One short and meaningful poem I enjoy sharing with my students is “I’m Happiest When Most Away” by novelist Emily Brontë. The speaker in this poem enjoys taking time alone to disengage from the world and contemplate life. This poem …
Before having students read Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau (or an excerpt), I would start a discussion using the conversation about responsibility from Dr. Seuss. This discussion will get students thinking about the role of the individual and how …
The Story of Ruby Bridges by Robert Coles is a captivating telling of courage of a young girl who was escorted to school by federal marshals to stake her claim to a free education. Ruby Bridges was that girl and …
I want to help the students find some sort of positive meaning from the Coronavirus crisis. The conversation with Sophocles on hardship would be a great tool to encourage self-reflection on the fact that sometimes a person has to go …
One of the main themes in Mary Shelley’s classic novel Frankenstein is responsibility. The main character Dr. Frankenstein is responsible for many people in the story. After a study of the novel I would use the conversation with Dr. Seuss …
Most students will understand the theme of hardship after a study of John Steinbeck’s classic The Grapes of Wrath, set during the Great Depression. During the reading of the novel, there are many points where I would stop and use …
I am teaching argumentative writing and I want to focus on the theme of obedience by exploring the pros and cons of following rules even when you disagree with them. Using the Albert Einstein quote, “Never do anything against conscience, …
Theodore Roethke states, “In a dark time, the eye begins to see.” Does suffering disillusion, or does it reveal? Is there a choice? When still young, Phillis Wheatley was kidnapped and enslaved, educated and published as a poet (after 17 …
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