In March of 2023, we led two sessions at the California Association of Teachers of English (CATE) Conference in Monterey.

This was our sixth year presenting at the conference.

The topic of the first presentation was “What Are We Doing Here, Anyway? Rethinking and Reaffirming Our Job as English Teachers.” The presentation included discussion of My Little Pony, Frida Kahlo, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, a speech by Mussolini, and lyrics by McCartney. It was a lot of fun!

Feel free to check out the presentation here.

The second presentation was titled, “Weird Lit: Teaching the Postmodern, the Absurd, the Avant-Garde to Engage Reluctant (Or Just Bored) Readers.” The presentation included lots of visual art alongside discussion of Vonnegut, Morrison, Beckett, and Borges. Also lots of fun!

Feel free to check that presentation out here.

We had a great discussion with Erin King for the April 13, 2022 episode of The Teacher’s Pep Rally Podcast. You can listen to it here or wherever you listen to podcasts.

In February of 2022, we facilitated a workshop at the California Association of Teachers of English (CATE) Conference in Long Beach.

This was our fifth year presenting at the conference.

The topic of the presentation was “Reimagining Iconic Texts: New Angles on Old Books.” The presentation used Romeo and Juliet and Night to demonstrate the strategies, and the presentation used material from our book, A Sea of Troubles: Pairing Literary and Informational Texts to Address Social Inequality.

Feel free to check out the presentation here.

We had a great discussion with John Kane for the February 2, 2022 episode of the Tea for Teaching Podcast. You can listen to it here or wherever you listen to podcasts.

We had a great discussion with Doug Roberts and Alexa Escobedo for the January 18, 2022 episode of the Education Thought Leaders Podcast. You can listen to it here or wherever you listen to podcasts.

We had a great discussion with Travis Goulter for the October 3, 2021 episode of Just a Teacher Podcast. You can listen to it here or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Bill’s essay, “In Defense of Defending the Literary Canon,” was published at The Educator’s Room. If you’d like, you can read it here.

An excerpt from our book, A Sea of Troubles: Pairing Literary and Informational Texts to Address Social Inequality, appeared in the September 2021 issue of California English, the journal of the California Association of Teachers of English (CATE).

The excerpt is from our chapter on The Handmaid’s Tale, and you can read a pdf of the issue here.

We had a great conversation with Scott Titsworth for the September 27th episode of NPR’s “Teaching Matters” podcast. Listen to it here or wherever you listen to podcasts.