The authors present a new young adult novel as a focal point for preparing prospective secondary teachers to employ a rich variety of literacies to enhance literature instruction. The hope is to encourage literature teachers to consider a wide range of useful methodologies available across generations of educational research. By demonstrating how…

High school teacher Sheldon S. Kohn probes the conflicting dynamics that occur for educators who try to provide students with appropriate tools for thinking and living in a postmodernist, intellectual world, yet who must teach in antiquated school systems that support modernist philosophies and hierarchical practices. Kohn imagines students and…

This article explores the ways that students in a humanities class talked about, researched, and disrupted homophobia at Jones School, a public combined middle school and high school in a small New England town. It includes strategies that move beyond discussions of right and wrong to a place of critical inquiry and support for the human rights of…

High school teacher C. Lynn Jacobs noted that the long-term English language learners in her class had improved in reading comprehension but still lacked writing skills. Inspired by a state humanities project, she worked with the students to publish a collection of stories and poems. Writing about their lives provided the motivation, and writing…

The image of the labyrinth from mythology can find modern day parallelisms in architecture, art, music, and literature--all of which contributes to a humanities unit combining the old with the new. (MM)

Describes two double-period humanities courses taught in the 10th and the 11th grades (based on the rigorous New York State Regents standards) that interweave literature, history, political philosophy, art, historical documents, and personal experience. Describes the 10th-grade course that includes Western civilization and the 11th-grade course…

Discusses and reviews World Wide Web sites of use and interest to English teachers. Discusses particular sites to browse, such as ERIC, KIDLINK, and some teacher discussion forums. Notes particular sites on the Internet for use in English Humanities classes; books online; famous author home pages; library links; writing sites online; literature;…

Self-expression divorced from discipline threatens our whole cultural heritage. (JH)

A defense of the study of the humanities in light of the back-to-basics movement. (DD)

The impact of seminars on lessons in the English classroom as well as their importance in helping to build community within the profession is described. An English teacher has described how he found collaborative professional development through participating in the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Summer Seminars and also its impact on…

Discribes interdisciplinary approach to teaching American Culture by a multi-faceted study of a decade that relates the part to the whole and suggests further curricular possibilities. (Author/GB)

Describes a one-semester elective English course for seniors. (DD)

Presents a fictionalized true story about the creation of an interdisciplinary humanities program at a small Nebraska private high school. (TO)

The humanities department of the community college where the author teaches has a long-standing policy regarding the demand for sentence-structure correctness in all the composition courses that they provide. That policy holds students accountable for total control over the rules that govern sentence structure. Any student paragraph or essay that…