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Michael M. Guevara

Michael M. Guevara, recipient of a 2019 Book Love Foundation Grant, spends his days advocating for choice reading and authentic literacy instruction. An Academic Trainer in a large urban high school in San Antonio, Texas, Michael works with teachers on improving their literacy instruction and uses choice reading to help students achieve academic success. A former K-12 ELAR coordinator, Michael has served as president of The Texas Council of Teachers of English Language Arts and an NCTE committee chair. He recently served on the Texas state standards revision committee that developed new literacy standards adopted by Texas in 2017. His workshops with teachers focus on mentor texts and authentic student writing from their choice reading. Michael is working on a professional development book for literacy educators and currently has agents reading the manuscript of his young adult novel The Closest Thing to a Normal Life.

    Amanda Gorman performing a poem at the 2021 inauguration of President Joe Biden

    Inaugural Poetry Discoveries

    Like lots of others, I didn’t discover Amanda Gorman until she graced the country with, well, her grace, her presence, and her poetry at the inauguration ceremony of President Biden.

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    hand holding open a book of poetry

    Rock Star Poets

    The “Greatest Hits” album. All the greats do it—Creedence Clearwater Revival, Tom Petty, Elton John, Madonna, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Mariah Carey—so it only...

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    girl reads from poetry book

    Aggressively Poetic

    Leaves caked my front yard, suffocating the burgeoning grass below as I sat on the couch and told myself only one more episode of Law & Order and...

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    young girl reading from a poetry book

    Dead White Poets Society

    Scads of English teachers have shown the movie Dead Poets Society in class to either begin their poetry unit or to try and inspire an appreciation...

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    girl sits outside reading from a poetry book

    The Outer and Inner Beauty of Poetry

    Probably not long after Gutenberg slapped some ink on a page, we got the aphorism not to judge a book by its cover. Generally true. But even if the...

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    teenagers putting hands together

    Improving Learning Outcomes for Your Busy Students

    Toward the latter half of my son’s junior year in high school (he’s a junior in college now), I went with him to the meetings set up by the...

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    Covers of novels Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry and The Field Guide to the North American Teenager

    Black History Month: Death by Journal

    Okay—circle of trust here. After dropping my youngest child off at college all the way from San Antonio, Texas, to Lawrence, Kansas, at The...

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    Cover of Happily Ever After with trees in the background

    Black History Month: Fits, Photos, and Happily Ever Afters

    Back when I taught at Southwest High School in San Antonio, Sharri Peterson, who dubbed herself my work wife, was my school spirit partner. Whenever...

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    Cover of the Black Friend with classroom in the background

    Black History Month: The Friend You Need

    In just the past few weeks, I’ve seen two friends post on social media about their spirit animals. Neither of them is Native American. Recently,...

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    Taking of Jake Livingston book cover

    Black History Month: He Sees Dead People

    My mother tells this story of being so exhausted that she couldn’t get up to rock my older brother, her first child, back to sleep in the middle of...

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