All reading communities should contain protected time for the sake of reading. Independent reading practices emphasize the process of making meaning through reading, not an end product. The school culture (teachers, administration, etc.) should affirm this daily practice time as inherently important instructional time for all readers. (NCTE, 2019)   The Penguin Random House High

As the school year begins, teachers and students are facing challenges to their intellectual freedom like never before. From state legislation to executive orders to school district policies to administrator actions, book bans are at an all-time high, and teacher shortages are affecting every corner of the nation. But as a K-12 educator, you do

As educators, we know how important it is to give students access and opportunity to books that provide “windows, mirrors, and sliding glass doors” (Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop). It’s vital that we support every student and help them address issues they confront both in and out of the classroom. Finding those books and creating lessons

By Joel Brigham   I have taught American Literature for 16 years, and for most of my career, that has meant doing what has always been done. I’ve taught Ralph Waldo Emerson and Mark Twain and F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway, just like any other self-respecting American Lit teacher in this country, but it

Bryan Washington has been named the 2020 Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize winner for his story collection LOT. In LOT, Washington explores his hometown of Houston—a sprawling, diverse microcosm of America—where the son of a black mother and a Latino father is coming of age. He’s working at his family’s restaurant, weathering his brother’s blows,

Dear Reader, This story is fiction. But it also tells the truth. All stories start with a seed and for me that seed was planted years ago when I first crossed paths with Lord Byron’s epic poem, The Giaour, along with his deeply ingrained Orientalism and sexism. In college, I took a class that centered around

This past Monday, October 14, Penguin Random House Education and the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) cohosted a special National Day of Writing Event featuring Winona Guo and Priya Vulchi, authors of TELL ME WHO YOU ARE: Sharing Our Stories of Race, Culture, & Identity, published by TarcherPerigee. Several dozen teachers, as well as Annysa Polanco,