For readers, writers, and lovers of words, a dialectical journal is a great idea. We like nothing more than to muse about what moves us. For non-readers and reluctant writers, nothing could be worse. Yet, teachers are still tasked with the obligation to teach students to think about, connect to, and write about the booksContinue Reading
Using Children’s Poetry to Engage Secondary Students
One of my earliest memories of poetry involves people-watching with my father. As we waited for my mom to find her perfect pair of shoes, Dad and I leaned against the railing on the second floor of the local mall and invented stories about the shoppers scurrying below us on the first floor. He wouldContinue Reading
Twain Texts You Aren’t Teaching But Should: Was it Heaven? Or Hell?
This is the third post in this series where we discover ways to introduce Twain in engaging, relevant ways without relying solely on Huckleberry Finn. “Was it Heaven? Or Hell?”: Harpers Monthly Magazine, Christmas 1902. Lessons: Pandemic History, juxtaposition, parallel structure Mark Twain is timely. Yes, he died in 1910; nevertheless, so many of his textsContinue Reading
How Do We Make Hawthorne Accessible to Teen Readers?
Using Innovation on Demand to Assess Understanding of Texts When trying to create connections for students to classic literature, we must consider their reasons for pushback. What are the reasons students dislike the classics or at least aren’t too terribly excited about studying them? I’ve heard many. Classics are boring or they’re too hard. StudentsContinue Reading
How to Connect Kids to Classics in One Sentence
A colleague gifted me this cool mug. It’s covered with some of the best sentences in literary history. One day, while sipping and excellent cup of Earl Grey and marveling over these one-statement masterpieces, it occurred to me that these sentences might just be enough to hook students into reading some of the best booksContinue Reading
How to Assess Student Connection to Texts
I discovered the assessment by accident. It was actually meant for a brain break for my honors students. We had just finished up The Great Gatsby, but throughout the week I had noticed mental fatigue setting in. Most likely, it had been a week filled with calculus and AP Chem tests with some kind ofContinue Reading
Should We Use Movies to Teach Classic Literature?
Are you a movie-showing teacher? Relying on movies to teach classics isn’t new. Although, I feel like it’s becoming more and more accepted as the norm. I often wonder if it should be. When I first started pre-writing this blog post, I truly thought it would lean towards nixing movies. We teach literature, not cinema.Continue Reading
Is Caps For Sale Worth Keeping?
“It’s not culturally responsive.” “It’s outdated.” “I roll my eyes every time someone suggests a book to me that’s over 70 years old.” These are the reasons mentioned on teacher Twitter recently for ridding your classroom of Caps For Sale: A Tale of a Peddler, Some Monkeys and Their Monkey Business by Esphyr Slobodkina. TeachersContinue Reading
“The Lottery” Lesson
“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is such a great, memorable tale. I’m sure there aren’t many teachers who must be persuaded to teach this one. Nevertheless, the relevance to pandemic living is so strong, I just had to add this story to our classics to keep. If this is a story we already love andContinue Reading
How to Teach Twain Through Short Stories: The Ghost Story
Not only does “A Ghost Story” allow for a great study of the effective use of diction, syntax, pacing, plot, dialogue, and irony, but it also offers a great tie-in to real life.
