373: The Most Popular Books to Teach 9th and 10th Graders (Tournament Results)

This winter, inspired by cool bookish tournament projects by Melissa Alter Smith of Teach Living Poets and Jared Amato of Project Lit, I decided to launch my own English teacher-y tournament.

I wanted to know - of the hundreds of amazing books out there - which were working BEST in the classroom for the teachers in our community?

After polling over 2000 teachers over in Creative High School English for their favorites in 9th/10th grade (11th and 12th grade coming soon!), I landed on 16 great titles and we've been voting ever since.

Today on the pod, I'll be sharing the top titles and some of the comments and rationales teachers have shared along with their votes. If you're looking for a new book for your curriculum, or you're curious what other teachers are focusing on in theirs, today's show will help!

See the links below for comments and voting from teachers throughout the tournament (additional voting happened live through Instagram stories which I can't as easily share):

• The initial poll calling for titles for the tournament

The Round of Sixteen:

• Long Way Down vs. The Book Thief
• Animal Farm vs. Romeo and Juliet
• Night vs. Macbeth
• Fahrenheit vs. Of Mice and Men 
• The Odyssey vs. The Lord of the Flies
• Speak vs. The House on Mango Street
• Dear Martin vs. Born a Crime