Stephanie Daniel

Your thesis is strong (can be argued and proven using facts from the novel): You are going to discuss how each of the three characters represents the moral decay that Fitzgerald criticizes in his...

For Jay Gatsby (or James Gatz, his original name), his past is a roadblock to his future. Gatsby is, or at least wants to be, the embodiment of the American Dream, even if this means lying and...

Without knowing the parameters of your assignment, I can really only offer suggestions for topics that you can discuss in either a Power Point presentation or an essay: 1. Look at the unnamed...

I am not sure if this has been said, but I like the students to write letters to the upcoming class. In this letter, I ask them to talk about their strengths and weaknesses in English, and, more...

What is your number ONE rule in the classroom and why? If you could summarize all your expectations for optimum learning in your classroom, what would it be and why? Have RESPECT!!!! I have found...

It has been years since I have read the play, but I have read it a number of times, so I am certainly up for any questions or discussion ideas you may have!

It really depends on what, specifically, you need. Elements of Style by William Strunk - Nice, general guidelines, particularly when composition is taught alongside literature. Any MLA or APA...

Personally, here is what I deem the most culturally important texts: 1. The collected works of Mark Twain 2. The complete works of William Shakespeare 3. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner 4. The...

1. My almost insurmountable rage at people who hypercorrect..."just between you and I..." 2. My inability to watch inspirational teacher movies as I am constantly wondering where these teachers...

I really, really hope not.  I am, by no means, a literary snob, but as a lover of books, I cannot imagine enjoying books without the touch of the pages.  Also, I have a really hard...

I would focus on the syntax of the story and how so little is said about what the two characters are really discussing. When I have done this story in the past, I usually do not give my students...

George Eliot (real name Mary Ann Evans) wrote from about the late 1850s into the late 1870s. Frances Hodgson Burnett - The Secret Garden Kate Chopin Martha Finley Gail Hamilton Christina Rossetti...

In terms of the negative things people do in order to belong to a group or the difficulties these people face finding the right fit, there are a number of young adult novels and short stories...

I love all of the Brontes, particularly Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights and Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. I also enjoy Rudyard Kipling, Christina Rossetti, and Bram Stoker.

What a fun question! Here are a few suggestions: "Pasttime Paradise" Stevie Wonder - Deals with ideas of racism and prejudice and how this things should and will change. "A Change is Gonna Come"...

You can do a comparison on a couple of different topics: Historical Angle - You could look at other literature depicting World War II or the effects of this war - Elie Wiesel's Night, The Diary of...

I think it is certainly a topic to be commented on while reading the text. My students hate to read, and one of the main reasons I choose this novel is to show them the devastating effects of a...

Not only is adolescence emotionally and hormonally charged, but it is also the period of time when children tend to rebel more overtly against their parents because these kids are in search of...

You would think that with blood relationships that you can always love and trust that person because you are kin, but unfortunately, that is not always the case. I am very close to my family, so in...

Having only taught for five years, I still have difficulty with parents. I most likely would have reacted the same way that you did.  In terms of failures, I usually have my students call...

I absolutely loved it. I found the narrator to be darkly comedic, and I thought the author either had teenagers of her own or spent a great deal of time with teens, as the diction was spot on.

What you have so far is a very broad statement: Racism is bad; justice is good. You can get a really strong essay out of exploring the different facets of racism and justice. Yes, the trial of Tom...

1. "Harlem" by Langston Hughes 2. "Those Winter Sundays" by Robert Hayden 3. "I Hear America Singing" by Walt Whitman 4. "The Wasteland" by T.S. Eliot (though he might not claim himself as...

The best American short stories, well in my humble opinion, include the following: 1. William Faulkner's "Barn Burning" 2. Ray Bradbury's "A Sound of Thunder" 3. Richard Connell's "The Most...

1. enotes.com, of course 2. Teaching summer school 3. Having students purchase books and giving them extra credit for giving your their copies once they are finished. I have gotten a number of...

