APA Reference List: General Formatting
(View Complete Item Description)In this learning object, students will review the basic formatting of reference list citations following APA style, 6th edition.
Material Type: Interactive
All resources in U.P. English Teachers
Conventions 101: A Functional Approach to Teaching (and Assessing!) Grammar and Punctuation
(View Complete Item Description)This is a collection of cumulative units of study for conventional errors common in student writing. It's flexible, functional, and zeroes in problems typically seen in writing of all types, from the eternal "there/they're/their" struggle to correct colon use. Units are organized from most simple to most challenging.
Material Type: Teaching/Learning Strategy
Group Reading: "The Black Cat" by Edgar Allan Poe
(View Complete Item Description)The object consists of a text in the public domain that has been downloaded from the web, uploaded into the web-based application Kami, and annotated by me with instructions and reflection questions for the students. Students whould read the story while adding their own annotations (such as observations or questions). They may also highlight or underline sections of text and respond to the comments of other students. The activity is meant to integrate a whole-class read-aloud and an independent active reading of the text, taking the best from both: students will be able to engage in a discussion with their classmates while reading reflecting, and annotating at their own pace.
Material Type: Interactive
1984
(View Complete Item Description)This unit walks students through a variety of activities revolving around George Orwell's book '1984'.
Material Type: Unit of Study
Towards an Open Anthology of Poetry
(View Complete Item Description)A selection of poems, arranged by theme, with a list of poetic terms.
Material Type: Textbook
Edgar Allan Poe Introductory Animoto
(View Complete Item Description)Students will view this slideshow online as the first activity in a blended unit. The activity is meant to introduce the author and some of his works, including several that the students will read as part of the unit. It is primarily intended to spark student interest in the unit. However, it will also aid the students in that they will be better poristioned to read the author's works if they have some sense of what to expect in terms of themes. The choice to include such as introductory tool into the unit was based upon prior observations regarding the difficulty of getting students engaged in any lesson when nothing had been done to sprak their interest beforehand.
Material Type: Lesson
Introduction to Fiction
(View Complete Item Description)This course investigates the uses and boundaries of fiction in a range of novels and narrative styles--traditional and innovative, western and nonwestern--and raises questions about the pleasures and meanings of verbal texts in different cultures, times, and forms. Toward the end of the term, we will be particularly concerned with the relationship between art and war in a diverse selection of works.
Material Type: Full Course
Major Authors: Rewriting Genesis: Paradise Lost and Twentieth-Century Fantasy, Spring 2009
(View Complete Item Description)What does the Genesis story of creation and temptation tell us about gender, about heterosexuality, and about the origins of evil? What is the nature of God, and how can we account for that nature in a cosmos where evil exists? When is rebellion justified, and when is authority legitimate? These are some of the key questions that engaged the poet John Milton, and that continue to engage readers of his work.
Material Type: Full Course
Studies in Poetry: 20th Century Irish Poetry: The Shadow of W. B. Yeats, Spring 2008
(View Complete Item Description)William Butler Yeats occupies a dominant position in the lives and work of the Irish poets who followed him. We will explore some of that poetry, and consider how later poets, especially female poets, tried to come to grips with, or escape from, that dominance. As a seminar, the subject will place special emphasis on student involvement and control. I will ask you to submit one ten-twelve page essay, two shorter (five page) essays, and to accept the role of "leadoff person," perhaps more than once, That role will demand that you choose from among the assigned readings for that session the poem we should focus upon, and to offer either a provocative articulation of what the poem is about, or a provocative question which the poem confronts, and which we should grapple with, as well.
Material Type: Full Course
Major Authors: After the Masterpiece: Novels by Melville, Twain, Faulkner, and Morrison, Fall 2006
(View Complete Item Description)This seminar provides intensive study of exciting texts by four influential American authors. In studying paired works, we can enrich our sense of each author's distinctive methods, get a deeper sense of the development of their careers, and shake up our preconceptions about what makes an author or a work "great." Students will get an opportunity to research an author in depth, as well as making broader comparisons across the syllabus.
Material Type: Full Course
The Nature of Creativity, Fall 2005
(View Complete Item Description)This course is an introduction to problems about creativity as it pervades human experience and behavior. Questions about imagination and innovation are studied in relation to the history of philosophy as well as more recent work in philosophy, affective psychology, cognitive studies, and art theory. Readings and guidance are aligned with the student's focus of interest.
Material Type: Full Course
The American Novel: Stranger and Stranger, Spring 2013
(View Complete Item Description)This course covers works by major American novelists, beginning with the late 18th century and concluding with a contemporary novelist. The class places major emphasis on reading novels as literary texts, but attention is paid to historical, intellectual, and political contexts as well. The syllabus varies from term to term, but many of the following writers are represented: Rowson, Hawthorne, Melville, Twain, Wharton, James, and Toni Morrison. Previously taught topics include The American Revolution and Makeovers (i.e. adaptations and reinterpretation of novels traditionally considered as American "Classics"). May be repeated for credit with instructor's permission so long as the content differs.
