Teach Writing Well

This fully-editable unit plan gives instructors resources to set up a study of The Poisonwood Bible with a focus on how and why the five different narrative voices are used to construct the novel. Study questions and background/historical context information are readily available online for this novel; this unit focuses, therefore, on discussion and close reading of both poetry and prose. These materials were developed for an AP Literature class, though could be adapted for use at other levels

The goal of this assignment is for students to get exposure to academic literary criticism in an accessible way. To do this, they will select a piece of literary criticism from a teacher-curated list, complete several directed readings, and then write an essay responding to one idea in the literary criticism essay. This assignment includes: · Rationale · Assignment overview · Sample work for each step, including two complete sample essays (one annotated sample) · Rubric I like my students to

The goal of this assignment is for students to identify aphorisms—short observations of general truth—in whatever text they are studying and then move through several scaffolded steps to analyze one particular aphorism. Ultimately, this should bring students to an interesting discussion of theme while discouraging plagiarism or reliance on AI. This assignment includes: · Overall rationale · Assignment overview · Completed sample drafts – one of each step of the assignment, which might be where

The goal of this assignment is to engage students in the research process in a structured and streamlined way by investigating genuine wonderings about their reading. I have used this research essay as one component of work that is happening along with other things during a “book club” or “seminar set” unit when small groups of students are reading different works. It could easily be used with a whole-class novel or with independent reading. This fully-editable assignment includes: · Assignmen

Teaching writing in the age of AI creates new struggles. This assignment is designed to coach students through carefully scaffolded steps in order to do their own original thinking and writing. The scaffolding encourages original thought and discourages plagiarism and reliance on AI. Students will be proud of what they produce, and you won’t mind reading it.

The goal of this assignment is for students to write about theme in a novel. To do this, they will complete several close readings of passages that relate to the theme and then write a conclusion based on those studies. This product includes · Overall rationale · Assignment overview · Instructions for each step of the assignment · Completed samples for each step of the assignment · Two student samples of the final product · Rubrics

I created this assignment because I couldn't find any brief excerpts from "Self-Reliance" that provided an overview of the essay. This activity is designed to give students a taste of Emerson while practicing close reading skills. Seven selections are included with guiding questions for each selection.

A look at the aphorisms in Emerson's "Self-Reliance" provides students with many of the main ideas of his text, and many of the main ideas of Transcendentalism itself, before reading the essay. Paraphrasing the aphorisms allows students practice with "translating" Emerson's antiquated language into contemporary English.

This exercise, modeled on the impersonation/characterization exercise of the progymnasmata, takes students step-by-step through an in-depth character study of one of the main characters of Romeo and Juliet. The final result of this exercise is the writing, delivery, and explication of an original speech in the character's voice, invented by the student.