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A Sea of Troubles: Pairing Literary and Informational Texts to Address Social Inequality

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Publisher: Rowman and Littlefield

Publication Date: May 2021

ISBN: 978-1-4758-5751-1

A Sea of Troubles has been designed for classroom teachers struggling to address the overwhelming issues facing our world today. By embracing the Common Core’s emphasis on the inclusion of more nonfiction, informational texts, the authors have demonstrated how to incorporate meaningful informational texts into their favorite units of literature. A Sea of Troubles shows teachers how literature and informational texts can work together, to enhance each other, and, by extension, enhance student’s abilities to critically think and respond to the sea of troubles that pervades society.

Table of Contents:

  • Chapter One: Syntactical Othering and The Merchant of Venice
  • Chapter Two: Racial Injustice and A Raisin in the Sun
  • Chapter Three: Intertextuality in The Merchant of Venice and A Raisin in the Sun
  • Chapter Four: Abuses of Power and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
  • Chapter Five: Authoritarianism in 1984 and Animal Farm
  • Chapter Six: Genocide and Ethnic Internment in Night and Farewell to Manzanar
  • Chapter Seven: Gender Inequality and The Handmaid’s Tale
  • Chapter Eight: The Tragedy of Growing Up in Romeo and Juliet and To Kill a Mockingbird

Method to the Madness: A Common Core Guide to Creating Critical Thinkers through the Study of Literature

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Publisher: Rowman and Littlefield

Publication Date: March 2016

ISBN: 978-1-4758-2538-1

This book is ideal for the thousands of teachers who entered the profession in the last ten years and taught prescribed curriculum geared toward end-of-year bubble testing. Its intent is to empower districts and their teachers to create their own (free!) curriculum that will exceed the expectations of Common Core assessments, as well as create life-long learners that are college and career ready. By employing inquiry based units of study that insist on the use of iconic literature at the center, students will be more prepared for what awaits them with Common Core exams.

Table of Contents:

Chapter 1: Writing for Critical Thinking and Logical Cohesiveness (Or, How to Survive the Shift to Common Core)
Chapter 2: Begin with Close Reading
Chapter 3: The Great Gatsby: Applying the Skills of Close Reading
Chapter 4: The Taming of the Shrew: An Introduction to Shakespeare
Chapter 5: Teaching Hamlet: Or, How to Approach the Most Important Piece of Literature Ever Written
Chapter 6: Teaching Fiction Writing: The Importance of Allowing Students to Create, Revise, and Publish
Chapter 7: Slaughterhouse 5 and The Things They Carried: Appreciating Postmodern Approaches to Fiction
Chapter 8: Toni Morrison’s Beloved: Recognizing and Evaluating Theme and Purpose in a Complex Text
Chapter 9: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Abraham Lincoln: Designing a Cross-Curricular Unit of Study