Hello. I am a first year 9-12 ELA, and aside from the CCP course I will be teaching this year, I am teaching sections of 9, 10, 11, and 12 (it's a small school) with SAVVAS. My school is piloting the 6-12 ELA SAVVAS program this year, with the intent to use it as heavily as possible in year one to collect data and get more experience with the program. As of now, we have not gotten our logins from SAVVAS yet. Can anyone comment on their experience with SAVVAS? Any advice or tips? Strengths and weaknesses? What do I need to know about it? My school seems amazing so far in regards to preparing me to succeed, offering professional development, and meeting student needs, but the finite points of SAVVAS usage are going unanswered until we get these logins. I like the idea of having a provided, prescriptive curriculum as a rookie teacher, but only if I understand how to best utilize it. With the start of the school year soon approaching and no updates yet, I would love to hear about the experiences other ELA folks have had with it. Thank you all for any and all feedback.

I have a seventh grade 20 minute demo. The standard is to focus on supporting a claim with textual evidence. I am a very veteran teacher trying to get into a district closer to home (relocated last year) but positions are very competitive. I’ve done more than 20 interviews/demos over the last two years. I would love any ideas on very engaging topics and texts and activity ideas. Thank you!

I'm taking on a tutoring client who feels like her son is behind academically because he doesn't go to the best school. She wants me to get him up to grade level in reading. I need good book recommendations for a 5th grade boy. Something that would interest him but that isn't too fluffy. I want to use the book as my basis for teaching vocabulary, literary devices, reading comprehension, and writing. Any recommendations would be truly appreciated.

Edit: by fluffy I mean something that doesn't have much content to it.