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Nice article at edweek about the informational texts versus great works of literature debate and what Common Core will do to lit. The one important, practical issue that all parties to this discussion MUST recognize - the classroom time is FINITE. Teachers would love to cover EVERYTHING but it just isn't practical. So, if one thing is emphasized over another, it may push something out. Unintended consequences are happening as people "align" their curriculum to common core standards. As all of the pundits and advocates argue this, it would be telling to sit down with an actual aligned curriculum to SEE what happens where the standards meet the lesson plans and what is actually pushed out - until then - it is all, rhetoric. Give us practical application, we're teachers, after all. From the edweek article: "Until recently, the closest we'd come to a major speech on the nonfiction-versus-fiction question was a piece in the Huffington Post by the English/language arts standards' co-authors, David Coleman and Sue Pimentel, insisting that literature "is not being left by the wayside." The message to rally the troops must have gone out, however. Because since the Coleman/Pimentel piece appeared, the common core's defenders have stepped up to counterbalance the literature-pushout crowd. The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation's Kathleen Porter-Magee, for instance, posted a piece arguing that it's a misinterpretation of the standards to say that teachers will have to teach less literature. In a recent email blast, the Foundation for Excellence in Education-led by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, one of the common core's biggest backers-declaimed the "misinformation flying around" about what will happen to literature under the common standards. "Contrary to reports," it said, "classic literature will not be lost with the implementation of the new standards." A glance at the standards' own suggested text lists, it noted, "reveals that the common core recognizes the importance of b

A friend of mine passed this lesson plan on to me with this note to Literature teachers: "Sick of Jacobean literature meaning Shakespeare? Check out this resource on Christopher Marlowe's Faust. " I think that this is a very good point and is the type of lesson that AP literature would use in the US. There is a reading guide, powerpoint, and it also incorporates John Milton's Paradise Lost as a comparative text.

Upload your Charles Dickens lessons and resources in this competition to submit the best resources. This is a UK competition, but perhaps some others may want to enter as well. I also wanted to include this because of the great list of Charles Dickens resources here. If you teach Great Expectations or any other Dickens classic, you'll want to download these free lesson plans and resources. To be eligible for the Charles Dickens / Literary Heritage competition, all lesson plans & teaching resources shared must only cater for texts by authors found in the literary heritage section of the Secondary English National Curriculum, or from current GCSE & A Level awarding body specifications for English. Your can submit resources for poetry, prose or drama texts (or all three!) across the relevant key stage. At GCSE and A Level, resources can be submitted to support teaching and learning of controlled assessment and / or examination units. When you upload resources for entry to the competition, please take care to tag and classify your resources accurately in the relevant key stage, topic and sub topic areas. For example:

history and literature explained in an interesting way

Here's the page that high school literature teachers will want to go to. On the left hand side you'll see "Sub Sub topic" and you can click  on the play. Click More and you can see even more plays. This way you can find information by play. One of the things I found is a popular resource that uses Simpsons Images linking to Macbeth. (Not sure about copyright but  it is there and is very popular.) Curriculum directors will want to share this with their English departments.

This is James Robinson's class blog. It also hosts blogs from all of his kids. James teaches literature and writing at SAS (Shanghai American School). He's been blogging for about a year and a half. As you'll see if you visit this great example of classroom blog use, this blog rocks! James is using Wordpress to create a website/blog presentation. He's happy to have teachers or students drop in and respond to the personal blogs his students have created. If you're looking for a chance at an international student exchange blog connection, give it a look. (Heck, give it a look if you're just curious.) The kids love to get comments from folks around the world so don't forget to be interactive! ~ Dennis O'Connor

The Florida Center for Reading Research has created an incredibly useful set of downloadable activities aligned to common core standards for fourth and fifth grade students. If you're teaching reading, you'll want to refer to this and dowlnoad some of these PDF's.

This Powerpoint based jeopardy game includes The Night Before Christmas and other Christmas classics as well as a piece on Christmas films. You can download the powerpoint and customize it to your current lessons and play it near the end of the term. A fun way to finish and summarize. Remember, keep teaching!

A book that is self-guided walking tours in NYC based on children's literature.

If you're teaching Shakespeare or Webster, this Jacobean England presentation will be a nice introduction for you.

This lesson plan for middle school teaches about Haiku and also reviews the concept of syllables. Very extensive resources to use on this one.

A nice downloadable resource to teach students about Haiku. (via TES)

30 ideas for teaching writing shares the ideas and links to the articles on this. If you're a writing teacher, you'll want to peruse these ideas.

This December 2005 report talks about best practices in teaching literacy. For those of you who like to review best practices from around the world, this came in from the International Dyslexia Association in their Summer 2011 Perspectives on Language and Literacy "Global Perspectives" column.

Featured Post Scholastic's The First Thanksgiving What it is: Scholastic has amazing resources all year long but the interactive on The First Thanksgiving is topnotch!  Students learn about how the Pilgrims reached America, and what daily life was before the First Thanksgiving.  Students can take a tour of the Mayflower, take the virtual journey to America, compare and contrast modern life with when the Pilgrims lived (housing, clothes, food, chores, school, games), and the Thanksgiving feast.  There is a great slideshow and play a webquest feature where kids can learn more about the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag and the famous harvest feast.  The site includes audio for every page and activity.  This is great for younger students. How to integrate Scholastic's The First Thanksgiving into the classroom: The First Thanksgiving is a collection of great activities for students to learn about Thanksgiving and the Pilgrims.  Students can use this site independently as young as first grade because of the audio features on The First Thanksgiving.  The site can be used as a center activity that a few students can explore together, independently in the computer lab setting, or as a whole class with a projector or interactive whiteboard.  The webquest at the end of the activity checks for student understanding with a quiz.  Increase students participation further with some The First Thanksgiving bonus features and extras.  Print out a Thanksgiving Readers theater, door signs, a fact hunt, a vocabulary quiz, and some letters from historical figures.  There are also research and historical fiction journals that students can continue learning with.  These range from a Plymoth Colony research starter to Our America: Colonial period. Tips: Check out Scholastic's Teaching resources for The First Thanksgiving as well as the literature connections that are available. Leave a comment and share how you are using The First Thanksgiving  in your classroom. Read More

For study purposes you can create a fake Facebook profile. Usse this for historical figures, teaching digital citizenship, authors, people in literature. Who you'd like to be in 10 years! Cool assignment.

Many elementary teachers I know talk about how much they love popplet. Here's a blog post about how teachers are using Popplet to teach English in their classrooms. Lots of ideas.