If you like time - travel you should check out Slaughterhouse - Five by Kurt Vonnegut. The Curious Case of Benjamin Buttons F. Scott Fitzgerald Elsewhere Gabrielle Zevin There is also a trilogy of...

She loses it at the party at the Ministerial Mansion.

This is my 5th year of teaching, which I consider to be the make-or-break year for a lot of teachers (we've all seen the statistics on teachers who leave the profession by 5 years in).  I...

"Mr. Chong, whom I secretly nicknamed Old Chong, was very strange, always tapping his fingers to the silent music of an invisible orchsta. He looked ancient in my eyes. He had lost most of the h...

It is certainly never overtly stated in the text, but it is implied through context clues, particularly the line in which the American explains to Jig that the operation is simple because "it's...

The response in #2 is an awesome way to get started. You may also want to compare and contrast different characters. Compare and contrast essays give you a really nice structure to follow if you...

I haven't actually tried this yet, but have any of you heard of the game Apples to Apples?  It is a card game in which one card gives a list of adjectives. Each player has seven of their own...

You could talk about the culture clash between East and West Egg. You could also talk about how characters such as Daisy, Tom, and other wealty individuals become morally corrupt and how this...

1. Teenagers do really stupid things. 2. Feuding and violence can have devastating and far - reaching effects. 3. Loving too passionately can burn out very quickly.

1. Eating overly salty foods and not drinking enough water. 2. Swearing profusely in traffic 3. Enjoying America's Next Top Model (more of a guilty pleasure, than a vice) 4. Becoming too reliant on...

It depends on what facet of the world you are talking about. In terms of sexuality, kids now know way more than I ever did growing up. The Internet has made getting vast amounts of knowledge much...

I wholeheartedly agree with your assertion that it will increase the drop - out rate. My students were writing position papers on this very topic, and almost all of them cited an increased drop -...

We are told in the beginning of the story that Jing Mei's mother is a Chinese immigrant who came to San Francisco in 1949. The reader can assume that the story takes place here, and Amy Tan throws...

In order to answer this question, it is important to focus not just on the fact that her husband killed her bird, but on how the husband killed the bird -- he broke its neck, and the reader can...

As a high school teacher, I know that the reason for students' restricted free speech is due in large part for the safety of all students and the sanity of faculty and staff.  I have seen...

This is a very broad question, so I will do my best to point you in the right direction. At the time she was writing this novel, Woolf was reading a great deal of Freud, so the relationship among...

In terms of style, it seems as though Woolf was attempting to capture the fleeting, elusive nature of reality through the use of multiple perspectives.  It would be difficult to describe any...

I have definitely felt that there are some students who do want us to do the work for them. I try my best to be vague with my answers without being entirely evasive.  My answers tend to be...

Animal House Evil Knieval Partridge Family Disco The Godfather Son of Sam The Carpenters The Bee Gees Shag Carpeting Block Parties Mork and Mindy Saturday Day Night Live - The golden years! ABBA

We use the Marlon Brando film version of Caesar in conjunction with reading the play.  It is a fairly close adaptation, with the exception of a few scenes.  We read each act in it...

Underconsumption and overinvestment led to an economic bubble that was an underlying cause of the Great Depression. Vicious cycle, with virtually every country being affected by the U.S.'s Great...

The title Of Mice and Men is in reference to Robert Burns' poem.  The full phrase is "the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry."  I would look at the literal meaning of this...

I have to agree with number 2 that both sexes can benefit from comics. To that, I will add that there are a number of comic or graphic novels that teens will love. Try the American Library...

Well, with a line like "fat, black heart" in the last stanza amidst a number of other negative images, I am going to have to argue that Sylvia was not a huge fan of her daddy.  Perhaps she...

"Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us.  It eluded us then, but that's no matter -- tomorrow we will run faster, stretch our arms...