Teaching Literature

american literature	british literature	multicultural/women's/world literature	lesson plans/course syllabi	drama/speech	shakespeare	young adult literature	literary genres/mythology
nonfiction	poetry	critical lenses	story response/writing	assessment	censorship	professional development	media/technology

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CHAPTERS
1	Goals for teaching literature: What does it mean to teach literature?
2	Understanding students’ individual differences: Who are our kids?
3	Planning and Organizing Literature Instruction: How Do I Decide What to Teach?
4	Using Drama to Foster Interpretation: How Can I Help Students Read Better?
5	Leading Classroom Discussions of Literature: How Do I Get Them to Talk about Literature?
6	Writing about literature: How do I get them to write about literature?
7	Using narratives in the classroom: What’s the use of story?
8	Teaching text and task-specific strategies: How does the shape of a text change the shape of my teaching?
9	Teaching the Classics: Do I Have To Teach the Canon, And If So, How Do I Do It?
10	Multiple Perspectives to Engage Students with Literature: What are Different Ways of Seeing?
11	Teaching Media Literacy: What else is a text and how do I teach it?
12	Assessing and Evaluating Students’ Learning: How do I know what they’ve learned?
13	Text Selection, Censorship, Creating an Ethical Classroom Environment. and Teacher Professionalism: How do I Stay in Control, Out of Trouble, and Continue to Develop as A Teacher?

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Writing Instruction: general aspects

Teaching the Writing Process: University of Texas Writing Center (for high school teachers)

Creating Writing Assignments: University of Texas Writing Center (for high school teachers)

Developing Evaluative Criteria: University of Texas Writing Center (for high school teachers)

Handouts/worksheets for teaching writing: University of Texas Writing Center (for high school teachers)

Jack Lynch: Resources for writing instructors [lots of links]

PBS: Point of View [revising drafts by adopting different points of view]

Knoeller, C. (2004). Driving Home at Midnight in a Dense Fog: Using Metaphor to Explore Writing Processes. National Writing Project: The Quarterly.

Annenberg/CPB: Video series: Writing for an Audience

Teaching writing
Formal Writing
Serious Writing

Teaching Writing in the Content Area

Sample Chapters: Methods of teaching writing: Jim Burke, Writing Reminders:Tools, Tips, and Techniques

Sample chapter: Making a Multimodal Argument, by Cheryl Johnson, Jayne Moneysmith, Multiple Genres, Multiple Voices : Teaching Argument in Composition and Literature

Writing across the Curriculum: Implications for Teaching Literature, Toby Fulwiler

Writing Strategies and Ideas

NCTE: The I-search Paper: links/resources

NCTE: Plagiarism: links/resources

Wesleyan University Writing Workshop: general tips on writing

Sample chapter, Making a Multimodal Argument, Cheryl Johnson, Jayne Moneysmith, Multiple Genres, Multiple Voices: Teaching Argument in Composition and Literature , Boynton/Cook

Teaching the writing process

Sample Chapters: methods of teaching writing: Jim Burke, Writing Reminders:Tools, Tips, and Techniques, Boynton/Cook

Toby Fulwiler, Writing across the Curriculum: Implications for Teaching Literature, ADE Bulletin, 1987

Stella Deen, Responding to Student Writing

Annenberg/CPB: Engaging Writers: A Workshop for High School Teachers

Informal Writing Tools

Jim Burke’s “School tools”—various types of tools, particularly writing tools

Note-taking, Virginia Cano

Brainstorming ideas for writing

PBS: Opera of Romeo and Juliet [writing “Dear Abby” letters from characters]

PBS: Writing to Create: journal writing about journeys

PBS: Mark Twain: uses of scrapbooks in writing classes

PBS: creating community journals

Sample freewrites in response to a Bell Hooks book in John Lovas’s class

Different types of journals: SCORE

Journals in the classroom: Diane Walker

Estrem, H. (2002). Hearing From Students: The Role of Scribe Notes in the Classroom. National Writing Project: The Quarterly.

Cramer, J. (2004). Learning a Lesson from The Girls Who Write Notes. National Writing Project: The Quarterly.

Ross, P. (2003). A Geography of Stories: Helping Secondary Students Come to Voice Through Readings, People, and Place. National Writing Project: The Quarterly.

Rotkow, D. (2003). Two or Three Things I Know for Sure About Helping Students Write the Stories of Their Lives. National Writing Project: The Quarterly.

Levine, J. (2004). Writing in the Wilderness Without a Guide: How Not to Use Journals in the College Composition. National Writing Project: The Quarterly.

Gian S. Pagnucci, TechJournals: Electronic Journal Keeping for the Technical Writing Classroom

David Barndollar, Computer Writing and Research Lab, University of Texas, “A Rationale for Teaching Hypertext Authoring in Literature Classrooms”

Epals: Globacl journal exchanges

Gender, identity, and language use in teenage blogs. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication

Christopher Jackson, Teaching with Reading Journals

Stella Deen, Responding to Student Writing

Annenberg/CPB: Engaging Writers: A Workshop for High School Teachers

Rewriting Texts

The Onion [example of parody]

Adbusters [parodies of ads]

Mast, S. (2002). Copy Change: Rewriting the Prologue from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. National Writing Project: The Quarterly.

