The weeks before a break always seem like the longest. The kids are restless, I’m restless, and we all understand that all we’re really doing is biding our time until that last bell before break. Thanksgiving is a different type of beast altogether though. My district gives an entire week, the first real break … Read moreWhat I Teach the Week Before Thanksgiving
We can’t have enough lessons over speeches or the rhetoric within those speeches. There is no end to it. The least we can do is have fun. So… I created a lesson, analyzing Trump’s victory speech and Obama’s victory speech. I wanted to give students a look at a speech that is heavy in rhetoric … Read moreTrump vs. Obama: Analyzing Rhetoric
Wes Anderson. Le Sigh. Here’s the trailer. When this movie came out I was a freshman in high school and I fell in love. This movie is whimsical and quirky and my teenage brain didn’t understand how the story worked but I knew that it just did. And I knew that it was brilliant. And … Read moreIf I Could Get Away With It: Movie Edition | The Royal Tennenbaums
When it comes to evaluating students at the beginning of the year, I find that analysis is one of those topics that get swept under the rug. We assume that by high school, students have already learned these skills, and yet we find out, year after year, that that is not the case for some … Read moreAnalysis Overview
The two philosophies of collectivism and individualism are heavy throughout Anthem by Ayn Rand. When I decided to teach this book, I researched both ideas and knew that if I wanted the kids to understand these heavy concepts, I was going to have to simplify and condense. And what better way to simplify and condense … Read moreTeaching Collectivism and Individualism for Anthem by Ayn Rand
I love Disney. Honestly, at this point, it’s probably a bit irrational. My husband doesn’t understand it. My kids don’t understand it. But Disney movies in the 90s were the companion to an only child, i.e. me. So anytime I can go back to my happy place I will. Therefore, I use a lot of … Read moreUsing Mulan to Teach Gender Stereotypes
There is a certain time of the year where I feel like I eat, breath, and dream ethos, pathos, and logos. State of Texas, can I please teach mythology? Or archetypes? Or WHOLE NOVELS? I’ll even take Julius Cesar at this point. But alas, it’s always coming up persuasion. Anyway, audience is always a tricky … Read moreAudience: Teaching Persuasion
I know that everyone who has to teach persuasion has done this at least one time in their teaching career. So I’m not proposing anything new. I’m just putting mine out into the ether. Hands down, the best way to get teenagers to understand persuasion is to appeal to their hungry little consumer on the … Read moreAdvertisement Project: Teaching Persuasion
I’m not going to get on my high horse about what happened to Cracked.com. That isn’t what this post is about. It is, however, a post about one of their articles that I’ve been teaching for a while. The 6 weeks before STAAR become STAAR prep. Therefore, all of the units that we work on … Read moreAn Introduction to Gender Stereotypes
I’ve talked about my love of TED Talks both here and here. When we did our Anthem unit at the beginning of the year, I found more in the other channels that I subscribe to on YouTube than I did on TED that related to the book. So here they are: six videos I used to … Read moreSix Videos to Use While Reading Anthem