by Carolyn | Sep 25, 2017 | film, Literature, Teaching
It Began with Disney. In the early 1930s, when Disney was at the height of its creativity in cartoon animation, it was common practice for the artists working at the studio to pin their rough sketches onto bulletin boards. They would do this in order to visually...
by Carolyn | Sep 19, 2017 | English, film, Literature, Teaching
I don’t know about you but I get really peeved when people use the word ‘classic’ as a synonym for ‘old’ or ‘dull.’ People arguing against the inclusion of classic literature in English courses invariably infer that if a text is a classic then it is old and...
by Carolyn | Sep 16, 2017 | English, film, Literature, reading, Teaching
Teaching visual literacy and film can be a lot of fun. If there is anything our students are familiar with it is film. However, just like novels, plays, poetry and other forms of literature, film has its own conventions and terminology. I have to make a confession...
by Carolyn | Aug 8, 2017 | English, Literature, reading, Teaching
Imagine all the students in your English class arrived each day having read the novels, plays, poetry or short stories that they were working on. Imagine not being frustrated because the lesson you so carefully prepared didn’t work because the students hadn’t done the...
by Carolyn | Jul 25, 2016 | English, Literature, Teaching
Nothing is more surely designed to drown any flickering student interest in a book than chapter questions. Honestly, if there is a good reason why we still do this it is beyond my comprehension. And this is the point isn’t it? Comprehension. I have always loved to...
by Carolyn | Jun 21, 2016 | English, Literature, Teaching
When it comes to text books for many subjects, hire-book schemes can be really helpful. Many of these books are expensive to buy and as they are used year after year it makes sense to ensure that all students have access. However I think they are deadly for English...
