Occasionally, we hear about opportunities that we think NJCTE members might like to take advantage of; however, passing them along is not intended as any official endorsement or sponsorship by NJCTE.
To Kill a Mockingbird Book Giveaway
In partnership with the American Federation of Teachers and First Book, Share My Lesson is continuing our ongoing giveaway series with an exciting opportunity to win a set of 30 copies of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird!
Open to AFT members working in a Title I or Title I-eligible school, you can enter the giveaway by simply answering one of these questions in the First Book community on SML:
Why this book and why now? Well, AFT President Randi Weingarten’s favorite novel to teach was To Kill a Mockingbird.
“When I was in the classroom teaching in New York City, I used To Kill a Mockingbird as a vehicle to address racial inequality and social injustice, and to spark discussion among my students about serious issues in our country that are still serious today,” says Weingarten. “This helpful novel tackles head-on the issues of race, class and gender inequities in our country, but also shows how ordinary Americans can show courage and compassion.”
To Kill a Mockingbird, first published in 1960, details the racially charged trial of an innocent black man in the Deep South, and its impact on his community, including the white lawyer who represents him and the lawyer’s impressionable young daughter, Scout. Teaching the book opens opportunities to discuss how the novel’s themes resonate today, and also how its 1960s-era perspective demonstrates a lack of voice for the African American characters in the novel.
The AFT edition marks the union’s commitment to teaching human and civil rights to everyone–including students in the low-income communities where Title I schools are situated–and was made possible when the estate of author Harper Lee granted rare permission to publish it.
If you are an AFT member and work in a Title I or Title I-eligible school, you can win a set for your classroom or school library by:
- Answering a discussion question (worth one entry each) here:
- Why do you like teaching To Kill a Mockingbird?
- What’s your favorite book to teach and why?
- Uploading a Lesson Plan (worth 10 entries!) here:
- Upload a lesson plan that you use to teach To Kill a Mockingbird.
- Upload a lesson plan that you use to teach your favorite book.
Read the book giveaway entry details and terms and conditions. Drawings are held every two weeks, and you can enter more than once! We’ll look for 25 winners on Nov. 1, Nov. 15, Nov. 29 and Dec. 13, so enter often! Not working in a Title I school? Stay tuned for more giveaway opportunities, coming soon!
Participate at No Cost!
NJCTE is pleased to announce the winner of the 2020 Becker Award Adib Khorram, author of Darius the Great Is Not Okay. Khorram will be honored at 
If he’s not writing (or at his day job as a graphic designer), you can probably find him trying to get his 100-yard Freestyle under a minute, learning to do a Lutz Jump, or steeping a cup of oolong. He lives in Kansas City, Missouri, where people don’t usually talk about themselves in the third person. You can find him on Twitter (
Saturday, March 28, 2020
New Jersey Council of Teachers of English 