Annotated Bibliography

After collecting three wonderful supplementary texts and two extremely useful student websites, I feel prepared to introduce an English unit for ninth-graders based around Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. The unit would consist of eleven lessons, with different focuses throughout. The first two lessons would be modeled around the interactive journals my students keep, using entries predicting the next events in the life of Scout Finch. Next, I would move into sentence composing lessons, teaching students about the use of gerund phrases and participial phrases using excerpts from the book and the Killgallon Sentence Composing text. After that, I would dedicate two lessons to viewing the classic film adaptation of the novel, and allow students to experience the story through a visual-auditory medium. The unit would conclude with a five-lesson composition series focusing on symbolism within the novel, and I would introduce the idea of symbolism by using scenes from Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner and excerpts from Ian Bogost’s Unit Operations (a fascinating text dedicated to explaining how video games teach children to understand symbolism and signs) to explain symbolism in the world, and art itself. The next four lessons would revolve around modeling an essay, pre-writing, peer editing, and writing to fit the standards of a rubric.


Average-level ability students would be able to benefit from the texts I’ve selected because many of the lessons, specifically the ones centered around journals and performing skits as formative assessments, call for a deeper understanding of the setting of the story. Students would be able to connect some of Harper Lee’s real experiences with events in the text while also identifying with the tragedy of seeing the kidnapping of Emmett Till. The degradation of the South after the Civil War is also detailed in the Freedom Road text, allowing students to view some of the Southern characters in the novel in a less villainous light. The websites selected allow students to effectively research and construct their compositions for the unit while also publishing them in an exciting modern format. Collecting these texts for the students of this unit allows the educator to give context for a time gone by, and strengthen the comprehension of literature and the application of knowledge for every student in the class.


Madden, K. (2009). Up Close: Harper Lee. New York: Viking.

Flesch-Kincaid Estimate: 8.1

Part of the Up Close series, focusing on twentieth-century masters of art and science such as Rachel Carson, Johnny Cash and even Oprah Winfrey, Kerry Madden’s biography of the reclusive Harper Lee contains 224 pages of insight to the lifestyle and creative process of the author of To Kill a Mockingbird. The opening chapter of the book contains a detailed overview of the only published novel by Nelle Harper Lee, then going into a detailed discussion of her childhood and how those events shaped her worldview in the novel. Page 57 details the origins of the character of Arthur “Boo” Radley, most likely based on Alfred “Son” Boulware, a seemingly strange loner in Lee’s childhood who she longed to comprehend, and empathize, with. Page 117 details the influence that Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood held over Lee, and her perspective on drafting a novel based on the wanton murder of a young black innocent. By the time the book reaches 165 pages, Lee has published a wildly acclaimed novel that fostered a breathtaking film adaptation, giving her a free trip to the White House to visit President Johnson.

For the purposes of pedagogy, however, readers would focus on the beginnings of the novel to draw parallels between the life of Harper Lee and the events of the novel for a journal-based lesson. Students would read the first chapter of the novel in class and then their homework assignment would be to read a handout of the first chapter of Up Close: Harper Lee. The next day would involve students writing a prose paragraph or two of their own lives, modeled after Harper Lee writing about her own experiences. Throughout the unit, students would be referred back to the text as events parallel the life of Harper Lee herself.



Osborne, L. B. (2009). Reconstruction. In Traveling the Freedom Road: From Slavery & the Civil War through Reconstruction (pp. 79-118). New York: Abrams Books for Young Readers.

Flesch-Kincaid Estimate: 9.6

Thoroughly loaded with photographs and transcripts from Civil War-era speeches, Traveling the Freedom Road is a spectacular grade-level text for students. Written like a textbook with the detail of a novel, the book details the factors leading up to the Civil War, including political disputes between states and the federal government. Entire pages are dominated by copies of preserved documents as well as commentary from established historians on said documents. The friendly layout of the book allows the frequently mature subject matter to not alienate more cautious readers. The book is at its best during sections like the former slave testimonies, displayed on page 86, using direct testimony similar to the next book in the bibliography.

