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Articles 1 - 16 of 16
Full-Text Articles in English Language and Literature
Teaching Tolkien: Language, Scholarship, And Creativity, Adam Kotlarczyk
Teaching Tolkien: Language, Scholarship, And Creativity, Adam Kotlarczyk
Adam Kotlarczyk
Why Tolkien? Let us start with the obvious—if cynical—question, almost certain to come from a skeptical administrator or colleague: why would any serious, self-respecting English teacher want to teach an author whose work is about dragons, fairies, and the fantastic? With all the increased attention to standardized testing and with the demand for rigor in read- ings in the average English curriculum, choosing a popular text might raise eyebrows among critics. The question that an English teacher may be asked (or indeed, may ask him- or herself) is: doesn't teaching Tolkien as "serious" literature just fan those flames?
The Novel Of Sentiment In A Short Story: Reflections On Teaching “Theresa”, Adam Kotlarczyk
The Novel Of Sentiment In A Short Story: Reflections On Teaching “Theresa”, Adam Kotlarczyk
Adam Kotlarczyk
I introduced “Theresa” in between units on “The Age of Reason” and “American Romanticism.” Thus it was foregrounded by works like Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography and Phyllis Wheatley’s “On Being Brought from Africa to America,” and followed by stories by Irving, Hawthorne, and Poe. Strictly speaking, this puts “Theresa” slightly out of sequence; its serialization in 1828 precedes by at least ten years the works of Poe, Hawthorne, and Irving that we study. Despite this, the text functioned well as a transitional piece, although I would consider moving it deeper into the Romantic unit. The exotic setting, relative to our other …
The Novel Of Sentiment In A Short Story: Reflections On Teaching “Theresa”, Adam Kotlarczyk
The Novel Of Sentiment In A Short Story: Reflections On Teaching “Theresa”, Adam Kotlarczyk
Adam Kotlarczyk
I introduced “Theresa” in between units on “The Age of Reason” and “American Romanticism.” Thus it was foregrounded by works like Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography and Phyllis Wheatley’s “On Being Brought from Africa to America,” and followed by stories by Irving, Hawthorne, and Poe. Strictly speaking, this puts “Theresa” slightly out of sequence; its serialization in 1828 precedes by at least ten years the works of Poe, Hawthorne, and Irving that we study. Despite this, the text functioned well as a transitional piece, although I would consider moving it deeper into the Romantic unit. The exotic setting, relative to our other …
Thoughts On African American Literature From The Imsa English Department, Michael Dean, Michael W. Hancock, Leah Kind, Adam Kotlarczyk, Erin Micklo, Tracy A. Townsend
Thoughts On African American Literature From The Imsa English Department, Michael Dean, Michael W. Hancock, Leah Kind, Adam Kotlarczyk, Erin Micklo, Tracy A. Townsend
Adam Kotlarczyk
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.
Booker T. Washington And W.E.B. Du Bois: Guiding Students To Historical Context, Adam Kotlarczyk
Booker T. Washington And W.E.B. Du Bois: Guiding Students To Historical Context, Adam Kotlarczyk
Adam Kotlarczyk
Seldom have two vastly different visions been expressed as clearly and as elegantly as in Booker T. Washington’s Atlanta Exposition Address (1895) and W.E.B. Du Bois’s “Of Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others” (from The Souls of Black Folk, 1903). Awash in memorable rhetoric, these competing philosophies foresaw very different paths for America, and for black social progress, at the dawn of the twentieth century. This lesson introduces students to the ideas and informational texts of Washington and DuBois while challenging students to research some of the historical context in which these men lived, worked, and thought.
Teaching Tolkien: Language, Scholarship, And Creativity, Adam Kotlarczyk
Teaching Tolkien: Language, Scholarship, And Creativity, Adam Kotlarczyk
Adam Kotlarczyk
Why Tolkien? Let us start with the obvious—if cynical—question, almost certain to come from a skeptical administrator or colleague: why would any serious, self-respecting English teacher want to teach an author whose work is about dragons, fairies, and the fantastic? With all the increased attention to standardized testing and with the demand for rigor in read- ings in the average English curriculum, choosing a popular text might raise eyebrows among critics. The question that an English teacher may be asked (or indeed, may ask him- or herself) is: doesn't teaching Tolkien as "serious" literature just fan those flames?
Thoughts On African American Literature From The Imsa English Department, Michael Dean, Michael W. Hancock, Leah Kind, Adam Kotlarczyk, Erin Micklo, Tracy A. Townsend
Thoughts On African American Literature From The Imsa English Department, Michael Dean, Michael W. Hancock, Leah Kind, Adam Kotlarczyk, Erin Micklo, Tracy A. Townsend
Adam Kotlarczyk
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.
Booker T. Washington And W.E.B. Du Bois: Guiding Students To Historical Context, Adam Kotlarczyk
Booker T. Washington And W.E.B. Du Bois: Guiding Students To Historical Context, Adam Kotlarczyk
Adam Kotlarczyk
Seldom have two vastly different visions been expressed as clearly and as elegantly as in Booker T. Washington’s Atlanta Exposition Address (1895) and W.E.B. Du Bois’s “Of Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others” (from The Souls of Black Folk, 1903). Awash in memorable rhetoric, these competing philosophies foresaw very different paths for America, and for black social progress, at the dawn of the twentieth century. This lesson introduces students to the ideas and informational texts of Washington and DuBois while challenging students to research some of the historical context in which these men lived, worked, and thought.
