Drop in any week and stay as long as you like! The classes are stand-alone lessons that focus on new strategies each week. If students stay for multiple weeks, they will walk away with tried and true reading strategies that I have taught to the middle and high schoolers in my brick and mortar classrooms for years.

 This is a great class for both bookworms and reluctant readers because my techniques are authentic and student-centered, borrowing heavily from a Readers' Workshop model. We will cover mostly short stories and sometimes poetry. 

I demystify the reading process for students and focus on teaching them the skills they need to be INDEPENDENT readers. I do NOT just tell students what a story means. I equip the students with the tools they need to do the work on their own. When it comes to understanding complex texts, this is HARD WORK.

Students will be taught to think and jot notes (annotate) and should be ready to share their ideas, in small groups or with the class. 

I encourage VIDEOS TO BE ON, and encourage students to share and verbalize their thinking.

Students should be able to access the pdfs I share from Google Drive. Even better if they can print them before coming to class and annotate on the page. If not, they should have a notebook so they can jot notes or be able to annotate digitally on their screen. Some stories will be only a page or two. Others will be 5-8 pages that will take over half the class to read and students may be reading silently and practicing their strategy. We discuss and debrief at the end of every class, if not intermittently through the entire class.

Sometimes breakout rooms will be used.

The following is a schedule of an example of topics for our weekly focus, subject to change. Because this class goes on indefinitely, every week is something new, and learners can join at any time, and stay long-term to continue learning and adding tools to their tool boxes. Learners have stayed a few weeks, or stayed all-year-long! 

-jotting notes as you read--annotation- "Little Brother" by Bruce Holland Rogers
-asking questions as you read-"Like the Sun" by RK Narayan
-types of questions to ask- "Like the Sun" by RK Narayan
-forming hypotheses and looking for evidence-- "Harrison Bergeron" by Kurt Vonnegut
-re-reading for improved understanding-- "Sonnet 18" by William Shakespeare
-character traits and motives-- "You Are Now Entering the Human Heart" by Janet Frame
-character change-- "Sunday in the Park" by Bel Kaufman
-character inconsistencies and asking why-- "On the Road at Eighteen" by Yu Hua
-switching perspectives--  "Little Brother" by Bruce Holland Rogers
-honing in on confusing passages-- "Because I Could Not Stop for Death" by Emily Dickinson
-strategies for determining themes -- "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson
-predictable narrative structures-- "The Sniper" by Liam O'Flaherty
-more strategies for determining themes-- "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
-looking for patterns; repeated issues or ideas-- "A Kingdom Bright and Burning" by Dave Connis
-noticing author's craft-- "A Problem" by Leo Tolstoy; looking for evidence-- "Eating Poetry" by Mark Strand

YOUR INSTRUCTOR:

📓 DERRICK HEISEY, Writer and Teacher: Since 2015, Derrick has taught every grade level from Kindergarten to 12th. He is a licensed Special Education teacher with a degree in English Creative Writing from the University of New Mexico and a minor in Philosophy. He's published short stories and poetry, and produces a podcast where he reads his original fiction. According to him, mastering the written word is one of the most empowering journeys a person can pursue, and nothing brings him as much joy as sharing that passion with students. Everyone has something important to say; they just need to find the right words, and Derrick can’t wait to help his students discover their voices. When he isn’t teaching, you can find him in his garden inspecting tomatoes, scribbling in a notebook, or reading a book with his dachshund Charlie Marlow curled up on his lap.


Interested in more? Check out my class on essay writing: https://outschool.com/classes/essay-writing-essentials-ongoing-academic-writing-class-Irx60p5h?