Dear Reader,

Welcome to Black History Month! I implore you to do two things. First, please honor and acknowledge Black History Month in your classroom as often as you can. Second, please continue to teach about Black excellence and read books by Black authors every month of the year. Your students, of all identities, deserve it.

Whatever else you have planned for the month, add in a fun challenge with Black History Month BINGO. I've got two boards for you—one for middle school, one for high school—and each one encourages students to read several books by Black authors. It's as simple as printing a board for each student and bringing them to the library to check out books.

The six books below have all been featured in this newsletter previously—and they are all on the BINGO boards! I've brought them together to give you a cheat sheet for great books you can recommend to students (or read yourself). Happy reading & recommending!

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​H​ands by Torrey Maldonado*: Your go-to book for engaging reluctant middle school readers. 136 pages of relevance. Trevor's story is an authentic counter-narrative to the "if they mess with me or mine, I'm fighting back" attitude.

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​Nic Blake and the Remarkables by Angie T​homas*: A wonderfully creative fantasy world that tackles racism and features a Black girl as its hero. Your middle school fantasy readers will be enthralled with this twist of the hero's journey.

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​Door of No Return by Kwame Alexander: A heartbreaking but human-first narrative of the horrors of the international slave trade. Add it to your middle school social studies classroom and promote the learning power of historical fiction.

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​Chaos Theory by Nic Stone: It's a story of first love, of grief, of difficult family members. And it's a wholistic, humanistic portrayal of mental illness and mental health. Perfect for high school health classrooms and counselor's offices.

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​Promise Boys by Nick Brooks: Murder mysteries make reading fun and playful. This is a top notch “whodunnit” with a healthy insight into the corrupting power of money and privilege. Hand it to your 9th grade mystery fans.

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​The King is Dead by Benjamin Dean: Ascending the throne. Scandal. Misbehaving teenagers. Confronting racism & homophobia in front of the whole world. This is a sneaky "made you think!" title that your high schoolers will love.

*Download my new, free Teacher Book Guides for these titles on Teachers Pay Teachers.​

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Literacy Love Notes:

Looking to start or grow your classroom library? Filling a bookshelf in your classroom—no matter what subject you teach—with fun, eye-catching, thoughtful books can instantly communicate to students that you care about them and their learning journey. But what books should you get? Let me help you. I have the capacity to create customized Classroom Library Book Lists for three teachers this month—and you get first dibs. Interested? Reply and we'll get started!

My beloved Buffalo Bills may not have made it to the Super Bowl this year, but I'll still watch it—and I'll be thinking about @mudandinkteaching's commercial analysis protocol. Consider leaning into the Super Bowl energy and spending a class period before the big game analyzing past commercials. Challenge students to think about it while they watch on Feb 11 and report back to class the next day. Who says pop culture can't be educational?!

Have a good one and learn everything you can,

Hannah

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