HC English Department

Short non-fiction pieces

"Explore the power of language, look at the world with a fresh sense of wonder, and build reading and writing skills. These video segments, drawn from the PBS Poetry Everywhere series, capture some of the voices of poetry, past and present." Poems can be browsed through categories.

"Why Teach Students to Craft Digital Writing?"

"In New York City, 26 percent of students in third through eighth grade passed the state exams in English, and 30 percent passed in math, according to the New York State Education Department. The exams were some of the first in the nation to be aligned with a more rigorous set of standards known as Common Core, which emphasize deep analysis and creative problem-solving. Last year, under an easier test, 47 percent of city students passed in English, and 60 percent in math."

"The magazine story behind Sebastian Junger's celebrated nonfiction book A Perfect Storm ran in Outside magazine in October 1994. "The Storm" (4,765 words) told the story of the Andrea Gail, a fishing boat out of Gloucester, Mass., that sank amid horrific weather, killing everyone aboard. It's a harrowing narrative, and particularly remarkable for being - by virtue of nature and fate - a write-around. Storyboard's questions and comments for Junger are in red; Junger's answers - which he kindly offered by phone - are in blue."

"Ah, listening, the neglected literacy skill. I know when I was a high school English teacher this was not necessarily a primary focus; I was too busy honing the more measurable literacy skills -- reading, writing, and speaking. But when we think about career and college readiness, listening skills are just as important. This is evidenced by the listening standards found in the Common Core and also the integral role listening plays in collaboration and communication, two of the four Cs of 21st century learning. So how do we help kids become better listeners? Check out these tactics for encouraging a deeper level of listening that also include student accountability:"

"Some high schools are now giving parents the ability to constantly check up on their children's grades online, and it has already become a source of stress and debate for parents and students. Lahey, a former teacher, is one of many parents who have chosen not to use the services for fear of creating a sense of distrust between her and her son. "For the time being, I choose to trust in the power of open communication and my son's emerging sense of responsibility and character," Lahey writes.

"Draft features essays by grammarians, historians, linguists, journalists, novelists and others on the art of writing - from the comma to the tweet to the novel - and why a well-crafted sentence matters more than ever in the digital age."

"Anson Smith crossed the finish line of the Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon on Sunday 10 minutes ahead of his goal. He attributed the 1-hour, 40-minute performance to the 16-year-old waiting on the other side. "It's easy to run when you're thinking about people who can't do it," said Smith, the boys' soccer coach at Hunterdon Central Regional High School in Flemington, N.J. Smith, 36, was among more than 22,000 people who arose at dawn to run the venerable 13.1-mile course through Center City. Many did it for the love of running. Others, like Smith, ran for a cause. Smith ran to raise money for Miguel Coelho, one of his soccer players, who was diagnosed with leukemia in May."

"Every day during the school year we invite teenagers to share their opinions about questions like these - on topics from hip-hop to climate change - and hundreds do, posting arguments, reflections and anecdotes to our Student Opinion feature. With this, our first-ever Student Editorial Contest, we're asking you to channel that enthusiasm into something a little more formal: short, evidence-based persuasive essays like the editorials The New York Times publishes every day."

Homework studies - how much should kids do?

"Like so many of the people he writes about, McPhee is a consummate craftsman. There are many aspects of his craft that a fellow writer can envy, from his keen, loving ear for the quirks and rhythms of American speech, to his arsenal of tools - including shifts of tense you only notice on the second reading - for nimbly hopping about in time."

"o teach students how to understand and apply these rhetorical principles in an academic context, I first familiarize writers with the definition of ethos, pathos and logos, using this short video from Read/Write/Think. Use the chart below to help novice writers apply the proofs to a variety of persuasive texts in their environment, such as magazine or newspaper advertisements and editorials:"

A simple idea for incorporating non-fiction - it is all around us.

"We're coming upon our  65th installment of "Why's this so good?" - in which notable journalists dissect their favorite pieces of narrative journalism. Our contributors have included Adam Hochschild, Jennifer B. McDonald, Eli Sanders, Megan Garber, Wesley Morris, Ann Friedman, Chris Jones and Ben Yagoda, and covered Joan Didion, Calvin Trillin, Michael Paterniti, Nora Ephron, John Jeremiah Sullivan, Roy Blount Jr., David Foster Wallace, Michael Lewis and dozens more. The series has highlighted classics of print, plus a little public radio, and we've got other narrative forms scheduled. Here are excerpts of the top five most popular pieces so far:"

Nicole Bengiveno/The New York Times The New York Times recently noted that "tens of billions of tax dollars have been spent on subsidizing coastal reconstruction in the aftermath of storms." Critics of this spending say that it props up a a costly and deadly habit: rebuilding in places that are becoming uninhabitable.

Awesome synthesis piece to Fitzgerald's Benjamin Button story or to The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, if you have read that book.