| |
|
|
|
|
"The time has come, the Walrus said, to speak of many things..."
Browse by Tags
All Tags » teaching » lessons » american lit. (RSS)
-
I’m such a geek when it comes to teaching. Two weeks after the school year concludes, I’m ready to start again. Since I can’t have a classroom full of students to teach, I go back and revise and adapt my curriculum lessons during July Read More...
|
|
|
-
Two novels I taught this year were To Kill A Mockingbird and A Gathering of Old Men. Prior to and during reading these novels, I had the kids look at some songs, poems, and historical context. Here are a few of my favorite things concerning the race relations Read More...
|
|
|
-
Today we started the film The Matrix and the kids are enthralled. What a great feeling to know they are learning the literary devices and analyzing while enjoying the process.
Also, I introduced the double-entry journal, the Christ-like character attributes, Read More...
|
-
I purchased some movie units from Michael Vetrie, an alternative high school teacher in Sun Valley, CA, and I’m going to try one tomorrow. I will show The Matrix in half-hour segments, so the students can do the following: compose a double-entry Read More...
|
-
Recently I decided to include more music into my lessons. I started this with my American Literature courses (the College in the High School and mainstream classes), and my students have reacted quote favorably.
Initially, I used The Who’s “Baba Read More...
|
-
I took a few pictures of projects for the end of The Great Gatsby unit. Each pair of students had to create an artistic rendition based on a quotation (Eckleburg’s eyes were popular) with an explanation, a sonnet connecting three characters, three Read More...
|
-
A while ago I mentioned that I had my students research topics for the era in which our novels take place. We then used their findings to create visually pleasing bulletin boards. The requirements were: to include at least one image for each researched Read More...
|
-
While reading The Grapes of Wrath with my class this month, I introduced the idea of pragmatism to the students. I used the two primary facets of this philosophy to help analyze the novel. These two characteristics of pragmatism are: 1) truth is mutable, Read More...
|
-
According to a new study in a Washington Post article:
At a time when more authors are writing more books for young people, fewer children are reading for pleasure. A recent study by the National Endowment for the Arts showed that the percentage of 13- Read More...
|
-
My American Literature class is still giving me grief. Only 19 of 32 students initially turned in the summary (that number is now 27 out of 32), and now only 18 of 32 turned in the thesis paragraph assigned two weeks ago. Grrr!
After I call all the parents, Read More...
|
-
I thought I’d post some updates on the goings on I’ve discussed previously.
When my class created bulletin boards about the 1920s for The Great Gatsby, things did not go exactly as planned. Being literal-minded students, almost everyone basically Read More...
|
-
I use a lesson format I call the fish bowl. Really, it’s a modified Socratic Seminar except that every student is not required to be an active speaking participant.
I have 8-9 students circle up in the middle of the room with their notebooks and Read More...
|
-
Next week I’ll be using the following in preparation for The Great Gatsby in my College in the H.S. course: The Cotton Club clip
Eight Men Out clip
Izzy and Moe clip
The History of Jazz clip
“I’m a Fool” by Sherwood Anderson
“Bernice Read More...
|
-
Last night I attended some birthday bashes and, of course when a group of teachers get together, the conversation eventually leads back to teaching. One of the gang asked me why my year has been so successful, so I explained my new philosophy on grading. Read More...
|
-
This is one of my favorite lessons of the year in American Literature. Here goes:
1. I have everyone pull out a single sheet of paper and a pen or pencil and then pull up the screen revealing the question “What is an American?” The students Read More...
|
|
|
|
|