Hello, incredible teachers. It’s been an awfully long time and I’m really sorry. I’ve been feeling a lot of guilt over not making the time to update my blog. Getting back in the classroom with students this year has been lovely! And difficult. Exhausting. Overwhelming. And so much more.

I decided it’s time to let go of the guilt. This blog is mine, it’s something I enjoy, and I won’t enjoy it if I feel bad when life gets in the way. I hope to someday find time to share some of what I learned in my first semester back in person. For now, I’m going to be satisfied with sharing my outline for the upcoming 3rd Quarter.

We’re starting on Monday with literary analysis. In consultation with my fantastic new colleague, we decided to start our analysis unit by watching some short films. Her students have been begging to watch a movie, so this seemed like a decent compromise. (SPOILER ALERT: I also decided our final timed essay will be a character or theme analysis of Encanto, so they’ll get to watch a movie in the end.)

We’ll start our unit analyzing a character from a common text. After plenty of practice with that, we’ll move on to writing theme statements and then analyzing the development of the theme in a text. Most of our texts (short films and short stories) will be anchor texts that we all read/watch together. For the theme essay, students will choose from a selection of short stories and read in small groups.

Check out my unit outline here and let me know if you have questions or suggestions.

Thanks for your patience with me. If you’re new here, know that sometimes I write 3 new posts in a week, and sometimes I go 6+ months without a peep. I hope you are all managing as well as possible in these impossible circumstances. If you’re struggling, know that you are NOT alone (see these responses on Twitter for proof). Continue to extend yourself grace and patience and love, and let go of everything you can.