Add more ekphrasis to your ELA lessons Need some ekphrastic inspiration? If you’ve tried ekphrastic poetry with your students, you’ve no doubt found it an amazing way to fuse art and creative writing. In my own experience, I’ve assigned or explored ekphrastic poetry with my junior American literature students once each semester. In those lessons,Continue reading “Ekphrastic Poetry: New Website and Podcast”
Author Archives: Marilyn Yung
ChatGPT and the Numbing of a Student’s Mind
No, I won’t be embracing ChatGPT I’ve held off on writing about OpenAI’s ChatGPT because… well, it exasperates me. Frustrates me. Angers me. It makes me angry that software developers with little experience or interest in the provision of education have created a “tool” that replaces the very human activities of thinking and writing. InContinue reading “ChatGPT and the Numbing of a Student’s Mind”
Checked Out: Student Disengagement in the High School Classroom
Is thinking deeply a thing of the past? As I mentioned in my 2022 year-end post, I’ll be spending 2023 reading and researching on the loss of focus (and the disengagement it fosters) that we are witnessing in students today. To that end, I’m on a personal quest to read more about the phenomena thatContinue reading “Checked Out: Student Disengagement in the High School Classroom”
The Anthropocene Reviewed Essay for High Schoolers
Use John Green’s classic for awesome student essays One of my favorite book purchases of 2022 was uber-popular author John Green’s The Anthropocene Reviewed. This book contains about forty-four personal essays on events, objects, and/or people chosen by The Faults in Our Stars author as examples of how humans have helped shaped our current age.Continue reading “The Anthropocene Reviewed Essay for High Schoolers”
The Great Gatsby: Chapter 1 Challenges
Chapter 1 isn’t always a student’s cup of tea “In my younger and more vulnerable years, my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since.” (from The Great Gatsby, Chapter 1) We all recognize that famous first sentence of The Great Gatsby. It’s a quiet sentence, isn’t it?Continue reading “The Great Gatsby: Chapter 1 Challenges”
Frederick Douglass Final Project: The Graphic Essay
A fresh way to reflect on Douglass’ heroic life and text Back when I taught middle school ELA, I assigned graphic essays (essentially a dressed-up one-pager) to my eighth-graders after they finished reading Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave. This incredible book, which provides Douglass’ first-hand account of the horrors andContinue reading “Frederick Douglass Final Project: The Graphic Essay”
Argument Writing: Stossel in the Classroom Contests
2023 deadline: March 31 Need a real-world reason to assign argumentative essays? Look no further. The Stossel in the Classroom 2022-23 Essay Contest welcomes your students’ arguments. I have used Stossel in the Classroom contests twice with middle schoolers, and even though none of my students won, the contests were valuable experiences. I think wheneverContinue reading “Argument Writing: Stossel in the Classroom Contests”
The Web, Student Focus, and Ralph Waldo Emerson
Five Allusions to Emerson in The Shallows by Nicholas Carr Today, we mostly know Ralph Waldo Emerson, the popular nineteenth-century transcendental philosopher, through a handful of quotes that have filtered down through the centuries. Three examples: Beyond Emerson’s many well-known sayings, however, the larger ideas behind his writings ring few bells in the collective mindsContinue reading “The Web, Student Focus, and Ralph Waldo Emerson”
Poetry Chapbooks for High Schoolers
Have students self-publish their poetry in chapbooks This will be a short post, but I wanted to briefly fill you in on a culminating activity my high school poetry class completed last spring. Our final project of the year was to create a poetry chapbook, a small(ish) book that contained the many poems they createdContinue reading “Poetry Chapbooks for High Schoolers”
On Tap for 2023: Gatsby, Inspiration & Insights into Student Focus
Plus: my top ten posts of 2022 I savor these last moments of the holidays. They’re the perfect time to reflect, rethink, and redirect my site’s content to better serve you, my dear readers, in the coming year. In doing so, it’s always interesting to learn which posts resonated most strongly with readers throughout theContinue reading “On Tap for 2023: Gatsby, Inspiration & Insights into Student Focus”