Raising questions about commentary and close reading

December 14, 2015

The following excerpt would make a great discussion for your department, I suspect.  And if you have access to the PMLA issue of May 2015,  I think you would find much interest in David Steiner (Executive Director of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy)...

Building listeners, not just speakers

October 9, 2015

Here are some ideas I’ve gleaned from teachers in online workshops: Every presentation students complete has a peer assessment component – students must offer comments on the content as well as the presentation skill of their peers. Students read their creative...

A rich (if variable) resource to enrich the conversation

August 12, 2015

If you don’t know Maria Popova’s weekly (on Sunday) blog–a sometimes rich and varied one–‘Brain Pickings’–you might check it out or even subscribe. The content ranges from various ideas about writing–both yours and your...

If you are studying African-American writing…

July 20, 2015

Here are some very interesting websites provided by a workshop participant, David Harms, which point to the great need and drive of the Harlem Renaissance: Documenting the American South. Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia. Uncle Tom’s Cabin & American...

Exploring Literature and Performance

June 3, 2015

Alas, poor Yorick……etc. Since the summer provides teachers at least some little time to think and reflect and also to explore, I wonder if you might look into the third course in Group 1 which is ‘Literature and Performance.’  This is has...

Paper 2: Some last admonitions for students?

May 1, 2015

1. I don’t believe it’s possible to stress explicitly enough that your students should go into the examination with a clear sense of which genre they studied (aren’t they all ‘books?’) and which of the ‘books’ they studied are...