Engaged Learning

I loved the author's ideas on teaching for engaged reading. Sometimes I think it's easy for English teachers to get in a bubble and forget that not everybody loves dissecting literature as much as we do---in fact, there are some students who actively avoid and even dread it.

I especially loved the technique of the anticipation guide, which the author uses to teach "Letters from a Birmingham Jail." (page 94) This technique seemed especially effective in engaging students who might be turned off from literature, fearing they must look for "traditional" bits of information: metaphors, similes, and the like. Here, the teacher is allowing the student to be okay with searching for big ideas. More importantly, the teacher is encouraging the student to be in a dialogue with the text---the text isn't just some puzzle for them to solve; it's a serving platter giving students an idea to support or argue against.

This technique would be very useful when teaching Shakespeare. Imagine posing this for your students: "I would do absolutely anything to get what I want." Or how about, "Magic and the supernatural has no place in modern society." It'd definitely be a cool way to hook some of those less-interested English students.