced there.
24. Get out of the classroom once and a while! Take your students to the library, computer lab (#17), the hallway, the stairwell, outside, and wherever else you can within the confines of your campus. You don't need district paperwork or a huge budget to have an interesting field trip. This is helpful for breaking up your classroom routine (#11) once and a while, and because it forces you to think creatively as well. The best part is that it doesn't necessarily have to be related to your particular lesson.
25. Seek out good professional development yourself. Your district probably doesn't know what it's doing. Devoted readers of this blog will know that unspeakably awful professional development is something I have grown accustomed to over the years. Nonetheless, good PD does exist, if you are willing to do the research (#18) to find it.
26. When you speak to students, speak to them at their level. I mean this literally: eye level. Crouch, sit, kneel, lean over slightly, but don't stand over them! Everything you say and do in the classroom is dissected by your students--every nuance and subtlety of your manner is of great import to them. If you don't understand what I'm talking about, try sitting in one of your student desks and having a colleague stand directly over you, giving you directions. See how long it takes you to start feeling uncomfortable, if not a little angry, annoyed or upset as well.
27. Don't break promises. More directly, don't make promises you can't keep. Students never forget, and they'll never let you forget either.
28. If a student recommends a book, read it. You could extend this to other types of media, but I think it holds more true for books because of the unique relationship one can build with a book. Imagine the relationship-building conversations you could have! Similarly, you should try to pay attention to what books are being most widely read, and at the very least get familiar with them. If you're more ambitious, get copies of those books for your classroom library (see #23 above).
29. Go cheer your students on at their sporting events and extracurricular competitions. You should do this even if they don't ask, but unquestionably if they do. One appearance during the season can make all the difference in your relationship with that student. Be sure to follow up and ask about their events whenever possible, especially when you can't get to them in person. Your interest in their lives (#7) goes a long way.
30. Watch School of Rock. I am completely serious when I tell you that, having watched nearly every teaching-related film or television show available, this is the most important film about teaching ever.

You can read the other 40 lessons here: 1-10, 11-20, 31-40 and 41-50.

Teacher Suspended for Using "Freedom Writers Diary"

In case you missed it, CNN reported Sunday that an Indiana teacher was suspended for a year and a half (!) because she tried to read The Freedom Writers Diary with her English classes. Erin Gruwell herself appealed to the school board, who (you might want to sit down for this shocker!) came across as if they hadn't even read the entire book. This all happened a few months ago, but was just picked up by CNN. Here's the video (about 4 minutes long):

Teacher ousted for banned book (CNN Video)

I taught Algebra last year, but during our advisory/reading period, we read this book. I didn't even take the precautionary step of sending home a permission slip as this teacher had! At first, even my students were taken aback by the direct, uncensored language. There were some snickers and laughs, but I told them quite plainly that this book contained some language that might be considered inappropriate, and that I expected them to act like young adults. If they couldn't handle it, we wouldn't read it. That stopped all of the problems right there, and we were able to read the entire book without incident.

I'm sure the first few pages is all these empty suits read before "banning" the book. Anyone who has actually read the book themselves, especially with a class, knows two key things:

1. The "inappropriate" language tapers off quickly.
2. This is one of the most inspirational and important books they've ever read.

My students, all of whom came from a low-income community and faced the same kinds of challenges (as I've already written about this week, twice), were sincerely moved by the book. Many even asked if we could replicate the Freedom Writers book project, even though we weren't in an English class! All of these students were reluctant readers, but they were full engrossed in this wonderful book. They begged to see the movie version, which we watched after our standardized testing was over.

I wholeheartedly recommend this book to any teacher that wants to truly engage their students.

Connie Heermann, the teacher who was suspended, is a hero in my book. She said she will not return to the classroom unless she's allowed to use the book. I admire her for standing by her principles, and fighting for the benefit of her students.

You can read some interesting local reactions to this situation in this post at the Advance Indiana blog.

Test Prep Idea #2: Word Wall Review

In preparation for this week's 9th grade TAKS mathematics test (Thursday, April 1st), I adapted my word wall for TAKS review. I first edited the list of words a bit, focusing on terms and groups of terms that were most common and required the most review.

I asked students to pick 5 words they didn't know, write a "tutorial" showing how to solve problems related to those terms, and find a couple of TAKS questions on the topic (scoured from our workbooks, textbook and practice tests). The idea was that the tutorial should be short and simple, similar to the style of notes I give in class. Ideally, at the end of the project I'd have at least one good tutorial for each term, which could be compiled into one last review for the students.

