English teachers

I found out today that I'll be teaching honors English 2 next fall. I've never taught honors students before; in fact, I've mostly had struggling or low-ability students. We use the Prentice Hall textbook, and I hate it. I'm required to teach Julius Caesar, Antigone, A Doll's House, and A Separate Peace (yuck!).

I've never had students who could write a whole paragraph, let alone an essay. I'd love advice on teaching writing and what other literature I can bring into the class.

When I taught 10th grade, I used Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde paired with several short stories that featured dopplegangers ("Markheim" by Robert Louis Stevenson and "William Wilson" by Edgar Allan Poe).  I also taught Lord of the Flies and had a "Survivor" competition, much like the Hogwarts House Competition in Harry Potter.  By the way, when teaching Julius Caesar, be careful of trying to put it in "real" terms for the kids... I was talking about how Caesar's arrogant speech about being "as constant as the Northern Star" was an example of dramatic irony because the audience knew that Caesar was about to get "whacked off" by Casca.  Five adolescent boys ended up rolling on the floor in hysterics.  When I didn't get what was so funny, one of them filled me in that the proper term for killing someone is to "get whacked"... and then explained the other to me.  Yeah... my face still burns at the memory...

Alas Babylon! is awesome.  My kids always love it...nuclear holocaust and all that--set in Florida and many places will be familar to them (Orlando, Daytona, etc.)

You might also look into taking some of the pressure off of yourself and putting it on the students. Try the Socratic Seminar form of class discussion.  Give the students roles the day or two before, and get them started reading passages more closely, writing and asking their own questions, and discussing the literature at a more in-depth level.  You'll be surprised what they come up with...of course, it may take a few sessions to get them used to the process.  Also, in order to participate, they have to have read and filled out the questions for their role (passage master, word master, connecter to the real world, metaphor/simile master, symbol sage, etc.)

I'll be happy to share more if you are interested.

In reply to #3: I'd love more info. I'm not familiar with this. Thanks!

It can be great fun to work with students who are up to a challenge.  You can design some fun writing assignments for them.  One writing assignment I used with Julius Caesar was to have them imagine that Brutus and Cassius had been captured before committing suicide.  Then they had to write the speech that each would give before the Senate justifying their actions.  I got some great speeches, some even in Shakespearean English.  Another thing my more advanced students have enjoyed was entering contests:  they each entered a sonnet writing contest and two of them actually won an essay contest.   I have also had students write letters from modern characters placed somewhere on the levels of Dante's Hell (telling how they ended up there) and have had artistic interpertations of the levels of Hell.  Be creative and allow them to be creative.

In my syllabus for my Honors kids I make it clear that the point of education is not the maniacal insatiable accumulation of points. Their job is to think, not focus on the grade. They are like sharks. When they sense points are in the water get into a frenzy and forget to think. 

SO, when a group gets especially whipped up for points, I will hand a lesser valued assignment, like a vocab sheet or something and have a perfect score already photo copied in the corner to take the pressure off. Then I make them think their way through it.

Most of all you will find that high acheiving groups and low acheiving groups have one huge factor in common. They thrive when the lesson planning is a little looser and allows for a little creative freedom. Both groups need an organic environment to provoke thought.

In reply to #3: I am also very interested in hearing more about the socratic seminar methods you use.  Please do tell!!

In reply to #1:

Having students choose a book on writing for independent reading that they can then teach concepts to the class that they gleaned from the reading can be an interesting and interactive approach that I have used. Some possible books on writing include: Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott, Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg, Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury, On Writing by Stephen King. A school librarian can be helpful with finding good books on writing that go beyond being a resource or reference text.

Creating writing groups that students stay with for the whole course in order to build academic relationships to help each other with revision and writing ideas has worked pretty well also.

There is a program (it requires taking workshops to get the text) put out by the University of Kansas Research called Strategic Instruction Model that has a paragraph writing strategy that I have found to be extremely helpful, although formulaic, that I have used from grades 7 through 12. I've had students come back to me for the diagram structure to use in college writing to keep their writing organized.

There are also many practice tests related to SAT and ACT tests online to help with writing skills and prepping for those college entrance tests. I invested in the big practice book for SATs to guide me in what grammar issues I should focus on to help students with college prep.

Good luck!