Links I Loved Last Week: A Round-Up of Online Reading 10/18/15

George Couros reminded me of a story I’d forgotten how much I love (Kevin Durant connecting with fans via Twitter and joining a flag football game during the basketball lockout) and argues that teachers need to use social media to help kids make connections.

Kinderconfidential wrote an important piece about how kids are more than labels. Powerful teaching comes from discarding labels, connecting with human beings, truly empathizing.

Matt Renwick has a thought-provoking piece based on his reading of Sherry Turkle’s new book about conversation in the digital age.

Digital Writing Month starts on November 1, and I hope many of my students will join.

Pernille Ripp has advice on helping students who are perennial book abandoners.

Cathy at Read & Refine dispenses with “just right” books in favor of books that meet the heart, head, and eye criteria. A great way to honor student readers and student choice.

Vicki Vinton has a thoughtful post about the significant role passion plays in how we manage and cope with failure.

I really like Tchers’ Voice’s Four Strategies to Create a Culture of Success in Middle School (hint: these strategies work at every level).

I know most of my readers already know and agree with everything Nancie Atwell says about teaching reading in “It’s time to take a hard look at how we teach reading,” but since very little has changed for most kids in most schools, the points obviously bear repeating.

Nonfiction November is a thing once again this year! There will be weekly discussions, tons of recommendations and reflective blog posts, and a readalong of I Am Malala.

Meg Rosoff’s comments on diversity and representation in children’s and young adult literature are so offensive and disturbing to me. How is it possible for someone to be so blind about her own privilege?

If you haven’t yet subscribed to Reading While White, a blog written by “allies for racial diversity and inclusion in books for children and teens,” you really should. So many good posts this week! My favorite was probably Ibi Zoboi’s guest post, “Reading While Black,” which reflects on issues of representation and universality and how she and her daughter read and discuss “vanilla” and “not-so-vanilla” books.

Donalyn Miller celebrates Beautiful Books That Are Beautifully Made.