We took two days last week to do this in class, but a widespread apathy bordering on lethargy resulted in students doing a poor job or no job at all (hence the end of my motivational experiment). I asked them to write everything in their own words and create their own examples; they didn't even have their own notes and ended up copying straight from my originals or the textbook. They missed the point.

I don't have enough quality tutorials with which to create another review for my students, and honestly, they haven't given me a whole lot of reasons to want to go that extra mile. Maybe that make me a bad teacher. Maybe it's just the stress of this time of year. Or maybe it's not my fault. I don't know the answer. I only hope that it helped the students who were willing to put in the work.

You could adapt this idea for your classroom in a number of ways:

• If you have more time, you could ask students to create their own tutorial for every word on the Word Wall (as long as your wall has 20-25 terms/groups of terms that have been whittled down to the bare essentials). This ensures they cover everything.
• Cut out the "find 2 test-style questions" part. Give students another practice test with maybe one good question on each topic and allow them to use their tutorials while working on the problems.
  
• Instead of this project, have students create a set of flash cards for every word wall term. The term on one side and a concise example or explanation on the other.
  

Word Wall TAKS Review (via Google Docs)
Original Word Wall project (also available in my book Ten Cheap Lessons)

Even More Ways to Use the Newspaper in Algebra I

After Wednesday's TAKS Reading test, I tried to make Thursday as easy as possible while still making sure we learned something. Most students had finished most or all of our Newspaper Math group work on Tuesday, but I wanted to follow up with more work on interpreting data graphs.

In Part 1, students were asked to find a data graph, analyze it, draw conclusions and create a question about it as part of their assignment. For Part 2, I pulled 5 different data graphs from the paper (bar, circle, line and two that incorporated multiple graphs) and asked the kind of questions they're usually asked on the test:

1. What's the independent and dependent variables?
2. What's the trend/pattern/correlation/main idea of the data graph?
3. Based on the data, which of the following statements is true/a valid conclusion?
4. Which graph accurately reflects the given data?
   

Here's what they looked like (click here to read the questions only as a standalone document on Google Docs):

I hope you don't dismiss this as just another worksheet, because in truth I only posted this for use as an example. My students were a bit more invested in this than your standard issue work because the graphs were pulled from the local newspaper, I wrote the questions myself, and they are asked a variety of questions in a variety of ways. It took about an hour to find the graphs and write up appropriate questions.

We also talked about why we need this skill before we started, and I showed them six different questions from their last benchmark where they could use these data graph analysis skills to answer them correctly. Six questions is about a ten percent swing on that test, which is the difference between passing and failing for many students on the bubble.

Most importantly, this skill is required across many of our state objectives:

Objective 1
(A) The student describes independent and dependent quantities in functional relationships.
(D) The student represents relationships among quantities using [concrete] models, tables, graphs, diagrams, verbal descriptions, equations, and inequalities.
(E) The student interprets and makes inferences from functional relationships.

Objective 2
(C) The student interprets situations in terms of given graphs [or creates situations that fit given graphs].
(D) In solving problems, the student [collects and] organizes data, [makes and] interprets scatterplots, and models, predicts, and makes decisions and critical judgments.
(B) Given situations, the student looks for patterns and represents generalizations algebraically.

Objective 9
(C) construct circle graphs, bar graphs, and histograms, with and without technology.
(B) recognize misuses of graphical or numerical information and evaluate predictions and conclusions based on data analysis.

Objective 10
(A) identify and apply mathematics to everyday experiences, to activities in and outside of school, with other disciplines, and with other mathematical topics;
(A) make conjectures from patterns or sets of examples and nonexamples

Newspaper Math Part 2 (questions only)
More posts tagged with "newspaper"

For more ideas on using the newspaper in the classroom, check out my book Ten Cheap Lessons: Easy, Engaging Ideas for Every Secondary Classroom. Email me or leave a comment if you have more ideas to share.

More Ways to Use Newspapers in Algebra I

Tomorrow is the 9th grade Reading and 10th grade ELA TAKS test, so today's goal was to provide something stress-free but would still address the content and be memorable amid the distractions. Last week one of my students mentioned how our newspapers were once again piling up, and suggested we use them in class again soon. Good idea, I told him, and began thinking of how to adapt last year's materials to address these new objectives.