For the purposes of the unit, I would pair the “Reconstruction” chapter with the Mr. Burnett site in order to activate prior knowledge about the state of the South after the Civil War. As an educator, I would be less concerned with the rest of the Civil War history, as opposed to the direct effects of the war on the people of the South. For the first lesson of the unit, I would pass out packets containing the chapter to all of the students and leading a choral reading for ten minutes. After starting the first two paragraphs, I would allow students to take over with a reading guide to be completed through the rest of the class, in a partnered activity. The reading guide would focus on the parts of the chapter dealing with the plights of former slaves, and the hate groups arising out of the white strife in the South. Osborne’s text would be extremely useful to offer a plethora of visuals to complement some of the more text-heavy offerings by some of my other trade books.




Wright, S., & Boyd, H. (2010). Simeon's Story: An Eyewitness Account of the Kidnapping of Emmett Till. Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books.


Flesch-Kincaid Estimate: 7.3


From the very beginning of Wright’s book, it is made clear that he seeks to understand a problem from his childhood, a trauma against a black person so heinous that it rivals the fate of Tom Robinson within To Kill a Mockingbird…except the kidnapping of Emmett Till actually happened. The autobiography is written in an accessible way, focusing first on Wright’s childhood life with his family (a focus on his father as provider also draws a strong parallel to Lee’s novel). Wright is also quick to introduce Till not as a sacrificial figure, but as a child himself, referring to him as “Bobo”, a nickname between first cousins. Beginning with page 59, Wright is sure to detail the events of the abduction in disturbing detail, giving a graphic description of the events that unfolded, not unlike the testimony that Mayella Ewell delivers in To Kill a Mockingbird. The major insight of the text follows the description of the abduction, as Wright relates his personal experience to the movement led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other Civil Rights leaders.

While teaching this novel, it seems extremely important to me to contextualize both Harper Lee’s side of the story (the outsider as both Scout Finch and Boo Radley), as well as the plight of African-Americans in the South. After my students complete reading Mayella Ewell’s testimony in the novel, I would present them with select excerpts from Simeon’s Story, focusing on the abduction and murder of Emmett Till to connect the events in the novel to real racial relations in the United States. I would present the text with a Venn Diagram for comparing the truth of the Emmett Till events and the murder of Tom Robinson. Because the reading level for the book is a little lower (it also contains more photographs and maps than the Harper Lee biography), it may entice students to acquaint themselves with the tragic history behind To Kill a Mockingbird, both on the side of Harper Lee and the black community.


Burnett, E. (n.d.). Reconstruction. In Civil War and Reconstruction. Retrieved December 5, 2011, from http://www.mrburnett.net/civilwar.html

Eric Burnett is a Social Studies teacher who constructed an encyclopedic website centered on the Civil War and Reconstruction of the South, featuring timelines and direct excerpts from speeches given from leaders like Lincoln, Grant, and Lee. The primary site contains many statistics and student resources indicating not only the deadliest battles of the Civil War but also the most damaged regions of the South and how much money was lost. If students explore the site further than what is used for the unit, they will find helpful links to extensive biographies on Lincoln and others and complete texts of Frederick Douglass’s autobiography and Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin.  The site is written in a friendly manner, presenting history in a warm-prose style that could welcome young readers.

In order to emphasize the state of the South at the beginning of the novel, I would direct students specifically to the section of Burnett’s site labeled “Reconstruction”. Under this heading, there are three links. The last major link leads to a twelve-part essay series detailing every effect of Reconstruction, while the other two links include timelines and excerpts from Lincoln’s thoughts on possible Reconstruction techniques. Using technology and history principles in the English classroom is important for teaching this unit, so I would allow students to use the computer lab in groups of two to access one of the twelve parts of the Reconstruction essay. Students would become experts on their section during the first twenty minutes of a class period and then present their findings in five minutes.

