HC English Department

"Jessica Contrera's "The End of the Waffle House" begins on the morning when a big change comes to a small square of Bloomington, Ind. "Tap, tap, tap. Bud Powell's aluminum cane led the way as he circled the floor of Bloomington's Waffle House. His Waffle House. That Wednesday in September, the owner didn't know what to do with himself. The smell of frying oil, the same greasy perfume that had greeted customers for 46 years, wafted into his nose as he wandered past the vinyl booths. He sat down, then stood up again." Contrera had never been to the old restaurant surrounded by new student apartments before, but when the senior from Akron, Ohio, started her semester at Indiana University, she saw the sign reading "We will close Sept. 4." And she wanted to tell the story. Contrera visited the Waffle House a week before it closed, when she met her three major characters, as well as the day it closed and the day it was torn down. She also spoke with about a dozen other customers and staff who didn't make it into the story, but did help her understand what the business meant to the community. In her reporting, Contrera's professor of practice, Pulitzer-prize winner and Poynter writing fellow Tom French, pushed her to find details. Fifteen drafts later, those details include many small things that help readers feel what the closing of the old restaurant meant to its regulars, the owner and the community."

"What makes a good essay? And what makes a bad one? Educational consultant Dave Marcus joins Here & Now's Jeremy Hobson to offer his advice by using examples from student submissions including the opening of senior Michele Hau's essay."

"We've been publishing a Word of the Day every school day since our blog began, and sometime this December we'll reach our 1,000th. A perfect time, we thought, to celebrate with a contest. So here's the challenge: Along with our collaborators for Word of the Day - the linguists who run Vocabulary.com and Visual Thesaurus - we invite you to create a short video that defines or teaches any of the words in our collection. You have until Dec. 3 to do it, and all the rules and regulations, plus some inspiration from other students and teachers, are below."

How an AP teacher uses Google Drive successfully.

"Below, a challenge to students to write their own great opening lines, along with examples, tips, a quiz, and some lively student samples to help. "

"Simmons presents a series of creative activities that have advanced her high school students' vocabularies and impressed on them the power of words."

"This week, find a quiet place (or some earbuds) and investigate a feature of The Times that is totally auditory. In the process, you will hit on components from one of the four Common Core literacy anchor standards for college and career readiness - speaking and listening. Then, explore other podcasts to find more from this medium to share with your students and supplement classroom activities."

"With the help of graduate student David Fictum, I collected several creative, practical and entertaining exercises that can function as bell ringers or sponge activities. Here they are:"

"Have high schools replace novels with nonfiction, and other dubious prescriptions for creating a nation of readers"

"Copy-change collaborations invite young writers to use an established text as a framework for writing an imitation piece that follows the original sentence for sentence, but that somehow remakes it completely. In this version, ninth-grade students collaborate to write a piece about "To Kill a Mockingbird" that is based on a recent Times article about viral Internet content."

"What issues do you care most about? What topics do you find yourself discussing most passionately, whether online, at the dinner table, in the classroom or with your friends? Later this week we will be announcing a brand-new contest in which teenagers will be invited to write evidence-based persuasive pieces on the topics of their choice. To help jump-start your brainstorming, we have gathered a list of 200 writing prompts from our daily Student Opinion feature that invite you to take a stand."

"During the school year, students are expected to listen to and absorb vast amounts of content. But how much time has been devoted to equipping students with ways to disconnect from their own internal dialogue (self-talk) and to focus their attention fully on academic content that is being presented? Learning to listen well is a prime example of a skill that many assume shouldn't need to be taught. The Common Core State Standards for Language Arts recognize the importance of listening as an ability that students must master to become college and career ready. Listening is a crucial aspect of school and life, but it is often expected of students without ever being taught. The HEAR strategy described below is designed to help students recognize and block out that noise as they devote their attention to listening."

"Out of Eden Learn is a unique online learning community designed to accompany Paul Salopek's Out of Eden Walk. Through Out of Eden Learn, students from around the world can engage in Paul's journey and all that it represents. They explore their own neighborhoods, investigate contemporary global issues, and reflect on how they as individuals fit into a broader geographical and historical context. In addition, they share their perspectives and interact with one another on an exciting digital platform that uses social media as a springboard for deep, meaningful learning. The goal is to ignite students' interest in the wider world and support them to become more informed, thoughtful, and engaged "global citizens.""

Nice article about how to use badges with the Common Core. I'd love to see how we could do this at Central. If there was only more time in a day....

"Questions for teachers, parents and students, from an educational psychologist"

"Back in January, when I asked high school seniors to send in college application essays about money, class, working and the economy, I wasn't sure what, if anything, would come in over the transom. But 66 students submitted essays, and with the help of Harry Bauld, the author of "On Writing the College Application Essay," we've selected four to publish in full online and in part in this column. That allowed us to be slightly more selective than Princeton itself was last year. What these four writers have in common is an appetite for risk. Not only did they talk openly about issues that are emotionally complex and often outright taboo, but they took brave and counterintuitive positions on class, national identity and the application process itself. For anyone looking to inspire their own children or grandchildren who are seeking to go to college in the fall of 2014, these four essays would be a good place to start."

Great tips!