HC English Department

"Helping students fail isn't just a matter of making them feel better-it's about thinking like a scientist, farmer, designer, or CEO-failing gives me the data I need to proceed. And knowledge? Those letter grades don't mean much. An A doesn't guarantee understanding, and an F doesn't preclude it. To "fail" could mean a thousand things-which is exactly why students need help to understand it. The Role Of Failure In Learning Properly understood, failure can help students see learning as a personal journey rather than a matter of external performance. It emphasizes meaning as contextual, and distinguishes procedural knowledge from content knowledge. The primary value, then, might be in teaching students learning and knowledge rather than responsibility."

"Vonnegut spelled out the main argument of his thesis in a hilarious lecture, where he also graphed some of the more common story types. (Vonnegut was famously funny and irreverent, and you can hear the audience losing it throughout.) He published the transcript of this talk in his memoir, "A Man Without a Country," which includes his own drawings of the graphs."

"In this lesson, students analyze the work of winners of the Learning Network's 2014 Student Editorial Contest as well as professional models from the Times editorial pages to learn how writers effectively introduce and respond to counterarguments. Then they write their own position pieces, incorporating counterarguments to strengthen their claims. Finally, they are invited to submit their finished essays to this year's Student Editorial Contest by March 9, 2015."

Two high school English teachers wrote a poem and had this video created as a message to students. Definitely worth watching and perhaps sharing with students

Interesting advice on literary analysis essay writing: "There should be more or less of a jumble in your head or on your note paper after the first time and even after the second. Much that you will think of in connection will come to nothing and be wasted. But some of it ought to go together under one idea. That idea is the thing to write on and write into the title at the head of your paper… One idea and a few subordinate ideas - [the trick is] to have those happen to you as you read and catch them - not let them escape you… The sidelong glance is what you depend on. You look at your author but you keep the tail of your eye on what is happening over and above your author in your own mind and nature."

"What is one thing you feel supremely qualified to teach other people? This should be in stated in only a few words. Critical thinking. How to communicate. The elegance of architecture. Living through music. How to read. You don't have to be an expert here, you just have to love it deeply. And answer honestly. Now, who should you do this kind of work for? Who needs to understand this, almost as a matter of life and death? Whose life won't be the same without it? Who do you feel most natural and engaged around? There's your audience. Next, what exactly do these people want or need? How will you need to "package" and deliver this gift you feel supremely qualified to teach? If you're qualified to "give" it, this part has to reflect that. How are they going to change as a result? Now, put it all together in one sentence. There's your purpose"

" In this wonderful animated essay, they extol the value of books in expanding our circle of empathy, validating and ennobling our inner life, and fortifying us against the paralyzing fear of failure."

"Closely reading any text, whether written or visual, requires that students proceed more slowly and methodically, noticing details, making connections and asking questions. This takes practice. But it certainly helps when students want to read the text. We've selected 10 photos from The Times that we've used previously in our weekly "What's Going On in This Picture?" and that have already successfully caught students' and teachers' attention. These are some of our most popular images - ones that may make viewers say "huh?" on first glance, but that spark enough curiosity to make them want to dig deeper. Below, we offer ideas from students and teachers who have engaged with these images for ways to use them, or images like them, to teach close reading and visual thinking skills."

"As a long-time Member of Congress and first-time novelist, I've wondered how Harper Lee's character would do in a world where bedrock principles turn to muck-shaped and glazed by pollsters and media consultants. How would soft-spoken Atticus Finch come across on cable news spew? Could he survive some SuperPAC's million-dollar TV ad assault? Would a six-figure opposition research report make him consider the benefits of, say, corporate litigation instead of defending the poor and oppressed? "

" I'd been teaching writing all wrong! I'd dangled the carrots of prizes and threatened with the sticks of docked points for misplaced modifiers. But sometimes, I also got it right. Before, I'd let students choose prompts and readings as much as possible, providing autonomy. After reading Pink, I learned to unbend myself, make deadlines more flexible, and shape the writing process more to fit the student. Now, my students feel more control over their process. Before, I'd encouraged my students to write for real audiences as summative assessments. Now, I encourage students to write to real people for real purposes throughout the school year -- their own blogs, each other, me, their principal, their Congressional representatives, and the world. Before, I'd embedded grammar instruction in writing process and had students keep their work to casually notice their progress once a year. Now, I conference four times a year with students about portfolios of their work -- an ongoing conversation about writing goals of their choosing. I explicitly teach metacognition, or how to talk and write about their writing."

"These rules were originally tweeted by Emma Coats, Pixar's Story Artist. "

"The Life of Poetry is a sublime read in its entirety. Complement it with James Dickey on how to enjoy poetry, Edward Hirsch on how to read a poem, and Mary Oliver on the secret of great poetry."

"Scroll through the 301 prompts below that touch on every aspect of contemporary life - from politics to sports, culture, education and technology - and see which ones most inspire you to take a stand. Each question comes from our daily Student Opinion feature, and each provides links to free Times resources for finding more information."

"Below we share an idea from Allison Marchetti, an English teacher at Trinity Episcopal School in Richmond, Va., who uses an Op-Doc video about the problem of Internet addiction among China's youth to teach argumentative writing to her ninth graders. This lesson is part of a larger unit of study on editorial and commentary writing."

"Remember-when doing a close reading, the goal is to closely analyze the material and explain why details are significant. Therefore, close reading does not try to summarize the author's main points, rather, it focuses on "picking apart" and closely looking at the what the author makes his/her argument, why is it interesting, etc. Here are a few of the helpful questions to consider in close reading, from the handout by  Kip Wheeler, a college English professor:"

"Through independent reading children gain a wealth of background knowledge about many different things, come to understand story and non-fiction structures, absorb the essentials of English grammar, and continuously expand their vocabularies. "

"Working within an answers-based education system, and in a culture where questioning may be seen as a sign of weakness, teachers must go out of their way to create conditions conducive to inquiry. Here are some suggestions (based on input from question-friendly teachers, schools, programs, and organizations) on how to encourage more questioning in the classroom and hopefully, beyond it."

"Project Ed is a platform dedicated to educational video made for and by 21st century learners. The core of Project Ed is an open, community-driven approach to content. We start by identifying K-12 concepts where a video has the potential to create a meaningful impact.Then we design contests to take these lessons out of the classroom and put them in the hands of digital storytellers. Each contest starts with a "creative brief," that includes everything needed to achieve a specific learning goal. Once the brief is launched on Projected.com, creators from all over craft original narratives to teach in unforgettable ways. Each brief generates hundreds of new ideas and a multitude of submissions. This process brings together the rigor of curriculum experts and the passion of creators to build an open library of effective, engaging lessons."

"The Great Gatsby author's surprisingly blunt advice to would-be writers"

"Graham's review of the research doesn't resolve the age-old debate of whether students learn writing best naturally -  just by doing it - or through explicit writing instruction. But there are effective practices where the research is unequivocal. Distressingly, many teachers aren't using them. "We have confirmation of things we know that work, but are not applied in the classroom," said Graham. Here are three: Spend more time writing, Write on a computer, and traditional grammar instruction doesn't work.