Scribd [Self-publishing resource]. (2011). Retrieved December 5, 2011, from Scribd Inc. website: http://www.scribd.com

Scribd.com is a website dedicated to allowing writers of all fields to freely publish and display their work online in a literary setting that emphasizes the authorial side much more than a simple blog. The site uses the best features of a social networking site, such as following other users and keeping a constant feed of new material in your literary queue. When used in an educational format, educators are able to limit who can access the student work and how they are classified on the website itself. Teachers can check to see how many posts students have provided and how much criticism they have provided for other students, while the young authors themselves are able to view their statistics in terms of reading performance within the entire site and whatever writing “cohort” they would fall into with the educator.

To use Scribd within the classroom environment would require tailoring it to my needs as a high school English teacher. Students in that environment often require a push to finish the product, and online publication may be the secret. When students reach the end of the composition lessons of the class, a final publication grade would be assessed after they submit their stories to a private circle just consisting of classmates on Scribd. After a day or two of allowing students to read and comment for extra credit, students would vote on the quality of the essays anonymously. The three best essays would be posted on a Mr. Conner account on Scribd, allowing the students to see their work evaluated on the internet. The students would only be able to submit to Scribd after a final copy is printed and submitted to the teacher, stressing the importance of proofreading and the relatively recent ability for any author to have a venue for academic and creative work. 

Passages that Pop #2

This week I thought I'd treat myself to something a little more visual than the wonderful, but sometimes impenetrable, Infinite Jest.  And if I'm to quote a passage this week...it shall be one I respect.

Of course, this week I'll be giving a media source for the seminal graphic novel written by Alan Moore and given visuals by Dave Gibbons: Watchmen.  In the modern literary discussion, graphic novels have a prominent and interesting place.  My ENGL 300/Literary Theory and Criticism course at Towson University used a reading list comprised entirely of graphic novels, including Art Spiegelman's MAUS and Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis.  One can only assume (and in my nerdy case, hope) that these novels find their way into Advanced Placement classrooms across the nation.  Watchmen is an especially challenging read for comics experts and newcomers alike.  The story takes place across the entire twentieth century, while also interweaving different forms of prose (the full text is littered with news clippings and journal entries), such as the subject of this passage: an excerpt from an autobiography of a fictional superhero.  Hollis Wadsworth Mason Jr., the first Nite-Owl of the novel, reflects on his youth in the following passage:

"The saddest thing I can think of is 'The Ride of the Valkyries.'  Every time I hear it I get depressed and start wondering about the lot of humanity and the unfairness of life and all those other things that you think about at three in the morning when your digestion won't let you sleep.  Now, I realize that nobody else on the planet has to brush away a tear when they hear that particular stirring refrain, but that's because they don't know about Moe Vernon."

The supplements between the traditional graphic novel chapters of the book may help to teach students reading strategies and skills further down the line.  When I first read Watchmen, I was twelve and being forced to read in the margins to get the most out of the story, such as the tragic and quiet backstory of Hollis Mason, gave me a valuable skill for reading textbooks later on in college and graduate school.  In today's ever-changing technological education landscape, differentiation in story delivery cannot be underestimated.

Below is a video by musician Franz Nicolay, detailing the motivations of Hollis Mason.  The song, titled "The Ballad Of...", was recorded as part of the Bushwick Book Club, an incredibly interesting songwriting collective operating in Manhattan.  Every month, the concert collective is instructed to read a novel (great installments have included Toni Morrison's Beloved and Kurt Vonnegut's The Sirens of Titan).  Then, independent musicians are invited to perform songs based on the work.

