Determining the Tone in a Poem

This lesson instructs students how to do a close reading of a poem, using clues within the poem to determine the tone of the poem

Creating a Mock Essay to Teach MLA Format

This lesson requires students to write a “mock essay” using fictional sources and a creative, entertaining topic to demonstrate MLA proficiency

Performing Poetry: Managing Tone, Pitch, Volume and Rate

This lesson teaches students the importance of varying the tone, pitch, rate and volume of their voices when performing a poem. Emphasizing different words and varying the delivery will alter the meaning of the poem that the students are reading. This is in preparation for the Poet Laureate presentations, when they will read aloud their poet’s poem, reflecting their group’s interpretation of the poem

Specifications Grading: A High-Expectations, Low-Stakes Approach

The specifications grading model we’ve adopted for Literary Explorations II seeks to hold students to high expectations for learning even as it reduces the stakes of any given attempt on an assignment

He, She, They, Them, Us: Teaching Gender Studies in a STEM Environment

In this session, we will share the importance of teaching Gender Studies as an English elective in a STEM school. We will introduce our curriculum, including biological and socially constructed theories of gender and how these inform gender-related legal and social challenges in our world. Areas of focus include the role of gender in: politics, sports, media, literature, and culture. Our aim is to share our experiences and course materials with other humanities teachers and discuss and strategize ways to eliminate gender bias in our own schools as well as prepare students for the post-secondary world

America in Verse: The Laureate Project

The purpose of this project is to allow students to use their (developing) skills of poetic explication and close reading, combined with research and analysis, to discover and establish a solid case for a poet they will nominate as the next American Poet Laureate. Working in groups of 3-4, students will identify a published, living American poet who has not yet been designated a laureate. The project demands a wide array of skills as the students research bibliographic information on the poet: read and analyze the poet’s body of work and select one central poem to represent that poet; amass their materials into a cogent group presentation and, if desired, individually or collectively write an essay in which they present their analysis and justifications. The English Team at IMSA presents this at the end of the sophomore year American Literature sequence, but it could be given where most appropriate for a specific class

Simplifying Writing

This lesson uses William Zinsser’s essay “Simplicity” to teach the importance of simplifying one’s own writing. Students will work to “de-clutter” a sample student paragraph, then will attempt to “simplify” one another’s work

Thoughts on African American Literature From the IMSA English Department

This document is the product of an online collaborative discussion inspired by Black History Month that took place between members of the IMSA English team during the first week of February in 2015. In this conversation, English faculty ruminate on the importance of African American literature as teachers, as individuals, and as lifelong learners

The Room Where It Happens

Members of the IMSA English faculty gather together to discuss the Broadway phenomenon and this year\u27s summer reading, Lin-Manuel Miranda\u27s Hamilton: The Revolution. No one leaves with unprecedented financial power, but the group swaps success stories and their favorite aspects of this innovative musical