Why SCOUTing A Book Will Have You Close Reading Like A Champ
Five years ago I told the head coach of my son’s flag football team that I could run the offense and we would win. I had never coached football before. […]
Category Archives: AP
Saving The Heart of Reading: Why We Should Transplant Close Reading
Close reading and the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) lurk like shady hit men in the alleyway of the English building. Wiseguys waiting to whack someone. That someone is reading. […]
TWO THUMBS UP: how to use movie reviews to improve student writing
I LOVE MOVIES. Seriously I do. When I was in high school my dream was to become a movie reviewer. I had visions of watching movies and getting paid to […]
Lesson Plan Showcase: THE MYTH OF ME
Last Rites: the sacrament Catholics perform for the dying usually isn’t given to babies. Fortunately for me, I’ve managed to outlive the life expectancy bestowed upon me by the Pasadena city hospital priest and […]
Conversation in the Hallway: Why students don’t read and what we should do about it
Day after day in class I see students working on their math homework or science homework during the passing period. They look driven… as if the four horsemen of the […]
Let’s BRAWL: Throwing Socratic Seminars out of the ring
*updated 3/19/14 with new resource link on the bottom of this post. AND HULK HOGAN is getting tossed over the top rope! When I was a kid my brothers and […]
Create a lasting impression: #myseniorfootprint
Major Update 4/11/14. I used to call this project the 1365 project, now it’s the My Senior Footprint Project (#myseniorfootprint) Other updates and added videos can be found below. If the […]
The 150 point project: an annual experiment in academic freedom
During my first or second year of teaching AP English Language I showed my class the beginning of the movie Patton as an example of rhetoric. Well, later that year […]
Audience Awareness for students
A quick audience awareness activity for students: Mr. Theriault (FVHS) This is a four part activity that should take about 25-40 minutes or so of class time. Students will need […]
SCOUTing a work of art or writing
The dreaded sea of stares. Clutching my podium like a sea captain in a storm I brace myself for the eye of the storm. An ominous silence looms overhead… “Well?…” […]
