Monthly Archives: March 2022
Are you concerned about the state of education in America today? You should be. Challenge and high expectations for students are no longer teachers’ main criteria. Lecturing is out. Group work is in. Teachers are expected to entertain, to divert, to achieve the Most Popular Teacher of the Year Award. Such goals, although not necessarily intrinsically wrong, deny God-given ideals about teaching the young. Young people want to learn. God created all of us with a desire to know…..
This is another adventure story with an exciting setting that resonates well with young high school students. James Ullman, one of the first Americans to climb Mount Everest, may have based some details in “Top Man” on George Mallory’s fateful climb up Mount Everest in 1924. Mallory was a British mountaineer who climbed Everest, although it is not known whether he reached the summit. Sir Edmund Hillary was the first man known to have ascended to Everest’s summit in 1953……
A story’s setting refers to the time and place of a literary text. The setting of a story has several possible functions: It often provides background for the story, a place where the characters live. It can evoke a specific mood. It may provide conflict; sometimes the characters are in conflict with hostile weather conditions to endure, a stormy sea to navigate, or a mountain to climb. Setting can be used to reveal a person’s character. Jack London’s setting for…..
I plan to discuss some short stories that are universally popular among young teenage students. The most basic aspect of a story is its plot or the sequence of related events. Without that there’s no story. A plot always involves conflict or struggle. Consider these examples: When the king got up in the morning, he couldn’t find his royal slippers. He became very annoyed. The queen, however, found them under the bed and placed them on her husband’s feet. The…..
Great minds through the ages have centered on the importance for young minds of reading good books. Here’s a brief sampling: “A foundation of knowledge must be laid by reading.” Samuel Johnson “The habit of reading established early in life cannot fail to develop young people into intelligent, useful citizens.” William Thayer “There is more treasure in books than in all the pirates’ loot on Treasure Island.” Walt Disney Books young people read will affect their mental acuity and their…..
Note taking is unpopular. It’s a chore. It takes effort. Young students don’t know what to write down. They tend to turn themselves into human tape recorders and write down the teacher’s every word. First, they need to understand that note taking is a life-long skill. We take notes all our lives–throughout high school and college, at conferences, during sermons, and so on. And professors or public speakers aren’t inclined to repeat themselves. During lectures, it’s crucial to write key…..
Teachers don’t like assigning essays. Students don’t like writing them. But it doesn’t have to be a no-win situation. Nothing works like repetition. Students need to write fairly lengthy essays (minimum 2 typed pages) frequently throughout high school. Although most essays are written out of class, a few should be written in class so that the teacher can regularly assess each student’s writing ability. A good procedure for essay writing is to assign the topic, discuss it with the class,…..
Like anyone else, young people want things to be easy and fast. They rush through assignments given them by literature teachers—if they read them at all. On the first day of school, the teacher must establish ground rules: Incomplete homework results in a zero grade, and so on. When you have assigned a reading, you must initially check for completion. One effective way to do this that I use in 9th and 10th grades is the graded discussion. Here’s how…..
How does one encourage young minds to enjoy literature? Students will study something they think is important like math and science. But with the possible exception of Shakespeare, many young people don’t see the point of, and do not enjoy, reading classic literature. In the immortal words of Flannery O’Connor, “If the student finds that this [good literature] is not to his taste? Well, that is regrettable. Most regrettable. His taste is not being consulted; it is being formed” (Flannery…..
We live in a post-literate world. Many people don’t read for pleasure due largely to electronic distractions. Many young people adopt the habits of their parents and only read books assigned for school or college courses. Although some teenagers enjoy reading good books, the vast majority of them do not. Bookstore employees and librarians tell me the same story. They look at me strangely. “Well, no. They don’t read that any more.” Most teens look for two…..
