Literature

Unsure How To Explicate a Text? Let T.I. Explain It Perfectly

Analyzing texts is a core skill in school and life. But can be really difficult for students and teachers get…

Listen: The Digital Age Really Isn’t Destroying Reading the Way You Think

Ever hear that reading is in sharp decline as social media and digital devices sweep away traditional forms of reading?…

Books, Beer, and Oxford Commas

I have to get my hands on one of that print. Great score by nouvelle_ela over on Instagram. My birthday…

Mandela and the Shakespeare Bible of Robben Island

On a recent trip to Cape Town, my family and I visited Robben Island where Nelson Mandela spent decades of…

9 Pictures of Readers from Around the World

Thank you, BBC, for curating these snaps featuring reading–in many forms–from across the globe. And if teaching reading and writing…

Scratch This! The Poster You’ve Been Waiting to Buy your Bookish Friend (or Me)

Take scratch-and-sniff, add some literary favorites, and there you have it: the perfect gift for literati everywhere. (Perhaps including Black…

Readers Confess Why They DIDN’T Read the Books Teachers Assigned in School

Ever skip a reading you were supposed to do for school, and it didn’t really matter? You’re not alone. In…

Wait, Frankenstein’s Monster is What Happens When One Learns Improperly!?

While rereading Frankenstein recently, I couldn’t help but think Mary Shelley was offering us a critique of education. There is…

There’s a Great Gatsby Video Game!?! English Class Just Got WAY Awesomer.

How did I not know that Nintendo made a Great Gatsby video game? I’m ashamed. I know video games have…

Harry Potter Teaches Us How Meaning is Socially Constructed

It’s a great clip to use for exploring how meaning is socially constructed. From Harry Potter and the Chamber of…

Explore the Words that Are Unique to Individual Hip-Hop Artists

As an English teacher, I always enjoyed compendia–those books that listed the number of times words appeared in other books.…

Why Tolkien Had a “Heartfelt Loathing” for All Things Disney

A fascinating read about what happened when Tolkien and his friend C.S. Lewis went to see Disney’s Snow White and…

Ever Wish Badass Shakespearean Heroines Had Their Own Pins? Wish Granted.

Book Riot does superlative work curating curiosities from around the web that book lovers are sure to notice (maybe not…

An Easy Way to Start Coding in English Class (And Beyond)

Here is an excellent example of a low-lift activity to get started exploring programming in English class. All you need…

Malcolm Gladwell on His Creative Process

It is a unique talent to translate complex phenomena to others in a way that is insightful, engaging, and avoids…

Shakespearean Robotics

In honor of Shakespeare’s 454th birthday, I presented BardBots–a Shakespearean introduction to computational thinking. Students study monologues from Shakespeare, annotate…