How I Lost Reading
Chapter 3 of Randy Bomer’s Building Adolescent Literacy is about helping students develop habits for literate lives. This includes using students’ natural literacies outside of the classroom to our advantage, and encouraging them…
Cinematic Possibilities in Woolf’s “Solid Objects”
During Virginia Woolf’s career, cinema and literature both took on new forms. Cinema storytelling moved from documentary realism to experimental throughout the early 20th century, following the similar shift in…
Woolf’s Search for Reality in “The Mark on the Wall”
Virginia Woolf wrote her sketch “The Mark on the Wall” as an exploration of her developing Modernist ideas and techniques. In this 1917 sketch, a woman sits in a living…
The Picture of Dorian Gray in the High School Canon
The high school English curriculum is coveted real estate among teachers, parents, school principals, and state legislators. Oscar Wilde is a giant literary figure, evident by the numerous biographies and…
Characterization in Zone One
Colson Whitehead’s Zone One is a book critiquing modern culture and mass-market consumerism through a zombie narrative. The mediocrity of American life is personified through the character of Mark Spitz,…
Roses in Toni Morrison’s Sula
Toni Morrison’s 1973 novel, Sula, is a snapshot of a 1930s African-American community. It portrays the relationship between two girls, Sula and Nel, as they mature into women. The book…
Point of View in Notes of a Native Son
In the essays presented in James Baldwin’s first six essays in Notes of a Native Son, his perspective as a writer shifts from himself to that of a contemporary white…
Mutually Assured Destruction: Analysis of Their Eyes Were Watching God
In her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston tells the story of an African-American woman living in the 1930’s Southern black community. Janie is a spirited woman…
Hollow Faith: Decadent Poets
The English Decadent poets of the late nineteenth century were influenced heavily by French writers, especially Charles Baudelaire, as was mentioned by T.S. Elliot in his essay, “Baudelaire” (155). The…
Back to Hieroglyphics? 💩😂✌️🍕
Technological upgrades and advancements are an integral part of the evolution of language. Over a century ago, common language behavioral norms changed to accommodate telephone conversations, replacing body language signals…
Can you just tell me what to do?
Most people agree that the real world is different from a classroom. Many modern jobs don’t have multiple-choice tests, rows of desks before a lectern, or step-by-step instructions for completing…
Speaking out in Class: Which Gender is More Confident?
Abstract In many traditional classrooms, the focus is on the teacher, and students play the role of passive audience members. Modern teaching philosophy is leaning in the direction of student-centered…