Posts containing the following tags:
books

Despite budget problems, my district next year will adopt new high school English textbooks. For the past five – six years, I have used The Norton Reader for AP English Language, and I love it. The book is filled with a variety of essays on different topics and with different writing styles. Since the textbook [...]

I apologize for being a post *** yesterday, but 1. I had a lot to update from comatose Friday, 2. I really wanted to talk about animals, and 3. I needed contest entries! So instead of posting on like 5 more posts, I compiled into one to post on Sunday. Yay for you. So, here’s some funny, random, political, nerdy, ridiculousness for your ...

I have fallen behind on book reading recently, but I just wanted to let you know about a lovely contest going on to earn free books! YAY! Here’s the link lovvis: http://babblingflow.blogspot.com/2010/03/march-madness-saradise-style-major.html Enjoy! Tagged: books, reading, recommendations

Earlier today I read John Spencer’s interesting blog  about books that make students uncomfortable: books should make you feel uncomfortable John mentioned that he disliked To Kill a Mockingbird, and many of us jumped in to defend the book. Atticus would have been proud! To Kill a Mockingbird is one of my favorite childhood books. As [...]

I first read To Kill a Mockingbird in high school and felt bored with the dialog, annoyed by the flat (and always either entirely good or entirely bad) characters and unsure about why we had to read it.  Later, while working in a chaotic non-profit and dealing with issues of racial reconciliation, I thought I might be able to connect better with ...

I rarely get choked up when a celebrity dies and yet I felt something deep within at the death of Salinger.  I know he was a recluse and anti-social and all of that, yet I wonder if that's a part of why I liked him.  He was human and he had no desire to lead the masses.  In this sense, he was the anti-Tolstoy.  I think the media misunderstood his ...

I'll be releasing a free eBook called Remotely Controlled Chaos: A TV's Guide to Teaching Middle School. It's an expansion on my summer blog series looking at the practical side of teaching through the small screen lens.  Essentially, the book will be 45-50 short chapters that are each roughly three pages.  It should be available on February 14th, ...

I was excited about class on Friday because we were going to discuss Wallace Stegner’s “Town Dump,” a beautiful essay about his Canadian childhood. Students generally like the essay because of Stegner’s vivid descriptions of the items he finds at the local dump. Since the essay is told through the eyes of a seven year [...]

Storynory is a site I just found out about from the award winning iLearn Technology. This is a site that is very similar to Book Wink, where a student clicks on a story and then listens to it. What makes Storynory so great is the ability to download these audio tracks to your computer. There is a lot here to like so I recommend checking ...

Please don’t ever say to me you can’t find SOMETHING to read. After we’ve exhausted the possibilities in my classroom library, and in the school’s library, you may want to check out these blogs. In reality, you should be checking them out anyway to keep up with new titles, authors you love, new authors, new [...]