HC English Department

"In this Text to Text, we pair Dr. King's pivotal "I Have a Dream" speech with a reflection by the Times literary critic Michiko Kakutani, who explores why this singular speech has such lasting power."

"In this Text to Text, we pair President Johnson's "Great Society" speech with an article by Trip Gabriel describing the new face of poverty in rural West Virginia."

"A small group of biotechnology hobbyists and entrepreneurs has started a project to develop plants that glow. Wanting to give new meaning to the term "natural light," these scientists are hoping to grow trees that can replace electric streetlamps and potted flowers luminous enough to read by. What are advocates and critics saying about this sophisticated form of genetic engineering called synthetic biology? Your Task: Summarize the issues surrounding the possibility of developing bioluminescent plants. Be sure to discuss the issues presented by both opponents and supporters of the movement."

"In a well-crafted essay, explain three ways drones would be an improvement over traditional methods. Before you do the task, you might… Pay close attention to the instructions. Understand that the prompt is asking only for ways that drones would be an improvement. Watch this video that explains additional ways that drones might be used in the future. Write down all the possible benefits to drone use explained in the article and observed in the video."

"This media gallery from American Masters: Salinger features a series of videos that explores how Salinger felt about his writing, his struggle to be published in The New Yorker magazine, and how Holden Caulfield was a reflection of his own life. The associated materials include a background essay, discussion questions and a student activity."

" five articles that use photography and narrative to reveal the texture of teenage life; next, 11 articles about young people making a splash in the world; and, finally, three news articles about teenage life that we think might provoke interesting classroom discussions. Let us know what you think and how we could make this feature more useful for your classroom. The next installment will be published on July 11."

""We're all going to die - and poems can help us live with that." In a charming and funny talk, literary critic Stephen Burt takes us on a lyrical journey with some of his favorite poets, all the way down to a line break and back up to the human urge to imagine."

"The SAT college admission test will no longer require a timed essay, will dwell less on fancy vocabulary and will return to the familiar 1600-point scoring scale in a major overhaul intended to open doors to higher education for students who are now shut out."

"The adoption of the Common Core could usher in a new era of standards-based grading."

"As we discuss and debate what should be considered poetry, my goal is to challenge students to think broadly about poetry and creativity. I want them to be ready to create work that has meaning to them and not be preoccupied with rules or conventions. As the unit continues, here are four strategies and a number of resources that I've found helpful."

"Students who write for their teacher write for a grade. Students who write for an audience write to connect, to argue, to entertain, to inform. And when they have other purposes for their writing other than a grade, they begin to care about the craft, choose carefully their words, shape thoughtfully their sentences. Isn't this the goal of writing standards? So the question is: Does your school provide or cheat your students out of an audience? Or, to cut to the chase: Does your school actively support a newspaper or broadcast program? If it doesn't, please stop going on about how you're meeting the Common Core standards. Because in spirit you're not."

"In an education landscape that dramatically deemphasizes creative expression in favor of expository writing and prioritizes the analysis of non-literary texts, high school literature teachers have to negotiate between their preferences and the way the wind is blowing. That sometimes means sacrifice, and poetry is often the first head to roll. Yet poetry enables teachers to teach their students how to write, read, and understand any text. Poetry can give students a healthy outlet for surging emotions. Reading original poetry aloud in class can foster trust and empathy in the classroom community, while also emphasizing speaking and listening skills that are often neglected in high school literature classes."

"The Grapes of Wrath was published 75 years ago this month, a seminal masterpiece of American literature that seems freshly relevant to this era of wealth disparity, rapacious banks and growing poverty."

"List plays alphabetically by number of words by number of speeches by date"

Interesting essay on giving and taking writing criticism

"The end of the school year is a time of conflicting needs. We are all exhausted, yet this is the most fertile time to process a year's worth of learning, struggle, and change, and to bring closure to our work from the year. One way that I attempt to help make meaning of a year, give students the final word about their learning, and achieve a collective sense of completion is by assigning a portfolio project as the final major assignment of the year."

"In the first large-scale analysis of new systems that evaluate teachers based partly on student test scores, two researchers found little or no correlation between quality teaching and the appraisals teachers received. The study, published Tuesday in Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Educational Research Association, is the latest in a growing body of research that has cast doubt on whether it is possible for states to use empirical data in identifying good and bad teachers."

"Should students about to read "The Great Gatsby" be forewarned about "a variety of scenes that reference gory, abusive and misogynistic violence," as one Rutgers student proposed? Would any book that addresses racism - like "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" or "Things Fall Apart" - have to be preceded by a note of caution? Do sexual images from Greek mythology need to come with a viewer-beware label? Colleges across the country this spring have been wrestling with student requests for what are known as "trigger warnings," explicit alerts that the material they are about to read or see in a classroom might upset them or, as some students assert, cause symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder in victims of rape or in war veterans."

"The Atlantic's Conor Friedersdorf's picks for must-read nonfiction from 2013."

"Last September we introduced a new lesson-plan format called Text to Text, in which we pair two texts that we think "speak" to each other in interesting ways, then pose questions and suggest a few activities for students to bring the writings together. One of the excerpts we use is always from The New York Times - sometimes pulled from that week's headlines, and other times from the archives. The other excerpt generally comes from an often-taught literary, historical, cultural, scientific or mathematical text. Our goal: to help students see a classic work through a new lens, or to think about how and why a text still matters."