Are you stuck for a different writing prompt for your students? I love to visit art museums, and on a recent weekend trip to Boston, I visited the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. I find that I am drawn paintings with light used in surprising or unusual ways. In the painting above, similar to one…
All posts by Jill M Smith
February Reads
I read three books – two fiction and one autobiography for February. All different from each other, but in each the mother and child relationship plays a key role. In Pachinko and Mom & Me & Mom (the autobiography of Maya Angelou) the mother-child relationship evolves over a lifetime. In Very Valentine, the grandmother-granddaughter relationship…
The Red Wheelbarrow: A Gem of a Poem
William Carlos Williams’s poem, “The Red Wheelbarrow,” takes a quaint, domestic scene and turns it into a metaphor. A metaphor of what? That is up to the reader. When teaching in New York City many years ago, a colleague used this poem as a springboard for students to write short poems centered around an object…
January Reads
My January Reads were 5 – 0. All winners. In adult fiction, Miss Benson’s Beetle and Lucky Stiff were laugh-out-loud entertaining while also grappling significant issues in the characters’ lives. Us Against You is the second in a trilogy about a hockey team from a hockey town, and I never thought I’d enjoy reading about…
A Gem of a Poem: Mother to Son
“Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes I often see requests from teachers for short poems that demonstrate various poetic techniques. Whether for a quick bell ringer lesson, an intro to a longer unit, or a variation on a theme in a longer work, short poems are excellent tools for teachers to have in their toolboxes.…
Inspiration for Teachers
The Water is Wide by Pat Conroy I remember reading Pat Conroy’s The Water is Wide in graduate school, 30ish years ago, mesmerized by the narrator’s experiences as a new teacher in an unusual environment – an island off the coast of South Carolina that is nearly deserted and seemingly forgotten by the mainland. The…
Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” & Lois Lowry’s The Giver
These two texts are made for each other. Students enjoy reading them, teachers enjoy teaching them, and together they make for a lively class discussion. The setting of a futuristic, controlling society contrasts with a traditional, old fashioned town, and yet they are eerily similar. Students can analyze language, dialogue, and writing techniques. When in…
“The Yellow Wallpaper” and Jenga
For today’s Teacher Tuesday post, I suggest a combination of a board game and a short story, two of my favorite Perfect Pairings. Board games are the perfect tangible, concrete form to illustrate plot, conflict, resolution, consequences, setting, journey, and many more literary techniques. Board games are also affordable and readily available, and students can…
Beowulf, Grendel, & Toni Morrison
Among the questions in the teaching groups that I follow on social media, I often see requests for an essay or short work to tie in with either Beowulf or Grendel. I want to share a short essay that analyzes Grendel by John Gardner, which many high school teachers are tasked with teaching. In her…
Friday Fishtales
In this section of my blog, I will share pictures, memories, and messages that involve family, fishing, and fun, all of which are themes in my middle-grade novel. I plan to create a new post two Fridays per month, or more if I am so inspired. I hope you enjoy the posts, and please share…
