Off the Shelf
Winter 2018
Literacy Night
March is going to be Literacy Month here at YMS.
We are going to be having a variety of activities going on throughout the month including a read-a-thon (more info on that below, so keep reading).
We plan to hold a Literacy Night as a culminating event to our Literacy Month on Tuesday March 28th 5-7. I'd like to have a variety of activities for families to participate in together including different games like Story Cubes, Boggle, Scrabble, Dixit, etc.
Staff Book Club
The group discussed The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. Thomas's book has received accolades and was a New York Times Bestseller. Sixteen year old Starr Carter navigates between the poor urban neighborhood where she lives and the middle class suburban one where she attends school. After she witnesses a childhood friend killed at the hands of a police officer, the tension rises steadily and she must decide where she stands.
The next book the group will be discussing in Turtles All the Way Down by John Green.
Monthly Makerspace Activity
Creating the puppets is a craft activity, but any puppets that are completed will remain in the makerspace, so that they can be used for green screen and filming projects.
Read a Thon!
The students would all have an online donation page where their family members and other people they know could donate money towards their student participating in the read-a-thon. The minimum donation is $10. They do it as donations instead of pledges which is a better system.
From March5th-16th, YMS students can log their reading time in school. Many of our ELA teachers have the kids read as part of class time already. The sessions can be 10, 20, or 30 minutes long.
We will receive 75% of the money raised, and the students get 15% to spend in the prize shop.
The funds will go toward improving the library and purchasing new shelving and furniture.
Book Recommendation
Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu
"I'm a girl who studies for tests. I'm a girl who turns in homework on time. I'm a girl who tells her grandparents she'll be over in five minutes and shows up in three. I'm a girl who doesn't cause a fuss. I even shrink into my desk when a teacher calls on me in class. I'm a girl who would prefer to evaporate into the ether rather than draw even positive attention to herself."
Vivian Carter thought she was used to the ways of highschool life in her small Texas town: football, and football players, and pep rallies and cheerleaders. The football players are treated like gods, meanwhile the girls soccer team hasn't had new uniforms in decades. The boys play Bump 'n Grab in the hallways, and when girls complain about it, they're told that it's "just a joke".
Inspired by her mother's Riot Grrl youth, spent in Washington State attending punk shows and publishing feminist zines, Viv decides to take action. She begins her own zine, called Moxie, and anonymously distributes them around the school. When she sees the response, and realizes that she is not the only girl who is fed up with "the way things are" she is inspired to continue, and soon other girls in the school begin adopting Moxie as as a brand name for their own revolution.
This book is a narrative of a teen girl's feminist awakening. "It's not just one type of girl but all kinds. Jocks and loud girls and girls on the yearbook and quiet girls and black girls and white girls and brown girls." In this statement, Vivian is seeing for herself that feminism isn't a word for a punk-ish lifestyle, nor is it an indicator of someone's interests or appearance
Siouxsie and the Banshees "Hong Kong Garden" (1978)
Joan Jett "Bad Reputation" (1981)
Bikini Kill "Rebel Girl" (1993)
No Doubt "I'm Just a Girl" (1995)
Spiderbait "Sunshine on My Window" (1996)
FILI-13 "Mansplain It to Me" (2017)
The Author
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