We are working on the foundation of functions (TAKS Objectives 1 and 2), so there are many parts that needed to be reviewed and addressed:

• representing functional relationships as equations, tables (data sets), and graphs
• identifying independent and dependent variables
• analyzing information graphs (line, bar, pie, etc), making predictions and drawing conclusions
• use equations to solve problems
  
• simple inequalities (they always forget the signs)

I added and subtracted a bit from last year's end of the year review to address as much as possible. By asking them to look for cars, jobs and apartments to rent, it gave the work some real world relevance. The best part was some of my girls telling me to save the apartment rental they found for graduation so they could live together. Of course, one of them was incredulous that she was going to have to sleep in the living room of the 2 bedroom unit they picked, until I told her that's what she had to look forward to in college.

I plan on extending this after Wednesday's test by using some data graphs I found in the paper to create some questions. Those types of questions are still a challenge for them, and considering that Spring Break starts this weekend, I need to get as much done as possible beforehand.

You need roughly 1-3 papers per group, so multiply that times the number of groups and classes (see my previous article for info on getting newspapers for your classroom). You'll also need scissors and tape (glue or something to affix the clipped ads to the paper). I had students work in groups of 2-4 which worked well together. Most groups finished or were well on there way, but this will take 1.5-2 45-55 minute periods to complete.

Newspaper Math group activity
(via Google Docs)

How to Write Better Word Problems

If you really want your students to grow as a mathematician and have them succeed on standardized tests as an added bonus, incorporating more thought-provoking, relevant word problems can make a huge difference. By challenging them to read, write, think, and relate classroom lessons to their lives, you'll both increase their ability and their investment in your classroom.

Before you can start, you have to know what not to do: don't rely on questions from textbooks, released tests or state-issued material. You can use them if they fall into one of the categories below, but if you look at the examples you'll see why they may not be as beneficial as you think.

Guidelines for Writing Better Word Problems

1. Have them do something. Ask them to figure out something that would force them to get up and/or look around the room to find or get closer to an answer. This gets them involved and engaged immediately, because it's not something they would be asked to do on a standardized test question.
2. It's all about them. As I've said many times, all teenagers have one thing in common: they want you to think about them. Sometimes this means demonstrating your keen awareness of them through the relevant questions you ask. This can take on many forms, but you can start with what their concerned about in their lives: school, cell phones, music, cars, movies, their boyfriend/girlfriend, other friends, etc.
   
3. Spark a discussion. Don't shy away from a challenging or controversial topic if it will get them thinking mathematically. That discussion might make your lesson one of the more memorable ones of the year, and that's rarely a bad thing.
   
4. Money, money, money. The easiest connection to make with most math topics is to money issues. Textbook and test makers rely on this as well, so its up to you to differentiate your questions from theirs by applying the other guidelines here.
5. Connect math to the real world. Just keep in mind that their world and your world aren't really the same thing, so think about things from their perspective (see #2). Make references to local people, places and things or situations they themselves or their family currently or will soon face.

Examples

Here are some examples that apply to some or all of the guidelines above, marked with the Algebra I topic they addressed.

Count the number of girls in this class right now. Then count the number of boys. Subtract the number of girls - the number of boys. Finally, subtract the number of boys - the number of girls. What's the difference between the two answers? [adding and subtracting integers]

Juan makes $1200 a month working full time at Wal-Mart. If his bills are $400 for rent, $150 for electricity, $35 for water/garbage and $50 for his cell phone, how much does he have left for himself and his family? [solving one-step equations with adding and subtracting]

A new 19 inch TV costs about $200. At Rent-a-Center, you pay $12 a week for 78 weeks for the same TV. What's the total cost at Rent-a-Center? [solving one-step equations with multiplication and division]

For every hour she works at Dollar General, Veronica makes 6 dollars. Make a table and a graph showing the hours she works and the money she makes (up to 8 hours). [creating and connecting tables and graphs of a relationship]

The cost of a Whataburger meal is $3.99 each. Write a function for the total cost, c, in terms of the number of meals you buy, m. Use your function to find out how much 8 meals would cost. [writing equations and functions]

A student has six weeks grades of 75 and 50. If you need at least 210 points to pass the semester, what grade does he or she need this six weeks? [measures of central tendency, inequalities]

The yearbook staff sells about $150 of snacks at lunch every day. How long would it take to raise at least $10,000? [inequalities]

