Dear Current and Future MCTE Members: We are writing in order to introduce to you a significant “make-over” of MCTE’s most important periodical, The Minnesota English Journal (MEJ), and to invite your direct participation in it—as readers vigorously interacting with every article, classroom idea, and reader-posted comment and a contributors of articles of your own … Continue reading Dyer’s Manifesto: The mission and charge for MEJ moving forward
Selections by Richard Terrill
Click the link below: DICK TERRILL POETRY AND PROSE
Daylight Savings Time Vocabulary in Context by Bill St. Martin
Daylight Savings Time Vocabulary in Context Bill St. Martin Irondale High School Focus Composition Name ______________________________ Vocabulary In Context Building your Personal Thesaurus Hour _____________ http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/11/daylight-saving-time-is-terrible-heres-a-simple-plan-to-fix-it/281075/ Column ATarget Word Column BBased on the context, what do you THINK it means? What does it sound like/look like? What parts of the word are familiar? Column CLook … Continue reading Daylight Savings Time Vocabulary in Context by Bill St. Martin
Two Truths and a Tall Tale: An Ice-Breaker Activity by Michael MacBride
Exposing Yourself to Students: You are a Source! I like to start the semester with a popular ice-breaker activity—two truths and a tall tale. During my first TA orientation, the TA director (Randall McClure) used this activity to get us talking. From that activity I learned that Dr. McClure had in fact been involved in … Continue reading Two Truths and a Tall Tale: An Ice-Breaker Activity by Michael MacBride
Analyzing Poetry and Songs by Scott Hall
Find a song that has been recorded by several artists (at least 4) over the past 30-60 years (or re-recorded/re-mixed in a new style by the same artist). Listen to each version of the song and take notes about the style. Style includes sounds, vocal delivery, pacing, beat, structure, and lyrics. YouTube is a good … Continue reading Analyzing Poetry and Songs by Scott Hall
The Women of Beowulf and Student Responses by Kathryn Campbell
If you’ve ever taught an early British Literature text, you know that strong, multidimensional female characters are hard to come by. Take Beowulf, for example: women are only named after they become wives, with the exception of one monster mother, who is depicted as a vengeful threat who must be vanquished after her son Grendel’s … Continue reading The Women of Beowulf and Student Responses by Kathryn Campbell
4 Poems by Richard Robbins
St. Francis and the Birds —a painting by Stanley Spencer The parade will go no further than the wall, where the gardener shields her eyes, the ducks, hens, and geese scuttle toward his frock, each dove and jay leaning forward on the low tiled roof to watch the boy lead each one, saint and bird, … Continue reading 4 Poems by Richard Robbins
Comics, Dickens, and Teaching by Serial Publication by Michael MacBride
Teaching the "huge" text s-l-o-w-l-y: taking your time with Dickens and Comic Books How do you teach a 500- or 900-page Dickens’ novel—heaven forbid a 1,500-page Richardson novel? (1) How do you teach a comic book, like Detective Comics, that has been running since 1937, or a comic strip, like Katzenjammer Kids, that's been around … Continue reading Comics, Dickens, and Teaching by Serial Publication by Michael MacBride
The iPad Invasion by Cassandra Scharber
"What I hope for you ... [is] that you think of technology as a verb, not a noun; that poetry drives you, not hardware." - Red Burns Setting the Scene In January 2010, the iPad was born and its birth instantaneously ignited a craze within K12 schools around the county. The iPad’s invasion of Minnesota’s … Continue reading The iPad Invasion by Cassandra Scharber
The New Face of Homelessness by Melissa Brandt
You know that moment when you’re at a party or a social gathering and a person you barely know asks, “So, what do you do?” I dread that moment. Not because I’m embarrassed by what I do. I love my job. I love the people, students, and families with whom I work. Their troubles are … Continue reading The New Face of Homelessness by Melissa Brandt
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