In the writing of "Frankenstein", Mary Shelley was able to change the course of women's learning, forever. Her life started from an elite standpoint as the child of Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin. As such, she was destined to grow to be a major influence in the world. Mary Shelley's formative years were spent with her father and his many…

This article highlights a project that encourages students to connect reading and mathematics instruction by using a data analysis approach. Students analyze sonnets from statistical, literary, and historical points of view in an effort to uncover the true identity of William Shakespeare. (Contains 10 figures.)

"Oedipus Rex" dramatizes a collision of past, present, and future. Once Oedipus recognizes the connection between the past and his horrific present, he stabs out his eyes, ashamed at what he has wrought and unwilling to look upon his future. The 21st-century English language arts classroom is in the midst of a collision as well. Coming into…

In the last twenty years, the teaching of reading in Britain has moved away from an interest in how children take delight in, and make meaning of, their literature to a preoccupation with a mechanistic approach to literacy which breaks down texts into bite-sized chunks and fragments reading into a series of isolated skills. Although an expensive,…

This study examined the effects of an intervention in writing with digital interactive books. To improve the writing skills of seventh- and eighth-grade students with a learning disability in reading, we conducted a quasi-experimental study in which the students read interactive digital books (i-books), took notes, wrote summaries, and acted as…

In this article the author shares his thoughts on how perceptions can be distorted by blinders people impose on themselves which brings him back to one of his literary and intellectual loadstones--"The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." He learned that the English department at the school where he taught has changed the American literature syllabus.…

The author is an enthusiastic supporter of using young adult literature in the classroom with gifted learners--so much, that he has been accused of being "against" the classics. Not so, but he does ask about and challenges teachers to tell him if their classroom use of the classics is appropriate. Do the classics provide the kind of interaction…

The author has written about his journey to Inner Mongolia, where he helped university students mount a production of a Shakespeare play, which led him to reflect on an earlier, perhaps even more improbable journey. He then describes his growth from a student with dyslexia into a teacher, and principal as the result of guidance and encouragement…

The debate over the best delivery of general education, whether through a canon of Great Books, a core curriculum of specific courses and course sequences, or a distribution requirement of course types providing for greater student choice, has existed for generations. Today, the debate plays out in practice across the top-rated colleges and…

High school teachers Simao J. A. Drew and Brenda G. Bosnic help familiarize students with gender role analysis and feminist theory. Students examine classic literature and contemporary texts, considering characters' historical, literary, and social contexts while expanding their understanding of how patterns of identity and gender norms exist and…

The authors decided to use Bob Dylan's 2004 memoir "Chronicles" as a text in their freshman humanities seminars at Villanova University, partly to illustrate to increasingly career-oriented students--prospective engineers, business majors, and the like--how a liberal education and exposure to classic literature are relevant to everyone, and partly…

Today many authors and artists adapt works of classic literature into a medium more "user friendly" to the increasingly visual student population. Stefan Petrucha and Kody Chamberlain's version of "Beowulf" is one example. The graphic novel captures the entire epic in arresting images and contrasts the darkness of the setting and characters with…

How can teachers build students' interest and engagement in reading texts in the high school English curriculum while still providing access to challenging texts from the canon? Teachers typically expect their secondary students to read texts from the English canon because these texts offer opportunities for meaningful reflections on essential…

Reading skills are vital to student success, and those skills could be practiced with Shakespeare "if students are taught reading skills in the classroom." The problem is that many teachers of English do not consider themselves reading specialists and do not teach reading skills to their students. Fred L. Hamel notes that teachers in a recent…

Exceptional creators develop existing domains or create new domains through their contribution of products that are highly valued by society in a particular domain. Typically, adults make these value judgments. This study explored whether Gardner's (1997) model of an Exceptional Creator [EC], which was developed from a cross-domain analysis and…