understanding of T. S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” then try this simple activity as a culminating project.
Category Archives: American Lit
How I Taught The Jungle in One Week
If you’re like me and don’t have a lot of time for Upton Sinclair’s 402-page The Jungle, try this “one week, one chapter, one-pager” approach.
Lessons on Longfellow
This past week, my junior English III learned about one of the America’s first celebrities, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. And I’m so glad I decided to go more in-depth with this cultural icon than our textbook allows.
New Lesson for The Red Badge of Courage
I wanted to introduce my students to literary impressionism by noticing Stephen Crane’s use of color and by creating a collaborative visual representation of the The Red Badge of Courage.
“Song of Myself” Videos Make Personal Connections
And then I stumbled upon something amazing: Whitman, Alabama. This was the inspiration I needed to demonstrate the importance of Walt Whitman’s poetry in American culture today.
Ralph Waldo Emerson for High School Students
A recent snow day activity has sparked my curiosity about the possibilities of combining student photography with reading.
Unapologetic and Afrocentric: The Bluest Eye
Toni Morrison claims the center of the world This is a follow-up post to the original one I wrote on The Bluest Eye by the late Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Toni Morrison. I concluded that post discussing the benefits of second and multiple readings of texts in order to fully and more completely grasp their messages.Continue reading “Unapologetic and Afrocentric: The Bluest Eye”
Frederick Douglass Unit Plan, Resources, and Handouts
10 reasons to teach Douglass plus the unit plan As I promised last week in my post about Frederick Douglass graphic essays, I’m providing a link below so you can purchase a PDF of my unit of instruction for The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Although this unit was designed for regular, in-personContinue reading “Frederick Douglass Unit Plan, Resources, and Handouts”
Watch This Outsiders Movie, Not That One
The Outsiders: The Complete Novel includes a subplot that the original leaves out If you’re like me, you love The Outsiders and can’t imagine teaching middle school ELA without it. So many kids identify with the Tulsa, Oklahoma greasers and their struggles with socioeconomic class differences, personal identity, and family relationships. Here’s my advice: MakeContinue reading “Watch This Outsiders Movie, Not That One”
Teach Theme with Graphic Essays: The Old Man and the Sea
Here’s how I’ve used graphic essays and what I’ll tweak for next time. My junior English classes recently read the short story, “In Another Country” by Ernest Hemingway as a follow-up to reading “The Old Man and the Sea.” Because they had just completed a traditional written thematic analysis of the novel, I opted toContinue reading “Teach Theme with Graphic Essays: The Old Man and the Sea”