Tag: teaching english
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Teaching Cormac McCarthy’s The Road: Engaging Reluctant Readers
“Then they set out along the blacktop in the gunmetal light, shuffling through the ash, each the other’s world entire.” I taught 12th grade for a couple of years. Here is an exaggerated list of the types of students in my class during that time: I am exaggerating a bit of the list above, but…
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“No Such Thing”
When I taught in the classroom, sometimes I used lyrics for Bell Work. I would play the song while students answered the questions I provided about the song. One of my favorites was “No Such Thing” by John Mayer and Douglas Cook. This song has many layers; students relate to the themes and allusions. “Welcome…
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Book Review: Literature and the New Culture Wars by Deborah Appleman
Last year, I wrote about the importance of reading challenging texts and mentioned a new book on my list called Literature and the New Culture Wars by Deborah Appleman, published 2022. I finished the book in November, and I highlighted so many passages! In classrooms nationwide, movements such as cancel culture, #METoo, and trigger concerns…
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Teaching Literature: Nurturing Empathy and Knowledge through Challenging Texts
When I was teaching AP Literature, we would read around seven books in one year. All of these books were classics, and not always full of cheer. Sometimes my students would question, why are we reading books that are such downers? Not all the books I taught in my other classes were classics, but they…
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Expand a Sentence
I think one of the hardest concepts of creative writing for students who don’t want to be writers is teaching them how to be descriptive and “showing” versus “telling”. Most of them will only write one creative story a year and possibly some smaller assignments. So, how do I get the “most” out of them…