Category: National resource
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Art Comes to You
In my first years as an English teacher, bringing art into my classroom took a lot more effort than it does today. Of course there were pictures in textbooks (some of them even in color) as well as poster and postcard reproductions, but to get a really good look, I wanted big pictures, glowing with…
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Learning Space: Think, Believe, Share
Students are beginning to work on This I Believe essays. In this image, students have paired up with a partner from across the room to discuss the strengths/writing strategies of their favorite This I Believe essays from the NPR site. Over the weekend, students read at least five essays, and from those five, chose their…
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Additional Publishing Opportunity for Students (Emerging Writers)
We will see the performance American PowerТ Т in late February, and this is a submission opportunity for unpublished writers to submit creative writing that deals with the subject of fracking. It’s in the media and the politics surrounding the practice is complex and polarizing as it has wide environmental and economic implications. If students are inspired,…
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“Extended Looking” – Close Observation of a Text
In our recent classroom visits, we talked about how art can document history, place, the evolution of culture or community. New York City, as with many US cities, is in constant flux (evolving infrastructure, construction, gentrification). In NYC, artist Hedy Pagremanski, is closely observing the changes in her community, documenting, communicating those details in her…
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Need Ideas, We’ve Got ‘Em
50 Ways to Teach With Current Events is a mega idea list compiled by the New York Times to engage students in literacy and writing using current events. The news is a timely beginning resource for research, discussion, and writing. There are not only great examples of good nonfiction writing in journalistic publications, but there…
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“If the environment is imaginative, the writing will likely follow suit.”
Quote by Dave Eggers, Founder of 826 National
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Found Poetry: Chiseling Creatively
After a tip from Gary Liebesman, we discovered Srikanth Reddy, an assistant professor of English and visiting University of Chicago poet. After experiencing a drought of inspiration subsequent to the publication of his first book in 2004, Reddy discovered a vast opportunity in paradox as he began to sift through the words of Kurt Waldheim’s…
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“Schools are only a piece of an ecosystem of learning”
Connected Learning: Relevance, the 4th R “Connected learning” seeks to look in and around the school to leverage opportunities to learn. Schools and other such learning environments need only look around the community, the world, for questions to ask, problems to solve, and streams of information to engage in. Connected learning should balance human-centered with…
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Teachers, for Students: 2013 Nation Student Writing Contest
Please pass along to students who might be interested… This year, Student Nation, a division of The Nation magazine is looking for original, thoughtful, provocative student voices to answer this question: It’s clear that the political system in the US isn’t working for many. If you had to pick one root cause underlying our broken…
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National Poetry Month: Useful Resources for Teachers and Students
Here is an article from Edutopia highlighting resources for celebrating poetry this month or any time. image: via poets.org
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StoryCorps wants your lesson plans, educators!
April is Celebrate Diversity Month and StoryCorps is looking for help to create lesson plans about culture, diversity, and identity based on their animations produced by their team. The animation for April is a precious clip about a Mexican American named Ramón. Here is the summary of the short clip: Ramon “Chunky” Sanchez was raised…
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“Shakespeare Uncovered” on PBS offers other resource for 12th Night
Shakespeare Uncovered: The ComediesТ was a great reason to be inside on a snowy Friday night. Joely Richardson is the host with a look atТ Twelfth NightТ andТ As YouТ Like It.Т Richardson interviews her mother, Vanessa Redgrave, and takes us through a look at various incarnations of both plays.Т Т It’s a great resource that also examines the role of Malvolio in…
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What do learning and freestyle rap have in common?
Yes, I am a lover of hip hop (mostly old school), and in working with and observing some of your students, I’ve come across quite a few of them who write their own rhymes, lyrics, and of course poems, and many of them also freestyle and/or “battle”. Freestyle or “battle” is common in hip hop…
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Louder than a Bomb Reflection
Thank you to the Wexner Center, Dionne, and William, for the unique, impactful experience on Tuesday. The film Louder than a BombТ can easily stand alone as an inspirational experience, but having the stars of the documentary appear on stage after the showing changed the way my students viewed Nova and Lamar. They went from abstract…
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How long should a paragraph be? (Inquiring young minds want to know)
That is the question isn’t it? In our conversations earlier this year and in the student pre-questionaire, this question came up over and over again. How much do I have to write? To explore that common notion, this article, How long should a paragraph be,carefully picks apart this question by dancing around it. Now this…
The Pages Program (Wexner Center for the Arts) 