Is it Time to Kill Mockingbird? Until recently, To Kill A Mockingbird was one of few classics I actually liked. I’ve usually pushed back against the canon, but I could get behind a story about a precocious young tomboy who helps her father fight against racial injustice. But, as I read it once again with […]
Common Core Literacy Standards for English Language Arts
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Twain's Satire in "Advice to Youth" Speech
Students have  regular exposure to forms of mockery, ridicule, derision, scorn, or caricature on social media, on TV, on film, or Youtube, yet many still do not understand satire. Despite living in an atmosphere saturated 24/7 with “humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule that exposes and criticizes people’s stupidity or vices,” when students read satire, they say they just don’t “get it.” Perhaps […]
Posted inCurrent Events in Education, High School, Instruction & Curriculum, Literacy
Ursula Le Guin's Speech as Literary Informational Text
[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”] Science fiction and fantasy are among the most popular genres in both film and book publishing, but they are often underrepresented in the English Language Arts offerings in the secondary classroom.  There are […]