The Roots of Rap

Students Learn About Slavery and How its Effects are Still Present Today in Rap Music This project is intended to help students draw connections between the history of oppression (slavery) in the American south and contemporary issues that plague the African-American community today.  Students begin researching the oppressive nature of colonization and subjugation and then […]

Cultural Literacy in English Enrichment

Enrichment Course Enhances Students Knowledge of Cultural Experiences The English Enrichment courses at Muncie Community Schools were designed to provide students with extra exposure and practice in key English/Language Arts skills. As an entirely new class, this meant developing a course from nothing. I hired on to teach this course last year, and decided immediately to turn […]

Community Inclusion: Bringing a Novel to Life

Using Classic Literature to Inspire Student Success Through Inclusion So many great works of literature connect to universal themes experienced by our students. Students in high school with functional reading levels significantly below their peers need assistance in accessing the literature their peers study in general education high school English classes. Finding time to collaborate […]

Student Literacy Projects in the Virtual Setting

Literacy Projects Helps Virtual Learning Students The virtual learning world is still a new one.  Many projects, and project ideas, begin in the brick and mortar setting.  Teachers in the virtual world are always looking for ways to translate those projects into the virtual setting, especially when thinking of literacy projects for our elementary students.  […]

Reading and Writing Across Subjects

Writing Enhances Student Achievement This is an assignment that would benefit most a high school level 3 French class. However, it can be altered to fit other levels and other languages. At the end of the first semester, for the final of their second year in French, students are to write a children’s story. Students […]

Lost Generation Literature: Parisian Salon Simulation

Simulation of Literary Characters Sparks Higher Level Thinking This literary salon simulation is the final exam and major scholarly project of the Lost Generation Literature class I teach at the Indiana Academy for Science, Mathematics, and Humanities. Students who take this course not only read the great literature written by such twentieth-century literary giants as […]