This presentation includes writing techniques that writers can use to enhance their writing. The techniques listed in the slides are some of my favorite to use in writing, regardless of genre. Many of the examples provided come from song lyrics and poems.

This presentation is an introductory lesson to American Literature. It asks the question, “What does it mean to be American?” Scholars will read through song lyrics with varying perspectives on the American experience.

This presentation includes texts and discussions from Indigenous authors as an introduction to the American Literary timeline. There is a focus on narrative, “own stories,” American identity, and the power in a name. Authors include Dr. White-Kaulaity, Sherman Alexie, Tommy Orange, NPR’s Gene Demby and Shereen Marisol Meraji, and Jish Gen.

This presentation includes a review of 3 basic elements of style: diction, syntax, and tone. This is an interactive lesson teachers can use to engage scholars in identifying an author’s style. I used this lesson after I taught diction, syntax, tone, theme, and point of view. I made separate copies for each class and allowed students the ability to edit the slides so they could write their responses directly on each slide.

This lesson provides supplemental resources and activities to teach Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible from a social justice standpoint. The lessons will explore parallels between the play The Crucible (1953), the film adaptation The Crucible (1996) and Ava DuVernay’s Netflix special When They See Us (2019) through examining criminal and social justice, false accusations, the American caste system and mass hysteria. These lessons greatly amplify the opportunity to make a timeless play even more relevant, important, and useful in the conversation of navigating the injustices of today’s society.

This presentation includes during reading comprehension questions, class discussion questions, post reading standards based questions, and writing prompts for The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe.

This lesson explores the complexity of Henry David Thoreau’s Walden through close reading, annotation, and analysis. The piece may be read and analyzed during a study of Transcendentalism and its themes of individuality, non-conformity, intuition, and social reform. Thoreau’s excerpt from “Where I Lived and What I Lived For” is placed in conversation with Brian Mooney’s poem “The Transcendental Gospel of Freddie Gray.”

Th Lesson Plan PDF: This lesson provides supplemental resources and activities to teach Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible from a social justice standpoint. The lessons will explore parallels between the play The Crucible (1953), the film adaptation The Crucible (1996) and Ava DuVernay’s Netflix special When They See Us (2019) through examining criminal and social justice, false accusations, the American caste system and mass hysteria.

For this project students were required to read Part I of Between the World & Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates and Born a Crime by Trevor Noah. As a class, we also read and discussed information about epigenetics and its role in student achievement and the relationship between epigenetics, race, health, and socioeconomic class.  

Design/create an artistic model of a Glucocorticoid Receptor with written or visual explanations of the effects of high and low nurture in children; models may be 3-Dimensional, crafted, sculpted, painted, drawn, digitally constructed, or etc.

 Create either a 10-minute documentary or podcast which will discuss the following:

Purpose: This project is intended for you to think critically about what activism means and explore activism in the form of music. 

Checklist: Mic check, 1, 2, 1, 2...For this project you will need one music album, 3 songs from the album, and one secondary source. 

Breakdown: 

Part 1: The Paper Part 2: The Album Cover Part 3: Youth Activism Part 4: A Multimedia Component Part 5: Presentation 

Choose to complete one multimodal creative artistic reflection of the themes present throughout this course and American literature. Each piece of artwork should be of the highest possible quality using the resources available to you.

1.     Photography: create a collection of photography as a celebration or critique of identity in America/American literature.  Photos must be of good quality.   Must include at least 15 photos. Take a variety of subjects (not all 15 should be images of people/faces—be creative) Every photo should have a title.  

Standards: RL1, RL2, RL4, W2, W8, SL5, L1

Site Study 1: Describing Space: Find (and visit) an outdoor site, which may be on- or off-campus, naturally or architecturally produced. This is a site to which you will return several times to make (and record) observations. As you make your observations, consider not only the visual and “natural” features of your site, but also how it feels to be there – Where is your place? What does it look like? Which plants grow there? Are there animals? Does the place affect the social dynamics of people moving through it, or produce certain feelings or behaviors? What are its rhythms? (Don’t feel limited by these questions.)