On NCTE’s Connected Community, James Wilson responded to the discussion about multicultural literature, lamenting that “the focus on multicultural literature over the last 3 decades has resulted in an inability to teach the classics of the Western tradition. Few of…
Category: Literature
More Banned Books Week Resources
One of my cherished possessions is a Muggles for Harry Potter pin from 1999. Eric Crump gave it to me, having picked it up from the NCTE librarian. I hadn’t read a word of J. K. Rowling’s first book, but…
Top 10 Things to Do with a Banned Text
How will you discuss Banned Books Week (BBW) this year? It’s easy to find ideas for displays and activities for libraries. The problem is that most of them are too general or would be difficult to use in the writing…
6 News Stories to Connect to Orwell’s 1984
Big brother really is watching you. Today we accept a certain amount of oversight by government and business as a part of daily life. Students know about all the surveillance cameras that follow them as they move about in the…
March of Time Newsreels in the Classroom
Back in the days before 24-hour news networks, people went to their local movie theaters to see what was going on in the world. The March of Time, perhaps the most well-known producer of these videos, distributed documentaries that covered…
My Literary Genes
I’ve written before about my literary claim to fame: I’m slightly related to Ralph Waldo Emerson, through my great-great-grandmother Anne Emerson. While I know that Anne was Ralph’s third cousin once removed, I’m not exactly sure what that makes me.…
Even More Literary Ten Bests
Can you name ten memorable vegetables from the literature you’ve read? How about ten pieces of literature that include a shipwreck or perhaps a volcano? You’ll find lists for these and much more below. When I went searching for the…
Designing an Image to Represent a Character
Tara Seale posted details on a fun visual rhetoric and writing activity she recently used with students on the NCTE Secondary Section Blog. The activity, inspired by a similar task described by Shelbie Witte, asks students to design and explain…
10 Things You’ll Want To Read This Summer
Whether summer means time to read for fun or to prepare for teaching in the Fall, I bet you’re beginning to gather that reading list. You probably know where to find details on the year’s award-winning children’s and teen books.…
A Year-End Activity with Literary Lists of “Ten Best”
There’s not much time left in the school year, and you may find that students are uninterested in reviewing for final exams when they could be making plans for summer fun or a few days off between terms. You can…