Reading Next: Online Activity

1. Of all the research and statistics presented in Reading Next that startled me (particularly the information regarding the growing competition in "blue-collar" jobs and the necessity for even those seeking low-level positions to pursue secondary and collegiate degrees), much of it read similarly to what we have read from the rest of the course.  The passage focuses on the importance of not only relaying literacy skills to those in elementary and middle school settings, but also reinforcing them so as to prepare students for collegiate environments (including the shocking statistic of only 32% of incoming college freshman being "prepared" for reading comprehension in college).  These passages reminded me of Chapter 8: Reading Guides, because of the emphasis that chapter carried of using differentiated reading strategies and reading guides for readers of all ability and grade levels, in order to not only facilitate reading but to also increase critical reading/thinking skills.  Reading Next, taken holistically, deeply values an instructor willing to self-reflect, and this practice is encouraged in Chapter Three: Getting to Know Your Students, Your Materials, and Your Teaching.  Tying these ideas into the S of the RSVP framework of the College of Education is quite easy: self-reflection is a must for teachers looking to regularly, and effectively, differentiate their instruction to reach as many students as possible.  Finally, many of the Instructional Improvements suggested by the chapter could be related to Chapter 9: Curricular Inquiries, such as using "diverse texts" and "intensive" writing to emphasize independent learning by students of all grade levels.
2. The most obvious inclusion to be made is the use of "intensive writing" within an English Language Arts classroom.  While the instruction of reading and writing fluency should, ideally, occur in every class, the English teacher is often tasked with the heavy lifting of this instruction and intensive writing can ease this process.  If writing is made constant, and collaborative between a teacher and students, the stigma and fear of writing is taken away, replaced by zeal and excitement at possibilities each day: students can write short stories or questions about the homework for their warm-up; readers can write profiles of characters or poems/songs about them while also conforming to a specified rhyme scheme.  Using "diverse texts" within an English Language Arts class also helps to confront the disparity between what students have to read, and what they are interested in: some female students may not relate to The Outsiders as well as the boys in the class...but they may enjoy some Edwidge Danticat short stories.  There is no homogeneous group of students, so the classroom libraries offered to them should also be diverse.  When students interact around one another using a variety of texts, "text-based collaborative learning" occurs.  Jigsaw literature circles could be a great way to incorporate this practice, allowing students to use trade books from the library to acquaint the rest of the class on historical contexts surrounding some of the poetry and novels at the time.  For a unit on MacBeth, students could research the history of the Globe Theater while other groups read a biography of Shakespeare (and others still could read and present the history of Scotland).  Having a small group of students become excited about a particular text could aid in the reception of that work with other readers, as well.  

2 Websites 11/14

For this session of website updates, I tried to focus on sites to help students digest some of the literary devices present within To Kill a Mockingbird.

1)  It's a wonder I haven't looked up music to help students comprehend concepts in my Language Arts classes before now.  Because I tend to be a very conventional, by-the-text learner when it comes to reading and writing, I need to focus on expanding my instruction for students who may learn through kinesthetics...or music.  Rhythm Rhyme Results offers teachers several links to songs that students can access in class or at home, dealing with content areas as diverse as physical education and chemistry.  The particular link I've listed for this blog is actually a rap dealing extended metaphor and simile, giving students a brief session of levity while dealing with some of the headier subjects in the novel.  Because the character of Boo Radley is an extended metaphor for the concept of a mockingbird throughout the novel, students comprehending these concepts is an important objective for the unit.

2)  In addition to auditory learners, it may be helpful to lend understanding of literary devices to visual learners in the classroom.  Scott McCloud, an award-winning cartoonist and semiologist, has written many books on the visual power of loaded symbols within comic books and cartoon strips.  One of his most popular web-based comics, a visual adaptation of Robert Browning's Porphyria, can allow visual learners to link the extended metaphors within the poetry to visual concepts.  Using this framework, I would allow students to make their own comics of different testimonies from the story, as well as linking Boo Radley to the mockingbird idea.

