After school today we had a meeting about summer reading. In our district, we cannot really call it “Summer Reading” so we make it due 2-3 weeks into the school year. This really isn’t feasible anymore given all of the higher ed institutions who require summer reading for incoming freshman. Ladies & Gentlemen, get with [...]

Posted in AP Lang, American Studies, Summer Reading, books, literature, wiki

The AP English course is completing an Independent Reading Project for quarter 4 based on a select number of non-fiction titles, on of which is Ishmael Beah’s A Long Way Gone. The other day a former student sent me an article from an Australian newspaper entitled “Beah’s credibility a long way gone” about the anachronistic [...]

Posted in irp, literature

Tonight I was sitting with my daughter and wife and across came the 400+ Twitter text of the day. This one was from @soul4real, and I’d been tagged. I wasn’t sure what it wanted me to do, and I was use to the list of four things this or that, but this one wanted me [...]

Posted in literature

Today the students had to write an AP Prompt, and Mrs Crabtree said that her only real requirement was that it was argumentative. Some of the students are weaker when it comes to choosing a side of a written argument and sticking to it, so I agreed. I found a nice one by Postman where [...]

Posted in books, essays, grading, literature, writing

Went to the Language & Literacy Conference at Arizona State University today where I am sitting in a session called “Storytelling & Writing with the Archetypes & Hero’s Journey”. Even though the presenter was a quack, the discussion of archetype really struck me. As English people, we know there’s no original story. The presented gave [...]

Posted in conferences, literature