The Novel Of Sentiment In A Short Story: Reflections On Teaching “Theresa”, Adam Kotlarczyk
The Novel Of Sentiment In A Short Story: Reflections On Teaching “Theresa”, Adam Kotlarczyk
Adam Kotlarczyk
I introduced “Theresa” in between units on “The Age of Reason” and “American Romanticism.” Thus it was foregrounded by works like Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography and Phyllis Wheatley’s “On Being Brought from Africa to America,” and followed by stories by Irving, Hawthorne, and Poe. Strictly speaking, this puts “Theresa” slightly out of sequence; its serialization in 1828 precedes by at least ten years the works of Poe, Hawthorne, and Irving that we study. Despite this, the text functioned well as a transitional piece, although I would consider moving it deeper into the Romantic unit. The exotic setting, relative to our other …
Teaching Tolkien: Language, Scholarship, And Creativity, Adam Kotlarczyk
Teaching Tolkien: Language, Scholarship, And Creativity, Adam Kotlarczyk
Adam Kotlarczyk
Why Tolkien? Let us start with the obvious—if cynical—question, almost certain to come from a skeptical administrator or colleague: why would any serious, self-respecting English teacher want to teach an author whose work is about dragons, fairies, and the fantastic? With all the increased attention to standardized testing and with the demand for rigor in read- ings in the average English curriculum, choosing a popular text might raise eyebrows among critics. The question that an English teacher may be asked (or indeed, may ask him- or herself) is: doesn't teaching Tolkien as "serious" literature just fan those flames?
Before Ptsd: Combat Trauma In The Civil War Short Stories Of Kate Chopin, Adam Kotlarczyk
Before Ptsd: Combat Trauma In The Civil War Short Stories Of Kate Chopin, Adam Kotlarczyk
Adam Kotlarczyk
“The Civil War,” writes Robert Penn Warren, “is, for the American imagination, the single greatest event of our history” (3). Indeed, it has been estimated that the American imagination has been inspired to the tune of some 60,000 historical books on the subject (Lafantasie). Kate Chopin, probably best known for The Awakening and short stories like “The Story of an Hour,” spent her adolescence in a divided and tumultuous St. Louis during the Civil War. Like the women in her family with whom she lived, including her mother, grandmother, and two aunts, young Kate was a southern sympathizer (Ewell 7). …
Connecting Literature And History: Fitzgerald’S The Great Gatsby Museum Project, Adam Kotlarczyk
Connecting Literature And History: Fitzgerald’S The Great Gatsby Museum Project, Adam Kotlarczyk
Adam Kotlarczyk
Despite mixed reviews at the time of its 1925 publication, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby has come to be one of the most widely taught American books and has become a popular candidate for the title of the “Great American Novel.” Uniquely intertwining social history, biography, and literature, the text challenges readers to understand the culture and history of the Jazz Age and to see its interrelationship with the lives and motivations of the characters, as well as with the author himself. This project encourages students to engage and work closely with one of the historical elements that influenced …
Hawthorne’S “The Minister’S Black Veil”: Group Activities And Interpretations, Adam Kotlarczyk
Hawthorne’S “The Minister’S Black Veil”: Group Activities And Interpretations, Adam Kotlarczyk
Adam Kotlarczyk
Although the better-known The Scarlet Letter (1850) still draws more attention from many high school English teachers, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s darkly enigmatic short story “The Minister’s Black Veil” (1836) touches on similar themes and provides readers with diverse avenues for exploration, discussion, and analysis. Containing dramatic, psychological, and moral elements, in addition to its literary ones, it is a complex text that can confound teachers and students alike with its range of interpretations and ambiguity. This lesson allows students in small groups to choose and focus on one interpretive element. It also accommodates different learning styles, offering both creative and analytical …
Tolkien And Gifted Students: Blending Creative And Critical Thinking, Adam Kotlarczyk
Tolkien And Gifted Students: Blending Creative And Critical Thinking, Adam Kotlarczyk
Adam Kotlarczyk
In “The American Scholar,” Emerson warns against letting books become tyrants. As education “reformers,” political forces, and other special interests continue to pull modern teachers in so many different pedagogical directions, Emerson’s warning is increasingly powerful. Books tyrannize, Emerson says, when we use them passively by simply absorbing information from them, rather than actively by catalyzing our own thinking and actions with them. In effect, he claims that books are not something simply to be learned, memorized, or analyzed, but should help us to create. Today’s gifted student, her schedule usually overflowing with work and co-curriculars in an environment often …
Explicating Poetry: Shakespeare's Sonnet 46, Adam Kotlarczyk
Explicating Poetry: Shakespeare's Sonnet 46, Adam Kotlarczyk
Adam Kotlarczyk
The term “explication” comes from a Latin participle of explico, which means to “unfold” or “disentangle.” The term is often applied to philosophy and to literature; in literature, it has become a procedure very important to New Criticism. In the process of explication, a reader forges a detailed analysis of the structural and figurative components within a work, focusing on ambiguities, multiple possibilities of interpretation, and interrelationships between various elements of the text. This lesson introduces students to explication through the reading of a complex poem, practice explicating it as a class, and reading a model explication about the poem. …
Angel Island Poetry: Reading And Writing Cultures, Adam Kotlarczyk
Angel Island Poetry: Reading And Writing Cultures, Adam Kotlarczyk
Adam Kotlarczyk
Object of a darker chapter in American history, the Angel Island Poems (as they have become known) are a recently discovered body of over 135 poems, written primarily in Chinese. These were literally carved into the walls at the Angel Island Immigration Station, where Chinese immigrants were detained, sometimes indefinitely, between approximately 1910-1940. This lesson demonstrates how history and culture can be integral to our understanding of poetry, even poetry that is deeply reflective and personal in nature; by requiring students to model and produce their own poetry, it also makes evident that writing poetry is a creative instinct and …