Working as a waiter at the new Chili's in Mission will earn you about $2 an hour plus tips. If you work 40 hours per week, at least how much do you need in tips to makes $250 a week? [inequalities]

A subscription to Netflix costs $18 per month for unlimited DVD rentals. If you rented DVDs from a local store, it would cost about $3.50 each. How many DVDs would you have to rent each month for you to SAVE money using Netflix? [systems of linear equations]

The population of Mission in the 2000 census was about 45,000. If the population is increasing by about 3,000 people a year, what should the population be by the end of this year? [rates, ratios, and proportions]

Verizon Wireless charges $0.49 per minute for calls to Mexico. Write an equation to find m, the number of minutes a person can call Mexico for $20. [writing equations and functions]

Mr. D walks 8 miles north and 3 miles west. How far is he from where he started? [Pythagorean theorem]

Mr. D stands on top of a building 250 meters tall. If he jumps off and falls at a rate of 9.8 meters per second, what equation could you use to show how long it will take him to hit the ground and DIE? [writing equations and functions]

Many of these questions led to relevant discussions, usually touched off by a student asking, "Is that true, sir?" More students were engaged in trying to figure out the problem than if I would have had them do something from the textbook or merely given them wordless problems to solve. They were used mostly as "Do Now" activities that would introduce the objective we would cover that day and hook students attention right away.

More Info

For more ideas like this, read my earlier article Reading and Writing in Math Through Journals. Click the literacy tag for even more.

5 Tips for Building a Quality (non-ELA) Classroom Library

If your classroom is like mine, you have a lot of reluctant readers, LEP students, at-risk students, and those who just aren't engaged with school in general. Recently I posted some suggestions for taking control of your advisory period and instituting DEAR time. One way to ensure your success is to build a quality classroom library full of books your students will actually want to read.

1. Get them doing instead of just reading. I like to have as many how-to, reference and art books on hand as possible. I realized a long time ago that encouraging my students to get involved in some sort of art or hobby instead of merely getting them to read might keep them out of a lot of trouble. As the saying goes, students learn by doing, so there's a lot of non-fiction on my bookshelves. Here are three books that have been big hits:
2. Think local. Some books in your library should be either be set in or about your region, culturally relevant, or written by a local author. Teachers pay a lot of lip service towards approaching students at their level, but this is that idea in practice. Since we reside in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, I have two of Rene Saldana Jr's books in my classroom:
3. Having all the books in a popular series or by a popular author is never a bad thing. This year's students have been really into both the Twilight series as well as Ellen Hopkins' books (Impulse, Burned, and Crank). I found out about these by noticing what my students were already reading and by researching lots of recommendations and reviews online. Some students have already been asking about the Uglies series and I've noticed lots of similar teen-focused series popping up at the bookstore, so I know this area is only growing. The best part is that if your students get hooked on one, they'll probably read the entire series, which is why you need to get them all as soon as possible.
4. High school and middle school students like to read about high school and middle school students. If there's one trait of adolescents you can exploit fully and without guilty, its their shameless self-interest. We have been reading the The Freedom Writers Diary together during advisory and despite the length, my students have been riveted. Earlier selections we've read together were Don't You Dare Read This, Mrs. Dunphrey and Gary Soto's Taking Sides, both of which dealt with students in high school dealing with seemingly insurmountable challenges. When I asked them if they wanted to read something of a different genre, they asked for more of the same, and I happily obliged.
   
5. Use lists of high interest/low reading level (Hi-Lo) books as a starting point. This compilation of 10 Hi-Lo reading lists on about.com should give you a lot of books to start with. After testing some out in your classroom, you can search for recommendations for similar books to whatever is getting over well with your students. Similarly, the ALA's yearly list of best books for reluctant readers can provided leads on dozens of titles that will work for your classroom.

How Can I Afford All This?

Besides soliciting donations from family and friends (either directly or by setting up a wish list on Amazon.com or other sites), Barnes & Noble's bargain section is an easy place to start. Ask your school librarian, department chair, and curriculum director if there are funds available for book purchases there or elsewhere. Set up a project on DonorsChoose if you're looking for a huge number of books. I have also drawn many books from my personal collection that otherwise would have gone unused for a long time.

Books Alone Are Not Enough

As I've discussed here before, my classroom library also has free daily newspapers (sponsored by my local paper) from the Newspapers in Education program and several free subscriptions to magazines. These are as essential to my cause as the books, because even those students who have never picked up a book will read one or the other.

