Skip to the main content

AP English

Help ALL your students achieve AP success with our coursebooks designed by leading experts.

AP & Honors Science

Guide students through real-world application of science concepts with Wiley’s advanced programs.

AP Social Studies

Discover a variety of accessible yet rigorous programs designed to align with AP social studies courses.

AP Computer Science

Prepare students for success on the AP Computer Science A exam.

AP & Honors Mathematics

Explore Wiley titles to support both AP and Honors mathematics instruction.

Literacy Skills & Intensive Reading

Connections: Reading – Grades 6–12

Empower student success with a proven intensive reading program that develops strong reading skills in striving readers.

Drama, Speech & Debate

Basic Drama Projects 10th Edition

Build students’ confidence and competence with comprehensive, project-based theatre instruction.

Literature

Connections: Literature

Support learners as they study dynamic, relevant texts and bring the richness of diverse voices to students through literature.

Middle School Preview | Shop
High School Preview | Shop
 

Literature & Thought

Develop critical thinking, reading, and writing across literacy themes, genres, historical eras, and current events.

Language Arts

Vocabu-Lit® – Grades 6–12

Help students build word power using high-quality contemporary and classic literature, nonfiction, essays, and more.

 

Connections: Writing & Language

Help students develop grammar, usage, mechanics, vocabulary, spelling, and writing and editing skills.

Reading/English Language Arts

Measuring Up to the English Language Arts Standards

Incorporate standards-driven teaching strategies to complement your ELA curriculum.

English Language Learners

Measuring Up for English Language Learners

Incorporate research-based best practices for ELLs with an approach that includes a focus on language acquisition strategies.

Mathematics

Measuring Up to the Mathematics Standards

Incorporate standards-driven teaching strategies to complement your mathematics curriculum.

Foundations

Measuring Up Foundations

Help students master foundational math skills that are critical for students to find academic success.

Reading Preview | Shop
Mathematics Preview | Shop

Science

Measuring Up to the Next Generation Science Standards

Give students comprehensive NGSS coverage while targeting instruction and providing rigorous standards practice.

Assessment

Measuring Up Live

Deliver innovative assessment and practice technology designed to offer data-driven instructional support.

World Languages

Social Studies

Science

Turtleback

Reinforced bindings of classroom novels and nonfiction for maximum durability with a lifetime guarantee.

SAT Prep

SAT Prep

Financial Literacy

Introduction to Personal Finance

Culinary Arts

Professional Cooking

Professional Baking

Welcome.

For a better website experience, please confirm you are in:

3 min read

#Neveragain—No, Really

#Neveragain—No, Really

From San Antonio, you take I-35 S until you hit Hwy. 90W just outside of the city limits. You’ll then hit Castroville, which everyone pronounces Casterville and drive a bit before getting to D’hanis. After D’hanis, you’ll pass through Sabinal, then Knippa, and about an hour and twenty minutes later you’ll arrive in Uvalde.

 

In Texas, this is what’s known as a quick trip down the road.

 

And it’s a trip I’ve made more times than I can remember. Over the years of working in education, I have conducted workshops with the Uvalde School Board and helped their teachers get the educational resources they’ve needed to help their students grow as readers and writers.

 

Now everyone knows Uvalde.

 

We know Uvalde the way we know Marjory Stoneman Douglas, Sandy Hook, Santa Fe, and Columbine.

 

What we don’t know is when we’ll say “Never Again” for the next one because there always seems to be a next one.

 

I know this because as I watched the news coverage of the Uvalde tragedy, I saw David Hogg interviewed. David Hogg was a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas. Today, he’s an outspoken activist for gun safety legislation. I also know there will be a next time because I read #NeverAgain: A New Generation Draws the Line, the book David Hogg and his sister Lauren Hogg wrote about their experience at Marjory Stoneman Douglas that Valentine’s Day.

 

David begins chapter one writing: “When you open your eyes but the nightmare doesn’t go away, you’ve got no choice but to do something. Our first job now is to remember. Our second job is to act. Remember, act, repeat. Since that day, none of us are the same. But we are alive. And in memory of those who are not, we will remember and act for the rest of our lives.” 

 

Lauren later writes, “I was born in 2003, so Columbine happened before I was born, 9/11 happened before I was born, and I’ve grown up since kindergarten with code-red drills. My generation has been trained to deal with things like this.”

