Inquiry Video - Building an AP Literature Classroom on the Writing Workshop Model

This is a very general overview of the research I have been conducting on merging the writing workshop model with the AP Literature classroom. Choice in reading and writing are great, but can we give students ample choice and still prepare them for a rigorous exam? Why yes, yes we can! I would especially like to thank Amy Rasmussen, who began this inquiry long before I did and has applied the workshop model, to the benefit of her students, in the AP Language classroom. I couldn't ask for a better mentor and friend. My resource list is only briefly displayed. Please contact me if you would like a copy.

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Station Eleven - a Review (With Spoilers!)

Warning: plot spoilers ahead... It's funny. Sometimes, the films and books I enjoy the most are the ones that I initially approached with hesitancy or ambivalence. Having recently finished the second book in a row for our book club that I found merely mildly entertaining, I had no real hopes for Emily St. John Mandel's Station Eleven , which I had not even heard of prior to the suggestion by one of our club members. With no expectations in mind, I skimmed the comments on the back cover and inside flap, but they didn't give much away. Thus, I started reading with almost no information about the book, its author, or even its genre. I knew it was post-apocalyptic, but was it dystopian? Was it similar to Cormac McCarthy's The Road ? Would it feature a teen love story as depicted in both The Hunger Games trilogy and the Divergent series? I had several post-apocalyptic stories in mind as I began to read; boy was I surprised to find one that was different! Typically, aut...

Prayer to the Teachers to Forgive them for Solely Using TPCASTT

Last year, I began moving away from the formulaic TPCASTT and Somebody-Wanted-But-So methods of poetry analysis in my AP course. I still teach those methods of analysis; any tools my students have for decoding poems that serve as potential pathways toward understanding are valuable, and I want them to have as many tools as possible! However, I found that by emulating mentor texts, my students were able to find all of the poetic devices and reach a deeper understanding of the author’s work. This is simply a natural by-product of analyzing which parts of the poem – diction, syntax, theme, repetition and other devices – that they would like to mimic in their own work. My students came up with some of the most beautiful and deeply personal work I’ve ever experienced – some of which they performed at a poetry slam that they organized at the end of the year. To that end, tomorrow we will read “Forgive My Guilt” by Robert P. Tristram Coffin and “Prayer to the Living to Forgive them for B...

"Moist" - A Poem about a Much Maligned Word

“Moist” by Amber Counts In class, we were talking About words we hate. I heard a familiar term, A repeat offender, That seems to make everyone Cringe: Moist . Don’t believe me? Say it. In a room full of people, Ask how they feel About “moist.” Some will wince; Others will feel motivated To exclaim in protest. Someone almost always Says “that’s gross” Or “that sounds nasty!” But I always counter, Don’t you want your cake To be moist? This invariably begins a debate. What else could we call Moist cake But moist cake? Wet cake? Ew. Soggy cake? Not appealing. Juicy cake? I’m not even sure where to start With how wrong that is. Steaks can be juicy: Cakes cannot. So what do we use Instead of moist? Wet, damp, humid Tearful, watery, dewy Misty, rainy, steamy Muggy, clammy, dank Soggy, sweaty, sticky – None of these sound Like they would be good For a cake. Fun fact: According to an article By The Ne...

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