Material Type: Full Course
American Literature, Spring 2013
(View Complete Item Description)This course studies the national literature of the United States since the early 19th century. It considers a range of texts - including, novels, essays, and poetry - and their efforts to define the notion of American identity. Readings usually include works by such authors as Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry David Thoreau, Frederick Douglass, Emily Dickinson, and Toni Morrison.
Material Type: Full Course
Reading Poetry, Spring 2018
(View Complete Item Description)How do you read a poem? Intuition is not the only answer. In this class, we will investigate some of the formal tools poets use—meter, sound, syntax, word-choice, and other properties of language—as well as exploring a range of approaches to reading poetry, from the old (memorization and reading out loud) to the new (digitally enabled visualization and annotation). We will use readings available online via the generosity of the Poetry Foundation and the Academy of American Poets. We will also think collectively about how to approach difficult poems.
Material Type: Full Course
Reading Fiction: Dysfunctional Families, Spring 2007
(View Complete Item Description)This course explores the form, content, and historical context of various works of fiction specifically through the thematic lens of "dysfunctional families." We will focus primarily on questions pertaining to the structure, language, story, and characters of these fictional works.
Material Type: Full Course
Gender Equality in Public Education – The Civil Rights Litigation Schoolhouse
(View Complete Item Description)Through most of U.S. history, women had limited access to educational programs and extracurricular activities. Most women were excluded from elite academic institutions, and those schools that accepted female applicants required them to have higher test scores and grades than their male counterparts. In the 1960s and 1970s, civil rights activists advocated for federal enforcement of equal opportunities for male and female students. In response, Congress enacted Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. This unit asks students to consider the scope and application of Title IX through the examination of statutory text, federal regulations, enforcement policies, and court decisions. Students are guided to confront questions about how the provisions of Title IX ensure nondiscrimination on the basis of gender, and to think about what sex equality means across different contexts. This unit contains 5 lessons: Lesson 1: Conceptualizing Equality and Non-Discrimination Lesson 2: Analyzing Title IX and Athletics Lesson 3: Applying Title IX Beyond Sports Lesson 4: Applying Title IX Lesson 5: Reshaping Title IX
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Assessment, Case Study, Homework/Assignment
How Effective Were the Efforts of the Freedmen’s Bureau?
(View Complete Item Description)Students will analyze documents from the War Department’s Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands — better known as the Freedmen’s Bureau — that Congress established on March 3, 1865, as the Civil War was coming to an end. Using the scale in Weighing the Evidence, students will evaluate the effectiveness of the Freedmen’s Bureau in assisting formerly enslaved persons. Learning Objectives: Students will be able to identify and draw conclusions about the roles of the Freedmen’s Bureau (Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands), critically analyze primary sources, formulate opinions about the effectiveness of the Bureau, and back up their opinions verbally or in writing.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Diagram/Illustration, Interactive
Unit 4: Stop-and-Frisk: Fourth Amendment Violation or Necessary for Public Safety? – The Civil Rights Litigation Schoolhouse
(View Complete Item Description)Some controversies arise when our shared values and principles conflict with one another. Police “stop-and-frisk” policy is one such issue. In stop-and-frisk, police officers stop, question, and conduct a pat-down search of pedestrians or occupants of cars. This unit will allow students the opportunity to explore and evaluate this issue through a variety of nonfiction sources, evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of the authors’ arguments. The focus of this unit is on the close reading of texts, and on building and supporting an argument. This Unit contains 4 lessons: Lesson 1: Stop-and-frisk Overview Lesson 2: Analysis of Court Opinion Lesson 3: Stop-and-frisk Evaluating the Positions Lesson 4: Stop-and-frisk Debate
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Homework/Assignment
Modern Slavery & Human Trafficking: an Introduction
(View Complete Item Description)This is an introductory lesson meant to introduce the issues of slavery and human trafficking, both historical and contemporary, and allow students to begin a research project pertaining to that topic.
Material Type: Lesson Plan
Book 5, Music Across Classrooms: English Language Arts. Chapter 8, Lesson 1: Blues, Poetry, and the Harlem Renaissance
(View Complete Item Description)In this lesson, students will discuss how the ideals of the Harlem Renaissance and Locke's New Negro were exemplified by the poetry of Langston Hughes. Specifically, they will examine how Hughes incorporated the vernacular tradition of the Blues in his work, and identify the literary techniques Hughes employs to make his poetry so vivid.
Material Type: Full Course