 

I’m sure the second through fourth graders who make up the student body at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas, had practiced those same code-red drills. I have practiced those drills with my students and seen high schoolers gasp in fear when someone on the outside of the door grabs and rattles the handle as a part of the drill.

 

For those students, the drill ends and they go back to their lives—or do they? 

 

Like everyone else watching this tragedy, I mourn, I ask questions, I hope never again, and I wonder about how I can help. And though I no longer have a classroom of my own, I lean on books as one of the answers for what to do. 

 

Initial inclinations often lean towards shielding students from thinking and reading about these experiences, but giving students the opportunity to process their thinking through the pages of books may help them make sense of the senseless. Along with #NeverAgain, Parkland Speaks: Survivors from Marjory Stoneman Douglas Share Their Stories, We Say #NeverAgain: Reporting by the Parkland Student Journalists, and People Kill People by Ellen Hopkins are all excellent titles to have in classroom libraries. 

 

This week, I was supposed to write about magics, martians, and other worlds for our science fiction and fantasy theme, but as much as escaping the tragedies of this world appeals to me, prime directives and galaxies far, far away will have to wait because this world gets extra small when the next #neveragain is just down the road past D’hannis and Knippa.

 

Interested in buying any of the books mentioned in this post? Visit our classroom libraries page

 

DOWNLOAD LESSON

 

Michael Méndez Guevara is a former high school journalism and English teacher who spent his time in the classroom helping students see themselves as writers and fall in love with reading through the world of young adult literature. As an educational sales consultant with Perfection Learning®, Michael works with teachers and schools on improving their literacy instruction and providing resources to help students achieve academic success. He has taught elementary school, middle school, and high school and has worked as a district level leader and served on the Texas state standards revision committee that developed the state’s current literacy standards. He is the father of three adult sons, the youngest a student at the University of Kansas—Rock Chalk! 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. When he's not reading, writing, or running, Michael is fully committed to watching as much Law & Order as possible.

New Beginnings

New Beginnings

The most beautiful part of January isn’t the snow or the magical lighted displays around town, but instead it’s the chance for a new beginning....

Read More
Active Reading Notes & Purpose Statement

Active Reading Notes & Purpose Statement

Whether teaching literature or rhetoric, close reading is an essential and often difficult skill to teach. This note-taking system, which is a...

Read More
Getting Nothing for Someone

Getting Nothing for Someone

Just last week, my oldest son asked me what I wanted for Christmas. My answer? Nothing.

Read More
New Beginnings: Let's Get Lost

New Beginnings: Let's Get Lost

Adi Alsaid has released many young adult books since his first title, Let’s Get Lost, but I can promise you, this one blazes through as just as good,...

Read More
New Beginnings: Some Girls Do

New Beginnings: Some Girls Do

Many students endure the (not-so-fun) ritual of moving schools mid-year. In Some Girls Do by Jennifer Dugan, this is the reality of one of the two...

Read More
Black History Month: The Friend You Need

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,...

Read More
Mental Health Awareness Month: You'd Be Home Now

Mental Health Awareness Month: You'd Be Home Now

May is Mental Health Awareness Month. It’s also the last full month of school for traditionally-scheduled districts. I think mental health is the...

Read More
Native American Heritage Month: Identity & Storytelling

Native American Heritage Month: Identity & Storytelling

Many lessons ran through my mind while reading There There by Tommy Orange. We could talk about the parallel plot text structure; we could talk about...

Read More
Native American Heritage Month: An Indigenous Cut to the Bone

Native American Heritage Month: An Indigenous Cut to the Bone

In recent months I learned, along with others around the world, of the horrific stories of the mass unmarked grave sites of Indigenous, or...

Read More
New Beginnings: Tokyo Ever After

New Beginnings: Tokyo Ever After

Tokyo Ever After: A Novel by Emiko Jean has been climbing the charts as one of the most popular books right now for young adults. With Netflix’s “The...

Read More
Summer Adventure Mini Lesson: Not in Kansas Anymore

Summer Adventure Mini Lesson: Not in Kansas Anymore

For his first two years of college, I drove my youngest son back and forth from San Antonio, Texas, to the University of Kansas. I drove him up for...

Read More
Native American Heritage Month: The Removed

Native American Heritage Month: The Removed

The way authors structure their books is sometimes jaw-dropping. So impressive that by the end you hug it tight, knowing it taught you something, or...

Read More