This article describes an activity using Malcolm Gladwell's "The Tipping Point" as a supplemental text in an undergraduate group communication course. This book will help stimulate conversation and promote easy avenues for classroom discussion. In addition to weekly quizzes over each chapter to help facilitate rich classroom discussions, the…

In this Voices Inside Schools essay, a veteran teacher shares her reflections on a classroom unit entitled "How Language Reveals Character." The goal of the unit is to help adolescents read and write critically through an exploration of literary characters' language. Beginning by drawing on adolescents' fascination with one another,…

Presents a point, counterpoint strategy which helps students build a repertoire of interpretive strategies that can be enlisted when dealing with complex short stories. Notes that the key to the strategy is that students begin with their personal responses and move toward more public and generalized interpretations. (RS)

Discusses an alternative to the conventional close reading of a literary work in which students take on the role of any member of a film crew (director, screenwriter, filmscorer, etc.) and communicate how the scene would best be transferred to the screen. Notes that the activity cultivates critical analysis and serves as a springboard for personal…

Based on Joseph Conrad's novel "Heart of Darkness," this lesson plan presents activities designed to help students understand that critics have debated some of Conrad's choices in the novel; and that the novel reflects the world as Conrad saw it. The main activity of the lesson involves students rewriting the ending of the novel so that Marlow…

Developed by classroom teachers during the development phase of Minnesota's Graduation Standards, this performance package is made up of locally designed assignments that, taken together, show whether a student has learned and can apply the knowledge and skills related to writing in the English language for a variety of academic purposes and…