HC English Department

"When it comes to creating a community of writers, there is no perfect formula. Trial and error, as well as a few specific steps, may help you begin the process in your classroom, no matter what subject matter or age you teach. Like every other worthy endeavor, writing requires practice. That's why from day one, students should see writing as an integral part of your class. You might even consider incorporating writing into your ice-breaker. Have your students mimic a poem, do a random autobiography, or draft scavenger hunt questions. Let students experience variety and choice. They shouldn't craft only formal, academic papers in your class. They should see that writing fits a variety of purposes and patterns. Online blogs, creative writing, written instructions, and other forms of written expression should be part of your curriculum."

At present, the Syllabus Explorer is mostly a tool for counting how often texts are assigned over the past decade. There is something for everyone here. The traditional Western canon dominates the top 100, with Plato's "Republic" at No. 2, "The Communist Manifesto" at No. 3, and "Frankenstein" at No. 5, followed by Aristotle's "Ethics," Hobbes's "Leviathan," Machiavelli's "The Prince," "Oedipus" and "Hamlet." Writing guides are also well represented, with "The Elements of Style" by William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White at No. 1, as are major textbooks, led by Neil Campbell's "Biology" at No. 4. What about fiction from the past 50 years? Toni Morrison's "Beloved" ranks first, at No. 43, followed by William Gibson's "Neuromancer," Art Spiegelman's "Maus," Ms. Morrison's "The Bluest Eye," Sandra Cisneros's "The House on Mango Street," Anne Moody's "Coming of Age in Mississippi," Leslie Marmon Silko's "Ceremony" and Alice Walker's "The Color Purple." Top articles? Garrett Hardin's "The Tragedy of the Commons" and Francis Fukuyama's "The End of History." "

"I want my students to feel secure in the knowledge that nobody is beyond criticism (even their teacher), and that the bigger challenge is developing the good sense to acknowledge and successfully respond to feedback. Along those lines, I also offer the suggestions below about teaching writing:"

A report out of Harvard's Graduate School of Education about the damaging impact of college admission requirements and the ways they can change to "inspire concern for others."

"There are all kinds of narrators-going way beyond simple first or third person. Here's a little study of the different types."

"It's called the 40-Hour Teacher Workweek Club, developed by my friend, Angela Watson, an outstanding education blogger and consultant who can be found at The Cornerstone for Teachers. She has created a systematic approach to help teachers shave hours off of their work week and get a whole lot more balance in their lives."

"The New Year is a wonderful time to start trying some new things. You've spent a good amount of time with your students and feel more comfortable exploring new strategies and practices that are more tailored to their learning needs. I want to share some great ideas that you can use to change things up for the second part of the year -- and that can also help beat the winter blues."

"In stories throughout the ages there is one motif that continually recurs-the journey into the woods to find the dark but life-giving secret within."

"Rather than begin class with a passive warm-up, success starters have the power to get every student motivated about the lesson and successful right from the bell.  Starting off on the right academic foot in the opening minutes can pay dividends throughout the lesson by sparking intellectual curiosity about today's concept. Students get the message early that, "Hey, I think I can do this!" We've shared 12 Interesting Ways To Start Class Tomorrow before. Here are a few more strategies that get students involved in new learning right away."

"Now, I know that teaching poetry, in many of our minds, is akin to a nonswimmer diving into the deep end, blindfolded. I also know that teaching poetry is often a balancing act between the technical aspects of form and the creative aspects of writing, and that reciting rules and stressing form can stifle creativity or turn students (and teachers) off of poetry. So, I've devised a method that guarantees your students will get on board. It's worked for me in high schools and summer teen programs, in Virginia and Singapore, in libraries and juvenile detention facilities. The truth is, we all know how to swim; we've just forgotten how much we like it. This is a friendly reminder. Want to get your students excited about poetry? Try love."

If you are doing, reviews in class. You might want to use the winners of this contest as models.

A short article on literary analysis with a nice infographic

"Like contracting your bicep at the top of a dumbbell curl, closure squeezes an extra oomph into a lesson. See my favorite closure strategies below!"

"I know that as a former English teacher, movement found its way into many of my "special" lessons, but it was often a missing ingredient of daily instruction. When the main focus of a lesson was reading and writing (as many are in the English classroom), movement was minimal. I've included some strategies that teachers of any content area can use to integrate movement into lessons.  When you have a lesson that looks "sedentary," integrating one of these strategies will surely increase students' learning and engagement."

"I know that as a former English teacher, movement found its way into many of my "special" lessons, but it was often a missing ingredient of daily instruction. When the main focus of a lesson was reading and writing (as many are in the English classroom), movement was minimal. I've included some strategies that teachers of any content area can use to integrate movement into lessons.  When you have a lesson that looks "sedentary," integrating one of these strategies will surely increase students' learning and engagement."

"Morone, with the backing of the high school district's administration, has developed an "open classroom" curriculum for all of the sophomore honors English students where students are given independence to demonstrate they have mastered the same standards the school has been using for years. "We are using the same core texts, the same curriculum designed by the school and approved by the board of education - but the way we are approaching the curriculum is very different," Morone said. "The first word that has to be put out there about it is that it is non-linear." Dr. Barry Bachenheimer, the regional director of curriculum in the district, said Morone's class is part of a "larger idea" of allowing flexibility to foster learning in the Pascack Valley High School District - which includes the "Pascack Period," a weekly 88-minute period where students can study, work out or sign up for non-traditional classes taught by teachers and even students. "

Opinion piece from a medical examiner that could be a good to use as a model or as an option for students to respond to.

Seven minute video on storytelling: "For the award-winning writer George Saunders, the process of crafting a good story means not condescending to your reader. It means creating sentences that clue them into something unnoticed about the character, and allowing them to figure it out. "A bad story is one where you know what the story is and you're sure of it," he says in this short film, George Saunders: On Story."

"This is the first post in a three part series explaining how I take my students from interacting with sources, to interacting with each other, to interacting with a larger discourse community through social media and multimedia text."

"In terms of pedagogy, the primary purpose of an assessment is to provide data to revise planned instruction. It should provide an obvious answer to the question, "What next?" What now?""

"The important lesson from our study is that quality matters -- that in many situations it would be better to place more emphasis on the design and use of the assignments than on the number or size of them." In a collaboration between the National Survey of Student Engagement and the Council of Writing Program Administrators, the study's authors gathered with the help of colleagues a list of 27 writing practices that are said to be effective. "