Where Do I Put All These Books?

If you can't get any free shelving at school, you're The cheapest route is to buy some small office supply store bookcases. These usually run around $20, are easy to assemble, and don't take up too much space. For my magazines, I bought 3-tier magazine racks from an office supply store and plastic magazine bins from a dollar store for the older issues. My newspapers are generally kept in a repurposed printer paper box and later reused by students and other teachers for various academic endeavors.

How Can I Get Started?

Read my recent post entitled Take Back Advisory: DEAR Time for All for more ideas.

Take Back Advisory: DEAR Time for All

At first, I hated advisory. I have no problem with DEAR (Drop Everything and Read) time, but at my school, it is largely a joke. Many teachers let their students roam the halls, use their cellphones, put on make up, or otherwise do nothing related to reading for our 30 minute period. Worse yet, our students were not at all encouraged or motivated to read independently, and so they didn't. I struggled all last year to get my kids reading, and in the end wasn't at all successful.

When the new year's advisory period started to go the same way, I decided to take back advisory.

If they didn't want to read independently, we would read together. I would extend the principles I used to build my classroom library to pick out engaging books for my students, and then we would take Accelerated Reader tests on each book together. Ideally, our program would help improve reading comprehension, increase student interest in reading, and provide a structure that students would easily adapt to.

Here are five tips to get you started:

1. Provide extra credit or other small incentives to encourage students to keep reading. For example, after we read Gary Soto's Pacific Crossing, about a Mexican-American teenager who travels to Japan as part of an exchange program, I brought in some Japanese snacks to eat while we read. I brought ramune, a Japanese soda mentioned often in the book as well as some rice crackers purchased from a local market. The students enjoyed drinking it and it helped make the book (and our advisory) more memorable. Alternatively, you could organize a trip to a local bookstore or large public/college library to check out or buy books for your top readers.
2. Pick engaging books. If you have reluctant readers like I do, a good place to start is the ALA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Readers. Read online reviews of popular teen titles, ask your English Language Arts teachers, and most importantly, watch for trends and interests among your students. You will always have a handful of enthusiast readers in your classes--keep an eye out for what they're reading and ask them what they think of particular titles and authors.
3. Don't start with anything difficult. If you're trying to save your advisory period from the abyss, you can't start with Finnegans Wake. That doesn't mean you can't challenge your students--it just means you have to build up to it. You are trying to show your students that reading is something they might actually like to do.
4. Take them to get their own books from the library... especially if they don't read novels in English class!
5. As another incentive (and as a jumping off point for discussion and reflection), you can perhaps watch the movie version of whatever you're reading.

If you read your students well enough, you should start to see the students get into reading every day, and any discipline problems you have will be quelled by the majority. I actually enjoy advisory each day, which is far cry from where it once was.

Reading and Writing in Math Through Journals

Every summer when I'm planning for the new year, I try to incorporate more reading and writing into my math classroom. There's many obvious reasons to do this--the TAKS, our state standardized test, is heavy on word problems that require high level reading comprehension. One of the easiest and most important to implement are journals. These are not just for the English classroom, since they require students to think, explain, and make connections to the material--all essential skills not only for testing but for higher levels of math.

You can use these as "Do Now" activities, exit slips, or short take-home assessments. If you need to provide content-area writing samples for state ELL assessment programs or student portfolios, this is a painless way to collect them. Here are some examples I've used, grouped by purpose:

Explaining how to do problems or defining vocabulary:

1. Explain the rules we learned this week for solving equations in your own words.
2. How do you make a table of x and y values into a function? Give at least one way.
3. Explain the difference between a dependent and independent variable.
4. Pick one word off the Word Wall and explain what it is (or give an example).

Explaining what they learned or are still confused about:

1. What questions do you still have about this unit?
2. What did you learn in Algebra this week? How can you do better next week?

Reflecting on their work ethic and behavior:

1. Name at least one thing you need to do better in Algebra I this six weeks. Explain why.
2. What happens if you fail Algebra this year? How many credits do you need to pass to 10th grade?
3. What would it take to get you motivated to do your work and pass the TAKS? If you are already motivated, how do you stay that way?
4. How did I do this week in math class? What did I do well? What do I need to improve upon?

Making connections and using higher order thinking:

1. What's the good part about using graphing calculators for our work? What's the down side?
2. List all the ways you use math while you're NOT at school.
3. What do you think is the hardest thing to do in math? Why?
   

