literature
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Summer Book Club Week 2: The Chairs are Where The People Go
Guidelines for the Summer Book Club: if you’ve read this book, what did you think? If not, what are you reading this week? Please comment, or post on your own blog and link in the comments below. Sheila Heti’s How Should a Person Be? was one of my Top 10 Books of 2012. I described Continue reading
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Summer Book Club Week 1: Rutu Modan’s The Property
Guidelines for the Summer Book Club: if you’ve read this book, what did you think? If not, what are you reading this week? Please comment, or post on your own blog and link in the comments below. I recently finished The Property, the latest book by Rutu Modan, the graphic novelist responsible for one of my Continue reading
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Summer Book Club: What Are We Reading This Week?
I love the idea of book clubs, but the last thing an English teacher needs is more assigned reading. So I thought: what if we had a book club where we all just talk about whatever we’re reading right now? That way, we can read whatever we want! And talk about it! Once a week, Continue reading
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“I AM the Teacher”
After a long and infuriating day of grading final papers, here’s a random quote from my favourite writer that makes me feel oddly, ambivalently better. ‘You act,’ said one of her Senior Seminar students at a scheduled conference, ‘like your opinion is worth more than everybody else’s in the class.’ Zoe’s eyes widened. ‘I AM Continue reading
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Fiction Makes You Better at Stuff
I’m planning some research on whether reading/studying fiction and other kinds of narrative is really such an important thing to do. I was therefore immediately drawn to this article (even though it’s Saturday night and I’m desperately trying to finish grading a stack of papers): a commentary on why techie geeks should read fiction. Is Continue reading
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This Book is Too Sad
A reader and colleague sent me this question the other day. What would you do in her position? Dear Siobhan, A few of my college students (note, not the class as a whole) have told me they’re having a really hard time with the book we’re studying in class because it’s too sad. It’s The Continue reading
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How Sexy is Too Sexy?
How much explicit sex is acceptable in a book required for a college class? If students have some say in whether they read the book, does that make a difference? One of my courses includes a list of eight novels about adolescence. Four or five students will read each novel and will work together to Continue reading
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When the Syllabus Goes Wrong
I cannot tell a lie. My new course is a failure. This semester, I did a complete overhaul on the English course I teach for Child Studies majors. The earlier version of the course was a solid one. It focused on the topic of childhood relationships in literature: parent-child relationships, sibling relationships, and friendships. We Continue reading
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Why You Should Fall in Love with Abed Nadir or Some Other Imaginary Person
I want my students to believe that it’s good to fall in love with fictional people. But I may be wrong. My English course for Child Studies majors is called “A Question of Character.” We’ve spent the last few weeks discussing what “characterization” means in literature, and what “character” means in life. Along the way, Continue reading
About Me
My job is to teach people to read and write; aside from that, I like to learn things.
Classroom as Microcosm 