What Teachers Are Saying about Mirrors & Windows

I LOVE the Mirrors and Windows books!

Great lay-out
Great pre-reading activities and info
Excellent post-reading questions and ideas for writing

Especially love how Romeo and Juliet is done--terrific front-loading info for reading Shakespeare, the time period etc. I can imagine it would be especially helpful for a teacher who is just beginning and lacks a lot of supplemental information.

Susan Murai
English Lit and Comp Teacher
Southridge High School

EMC Authors present at IATE Conference

On October 22, EMC authors Tony Romano and Gary Anderson are presenting a session at the Illinois Association of Teachers of English conference: "Zapping Apathy: Creating a Sense of Community in the English Classroom." Romano and Anderson are coauthors of EMC's Expository Composition: Discovering Your Voice textbook. Romano was named 2010 Illinois Author of the year. For more information on the conference visit http://www.iateconference.org/.

Take Part in National Day of Writing October 20th

On September 29, 2010, the Senate passed RES.668 "expressing support for the designation of October 20, 2010, as the "National Day on Writing!" To celebrate composition in all its forms, NCTE is inviting participants from all walks of life -- students, teachers, parents, grandparents, business and trade workers, legislators, retirees, and many more -- to submit a piece of writing to the National Gallery of Writing.

Take Part in the National Gallery of Writing

Twin Cities Book Festival October 16

This weekend on Saturday, October 16, 2010, is the tenth annual Twin Cities Book Festival. The festival’s all-day exhibit will be held from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm at the Minneapolis Community & Technical College, located in Downtown Minneapolis.

The Book Fair showcases a wide range of publishers, literary organizations, and booksellers. Readings and talks by renowned authors from near and far will be featured throughout the day. A Children’s Pavilion sponsored by the Metro Public Libraries will offer author readings, performances, games, and crafts.

In honor of the Festival’s tenth anniversary, five sessions will be presented focusing on the “plethora of book activity throughout Minnesota and beyond!” The sessions include Getting Started: Minnesota Debut Fiction, The Changing World of Publishing: Getting Books to Readers, Minnesota Comics, The Great Midwest: Regional Writing, and Views from the Loft.

And don’t miss the Rain Taxi Used Book Sale, with proceeds going to help support the nonprofit Rain Taxi's endeavors, and the chance to try out new literary magazines at cheap introductory prices at the Literary Magazine Fair sponsored by CLMP. Best of all, this celebration of books and reading is free and open to the general public!
Click here for a complete schedule of events!

YALSA!! Books with Beat!

It’s Teen Read Week™ (October 17-23) and the theme this year is Books with Beat @ your library®, encouraging teens to read and listen to poetry, audiobooks, and books about music. Librarians and educators across the country are celebrating this week with a variety of events and programs, many offering free reading materials, to promote teen reading for enjoyment.

How can you participate in Teen Reading Week in your own classroom? Check out the Mirrors & Windows Audio Program on the Internet Resource center at http://www.mirrorsandwindows.com/ to find audio recordings of poems about music such Billy Collins’ “Man Listening to Disc” and “The Blues” (grade 11 American Tradition), and traditional and contemporary songs such as “John Henry Blues” (grade 8), “Go Down, Moses” and Lucy Kaplansky’s “Land of the Living” (grade 10), and “Bonny Barbara Allen” and Bob Dylan’s “A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall” (grade 12 British Tradition).

Teen Read Week is an initiative of the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), started in 1998. Visit their site for additional program planning ideas, resources, or planning tools. You can even find a Books with Beat@ your library reading list in Spanish!

Celebrate National Book Month

Help your school celebrate National Book Month by checking out this list of suggestions for book-related activities offered by the National Book Foundation website at http://www.nationalbook.org/nbmteachers.html.

Don’t forget to assign the great novels and plays available as EMC Access Editions. Over 30 classic titles include the complete literary work and a study apparatus within a hard binding. You can preview some of the Access Edition novels at http://www.emcp.com/previews/AccessEditions/.

To view the complete list of titles and order books, visit our catalog page at http://www.emcp.com/product_catalog/index.php?GroupID=74.