Category: Uncategorized

The Second Krabappel – or – What is Composition?

The Second Krabappel - or - What is Composition? [after class the next day] Bartocrates: You emailed my parents without telling me?   Ms. Krabappel: Yes? B: I feel violated. K: I’m supporting you, it’s part of my job.  You and I talked about the work you hadn’t done.  I wanted to make sure we were … Continue reading The Second Krabappel – or – What is Composition? →

The Krabappel – or – What Is “AP Literature and Composition” – A Socratic Dialogue in Two Parts

Part 1 - What is Literature? Edna Krabappel: Okay class, please turn to page 357 of Tedious Times, where we left off yesterday, analyzing Dryprose’s prophetic critique of education under industrial society.  As I was explaining before, for those who were listening, we noticed the savage irony of a teacher who could not even conceive … Continue reading The Krabappel – or – What Is “AP Literature and Composition” – A Socratic Dialogue in Two Parts →

Dungeons and Dragons in AP Lit Part 4 – Assessment

This was tricky for me because they were being asked both to create the texts they would eventually analyze, and then in later analyze them.  Here’s what I did: As I’ve posted about previously, the students each participated in 5 85-minute block days where they did 3 things: Read parts of Beowulf, answered questions that … Continue reading Dungeons and Dragons in AP Lit Part 4 – Assessment →

Dungeons and Dragons in AP Lit – Part 3 – Day to Day Lessons

The Adventure - ~3 weeks of class time (5 85-minute blocks) This post and the next will be more nuts and bolts - I’ve previously written about the why, now I’ll share about the how.  This one will be about the bulk of the unit, where kids plays D&D and read Beowulf (some of them … Continue reading Dungeons and Dragons in AP Lit – Part 3 – Day to Day Lessons →

Dungeons and Dragons in AP Lit – Part 2 – How I Set Up the Unit

How I Tried to Make This Work in the Classroom [I will write more later about how the individual class days went as things got moving, and also how I tied this more directly into AP Lit in terms of assessments.] Dungeons and Dragons is notorious for its baroque rules structure.  If the first thing … Continue reading Dungeons and Dragons in AP Lit – Part 2 – How I Set Up the Unit →

Dungeons and Dragons in AP Lit – Addendum to Part 1 – White Supremacy – What Counts as “Literature”

“What do D&D, the Odyssey and Hip-Hop Have in Common?” This question may feel strange because your vision of D&D may conjure up some very specific images of a very specific type of white male. Wanting to press at this a little, when I first posed this question to my class, I then I asked … Continue reading Dungeons and Dragons in AP Lit – Addendum to Part 1 – White Supremacy – What Counts as “Literature” →

Dungeons and Dragons in my AP Lit Classroom – Part 1 – Why Did I Want to Try This?

[I will write more later about what happened in the classroom, what lessons I learned for next time, what I ended up doing to grade them, and how I think this will help them with the rest of the AP Lit curriculum and test) Part 1 - Where Did I Get this Idea?  - Or … Continue reading Dungeons and Dragons in my AP Lit Classroom – Part 1 – Why Did I Want to Try This? →

Twice Inna Lifetime (Track 13) and Conclusions about Teaching

[This is the final part of a longer series – previous track - "Thieves in the Night"] https://www.youtube.com/embed/DZ7dlo3PWhk Reaching the end of these posts I'm brought back to the beginning, the first time I listened to Mos Def and Talib Kweli are Black Star. I got to "Twice Inna Lifetime", about 4.5 miles into the 5 mile … Continue reading Twice Inna Lifetime (Track 13) and Conclusions about Teaching →