It’s politically correct to be disappointed with BP and their little oil well problem in the Gulf. But how can I be angry when they provide me with such wonderful gifts? First, BP America digitally enhanced some of their oil…
Tag: assignments
Classroom Activities Using Twitter
Since Twitter is a communications tool, there are infinite ways to use the site in the English classroom. These two excellent videos provide introductions to using Twitter with students that are polished enough to share at staff meetings and professional…
Résumés That Stand Out the Right Way
There are right ways to dress for a job interview. Sure, you want to stand out to an extent. You don’t want to blend into the sea of suits that march before the hiring committee. But, um, you don’t want…
Text + Image = Tagxedo: The Next Generation of Word Cloud Fun
I’ve been a Wordle addict for a while. The online tool takes any text and creates a cloud of the words based on their frequency. It makes for some fun analysis activities that goes beyond the norm in the classroom.…
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…
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…
Bits Post: Using Current Events to Discuss Writing and Visual Rhetoric
Talking about Swine Flu at your school? The news stories and public documents give us current texts we can dissect for use of persuasive techniques and visual rhetoric. Combined with similar materials from the Spanish Flu outbreak of 1918, current…