Most days I walk the mile to my Middle School but today I drove due to my heavy backpack. My car radio is always set to WAMU 88.5 and as I drove the 5 minutes to work, I listened to NPR’s Morning Edition. As I listened to this segment, I realized I could use it while teaching today. I’m getting ready to introduce my students to the Social Issue Book Club Unit. During all my classes, I shared the definition of a Social Issues: a problem, the problem involves many people, and the solution to this problem that can’t easily be solved by just one individual. As I played the 3-minute segment for all my classes, I asked them to listen and decide if this segment was about a Social Issue. After listening, I asked them in table groups of 3-5, to discuss what they thought. Lively discussions occurred in each class! Thank you, NPR.
At lunch, I checked my email and saw my daily email from Larry Ferlazzo (if you don’t already get his daily emails, I recommend you do!) His first tip today was sharing a story called: NPR Wants Students to Tell It What Love Is. I loved listening to one of my favorite authors, Kwame Alexandere talk on NPR about love. He asks for kids to send in their writing to the prompt, Love is… I immediately shared the link with my writing friends. (I’m planning next week to write to that prompt.) Thank you, NPR!
Before lunch ended, I headed over to facebook to check out “Jays Wintery Mix” posting. He’s a local guy who predicts the weather pretty well and already school was closing 2 hours early due to afternoon weather and I wanted to read his prediction. As I checked, I saw that Fran had commented on a post in the Units of Study in Writing TCRWP so I clicked and saw a link to another NPR article called HOw Teenage Sisters Pushed Bali to Say ‘Bye-Bye’ to Plastic Bags . There was also a photo of 2 older looking faces of the Bali sisters who I learned about as I taught my students how to give a Tedtalk. Their Tedtalk was my mentor text last year! (I wrote about it HERE). So for a third time today, I clicked and enjoyed listening to a story. Thank you, NPR!
I’m glad NPR was part of my teaching day, today.
I bet you have stories involving NPR, too!
Writing Stories by Sally 
I love listening to NPR but in recent years have decreased my news intake significantly. My radio is still tuned to our local NPR station, but I almost always listen to audiobooks instead. I love how NPR inspired your teaching today and I’m excited to check out the Kwame Alexander link. Thanks for sharing!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I love Kwame’s monthly-ish chats with Rachel Martin on Morning Edition. They send me smiling on my way to work. I heard this “Love is…” challenge live and got the wheels in motion the minute I reached school. Can’t wait to see what my Kindergarten poets come up with!
LikeLike