Adjust the length depending on your needs and time limitations. Many of these questions can be well answered in a paragraph or two, some require a bit more exploration. Use your discretion.

Be sure to discuss the topics as a whole group, especially to accommodate those who may be better at expressing themselves out loud. Then, you can encourage and guide those students at how to put their good ideas into writing. It might seem daunting, but every second you spend working on literacy is just as valuable as any content you teach.

Free Magazines for your Classroom Library

I have always kept at least a small bookshelf in my classroom. I hope to inspire students to read and discover new things, even though in my various teaching experiences I have never taught an English class. Besides the obvious benefits of encouraging independent reading, all of the content area standardized tests are, by my estimation, one billion times easier if students have excellent reading skills.

I learned from my time teaching at an alternative school that it is possible to inspire even the most reluctant student to read, provided that you offered a wide enough range of topics and formats. So what was in my first years of teaching just a modest collection of books expanded to include more books, sponsored newspapers, and the most criminally underused resource of all: magazines. I started with the titles I already subscribed to, and then laid out a plan to amass as many as possible:

1. Bring in magazines you subscribe to (or buy) as soon as you're done with them. I started by bringing in my favorite magazine, Wired, a very intelligent and accessible title that covers technology and its interaction with everything else. It's been a huge hit with my 9th graders. Like most people, once I'm done reading the magazine, I have no more use for it. This also goes for any single issues you pick up along the way. Even if they don't find the magazine of interest for reading, they can be used for projects (in your class or others).
   
2. Request free trial issues. I used to treat these solicitations as junk mail, but I realized that this is an easy opportunity to get more free reading material for my students. These often come bundled with your current subscriptions. For example, I got two free issues of Dwell, a beautifully illustrated architecture and design magazine, by just sending in a postcard that came with Wired.
   
3. Ask your local public library. Most public libraries sell older magazines for ridiculous prices like ten issues for a $1. When I reached out for donations for my classroom library earlier this year, I was invited to visit one local library and take what I wanted for free. These magazines were old and had already been discounted greatly, but since it was for a school all I had to do was ask. It helps to know people who work at or volunteer for the library, but again don't be shy about asking for donations.
4. Search the classifieds. Especially for those of you in or near big cities, newspapers and Craigslist will often have listings for free magazines. Most people are willing to give things away that they'd otherwise discard as long as you're willing to go pick it up. You might even find a windfall of books if you're lucky.
5. Ask for donations from friends, family and your community. My classroom received subscriptions to Discover and Mental Floss thanks to the generosity of several people. I was genuinely surprised at how much my students love Discover, which inspires me to keep this project going.
6. Grab a stack of free local magazines. In the Rio Grande Valley, local favorite RGV Magazine is pretty much the only game in town--and most of it is filled with ads. However, nothing's better for relating to your students than a local production. Think of the Improper Bostonian.

Take advantage of legitimately FREE magazine subscriptions

This is the greatest coup of all. Shortly after starting my plan, I remembered that DVD enthusiast website DVD Talk had a constantly updated list of free magazine subscriptions (click on the first thread). More recently I found an entire forum devoted to free magazines on SlickDeals.net, an online community that aggressively seeks out the best deals on everything. Through these two lists I got free subscriptions for my classroom to: Hispanic, Batanga Latin Music, Siempre Mujer, Spin, EGM, and Latina. There is enough variety on the two lists to ensure you'll find something that will pique the interest of your students. Did I mention they are updated daily? They also offer leads on cheap subscriptions and can hook you up with somebody who wants to "trade" a subscription they have for one they want, if you're willing to spend a little money.

Things to Avoid

To avoid spam and additional solicitations, you should not use your primary email address to sign up for anything online (this included). In other words, set up an email address to use just for signing up for things. If you want to avoid junk mail in your real mailbox, have the magazines shipped directly to school. This also eliminates the need to remove your home address before bringing it to school.

Obviously you have be careful with which magazines you choose to bring in. Even Wired, which I wouldn't hesitate to recommend, sometimes has questionable content for students. For example, every issue of Men's Health is full of information I wish all of my male students would read, but there's a whole lot of sex in there too. It's not worth the time it would take to rip out the stuff that might get me in trouble just to have one more title. The same goes for a lot of otherwise quality publications.

DVD Talk's list of free magazine subscriptions (click on the Free Magazines thread)
SlickDeals.net's free magazines forum