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”

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”

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”

The Sonnet for High School (part 1)

The power of repetition in Terrance Hayes’ “Sonnet” If you’ve ever worked with students and sonnets, you know how difficult writing a sonnet can be. In a word, it’s complicated. In fact, these little box-shaped poems offer all kinds of challenges for young writers (and their teachers–ha!). For example, when my British Literature students studyContinue reading “The Sonnet for High School (part 1)”