Writing about Literature/Media Texts

17 Different Ways to Respond to Literature

Hundred’s of writing prompts

English Essays [writing essays about literature]

Writing about fiction [Purdue Online Writing Lab]

Writing about Literature [University of North Carolina Writing Lab]

Writing Reviews of Literature [University of Wisconsin Writing Center]

Writing about Literature [University of Nevada, Las Vegas Writing Center]

Writing Literary Analysis Papers [Seamus Cooney, Western Michigan University]

Writing about poetry [example of writing about Thomas Hardy’s “The Voice”]

PBS: Characters and Caricatures [writing about charicatures]

11th graders write thematic essays of a film based on analysis of film clips

Russell Hunt’s paper on students’ use of playbill in writing about literature

Examples of prompts and students’ playbill writing in Hunt’s 2001 course

2003 course syllabus

Exploring Literature [Writing Reviews about Literature]

Teachers and Writers Collaborative [Lots of lessons on writing of and about literature]

New York Times Lesson Plans: Stop Me If You've Heard This One …: Evaluating Responses to Cartoons

New York Times Lesson Plans: It's Just a Game?: Comparing Responses to Violence in the Media

Annenberg/CPB: Writing about the story, “Jury of Her Peers”

The Internet Public Library: Literary Criticism

Writing the Literary Essay

Kim's Corner: ideas for written responses to literature

Norton Anthology: Writing about Literature

Lesson: Introducing the Essay: Twain, Douglass, and American Non-Fiction

Wesleyan University Writing Workshop: writing about literature

Multi-genre Writing about Literature

PBS teacher resource: Mark Twain’s Scrapbooks as examples of multi-genre writing

PBS teacher resource: Using P.O.V.'s Borders Snapshots:
Art as Symbolic Journalism

PBS teacher resource: Using P.O.V.'s Borders Leaving Elsa in the Classroom: The Power of Storytelling

PBS: The American Family [multimedia storytelling]

The Write Site [multimedia storytelling (middle-school level)]

New York Times Lesson Plan From Page to Screen: Exploring the Uses of Scanning Technology to Make Materials Available Online

NCTE: The Multigenre Approachs: links/resources

Writing Fiction

Tips for writing short stories

Playing, Studying, and Writing Interactive Fiction

Exposition in Interactive Fiction

Bibliography: Interactive Fiction

Pizzaz: creative writing ideas

Creative Writing Online

The Write Gallery creative writing site

Writers Online workshops

Lesson: Writing a character sketch

Writing Narratives

11th graders listen to narratives on the radio and write their own narratives

Teachers and Writers Collaborative: Fiction Writers on Fiction Writing

PBS teacher resource: Creating tall tales based on Mark Twain stories

PBS teacher resource: Creating a children’s book on

PBS P.O.V.'s Borders website [related to building stories around conflicts or borders]

PBS [Lots of different writing assignments related to social justice themes]

PBS: Personal Stories in Public [issues of sharing personal stories in public contexts]

PBS: Remaking Myths [writing mythic narratives]

Writing Stories on the Web with the Hero's Journey

Webquest: Create Your Own Zine

Levine, J. (2002). Talking Texts: Writing Dialogue in the College Composition Classroom. National Writing Project: The Quarterly.

Cramer, J. (2002). Collaborating to Write Dialogue. National Writing Project: The Quarterly.

Story writing activities [grades 6-8]
teacher.scholastic.com - Skills and Strategies /Character, Plot, and Setting
teacher.scholastic.com - Writing Projects [Fiction]
teacher.scholastic.com - Skills and Strategies /Narrative Writing

Diary/journal writing [grades 6-8]

Oral history [grades 6-8]

Mystery writing with Joan Nixon [grades 6-8]

Writing myths with Jane Yolen [grades 6-8]

Writing folktales with Alma Ada and Rafe Martin

Young Writers’ Storybook Club—add material onto stories [grades 6-8]

Adding beginnings and endings to stories

Writing autobiographies/family histories

Literacy autobiographies written in Pam Petty’s methods course [Western Kentucky University]

Identity autobiographies [Matthew Henry’s unit on how race or ethnicity was a factor in defining identity]

A unit on survival stories

PBS: writing family histories
Lesson 3: Record and Preserve Your Family Stories
Ancestors: Teacher's Guide - Writing A Family History Episode 213

Writing Poetry

Teachers and Writers Collaborative: Virtual Poetry Workshop: Modules on writing poetry

Young Poets: Resources

PBS: History Detective [writing history poems]

Writing Drama

Essays on the Craft of Drama Writing

Online Writing Resources/Writing Labs/Feedback

Writers’ Window [resources for writers/sharing writing/writing feedback]

Scriptorium Scribbes: Young Writers’ Resource Webzine

Teenlit.com [online feedback]

Teen Writers [about teen writers]

Teen Writers Dream [resources for teen writers]

The Writer Corner [resources for teen writers]

OWL: The Purdue University Writing Lab: Resources for teachers

Bowling Green University Writing Center [handouts]

PBS: NewsHour; Writing and plagiarism

Sample chapter: Janet Evans, Multimodal Texts, Literacy Moves On: Popular Culture, New Technologies, and Critical Literacy in the Elementary Classroom

Hypermedia Authoring as Critical Literacy, Jamie Myers and Richard Beach

In Search of a Story: Reading and Writing E-Literature

eblogg-ed: Teaching Students to Blog

Sites for publishing student writing, adolescent fiction, or poetry

Merlyn’s Pen

New Moon magazine [primarily for females]

Midlink: The Digital Magazine by Students for Students 8 - 18

Kidsonlinemagazine

Students’ Write: create portfolios of students’ writing

Publishing Book Reviews

Portfolio writing

Portfolio Justification Form