Passages that Pop #1

Earlier tonight I was revisiting a few sections I dog-eared within David Foster Wallace's brilliant Infinite Jest, the mammoth tome dedicated to eviscerating entertainment media, privatized education, and of course, youth tennis.  After being struck by a passage on p.167, concerning a father relating to his son, Jim, I thought I would try to share the passage on the blog and include some modern media that might be used to kick-start young readers into it.

"Kids today...you kids today somehow don't know how to feel, much less love, to say nothing of respect.  We're just bodies to you.  We're just bodies and shoulders and scarred knees and big bellies and empty wallets and flasks to you.  I'm not saying something cliche like you take us for granted so much as I'm saying you cannot...imagine our absence.  We're so present it's ceased to mean.  We're environmental.  Furniture of the world.  Jim, I could imagine that man's absence.  Jim, I'm telling you you cannot imagine my absence.  It's my fault, Jim, home so much, limping around, ruined knees, overweight, under the Influence, burping, nonslim, sweat-soaked in that broiler of a trailer, burping, farting, frustrated, miserable, knocking lamps over, overshooting my reach.  Afraid to give my last talent the one shot it demanded.  Talent is its own expectation, Jim: you either live up to it or it waves a hankie, receding forever.  Use it or lose it, he'd say over the newspaper.  I'm...I'm just afraid of having a tombstone that says HERE LIES A PROMISING OLD MAN."


For a passage that does begin with the hackneyed "kids today", there is so much verbal potency packed into a few sentences.  The repetition of the Father's symptoms building on themselves, culminating in the wonderful, coach-able quote of "talent is its own expectation".  Wallace works mostly in humor and outlandish concepts taken to insane levels in the novel, but when real human failure and emotion is allowed to peek through, it is hard to deny his power.

One of the main extended metaphors in the novel is tennis.  Below is a music video for "Calamity Song", by the Decemberists, in which the lyrics AND visuals reference Infinite Jest in a humorous way.

I hope to post more "Passages that Pop" in the future, preferably once a week if I can gather some relevant media for whatever I'm reading/gushing over at the time.  The plan for next week?  An excerpt from a classic graphic novel that I discovered in the 8th grade, about the all-too-thin line between vigilantism and heroics.

Boys, Books, and Blogging: Effective Techniques on Getting Boys to Read

After a full quarter in a high school and feeling the opening throes of the second upon me, I'd like to make a broad generalization about the modern Language Arts classroom: at first, it feels much easier to get girls to read than boys.  Was there a connection that I was constantly missing in class?  Were they separated at age 7 and herded into different classrooms?  I turned to the internet to put to rest any nagging suspicions, and to find out: What are some great strategies to motivate teen boys (and of course, all teens), to read?

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes,
a favorite childhood book of mine

At the Reading is Fundamental website, many parental strategies are outlined in order to make reading seem more enticing for all teen students, but so many of these can be adapted to a classroom setting that including the website feels right.  Many of the outlined strategies are familiar to incoming teachers, such as setting an example of making reading "cool", or at the very least vital to a regular academic routine.  A complicated pitch to teens on the subject of reading, at least for many of them, is the idea of "becoming an expert" on whatever they are interested in.  Twenty years ago, sure, a teen could learn all there is to know about basketball by perusing a few books written by historians and retired coaches. Today, however, their standards for the intake of information have changed, with information on both how the game is played and the history of it bombarding them at all times, if they so choose.  Does taking in this information count as "reading" if it comes in the form of an app on their mobile device, or a Bill Simmons blog on the ESPN site?  It may, especially if those holding the keys to such valuable information continue to take to the digital formats.  It might be the responsibility of parents and educators to adapt instruction to include these formats, so long as they can include the classics of literature that shaped current educators to be rabid about Language Arts.  

Imagine my delight, when searching for ideas on motivating boys to read, I came across the website dedicated to it.  On a popular entry on the Getting Boys to Read page, Holly J from the Rochester Parenting Examiner details the important relationship between any youngster and the literature they are allowed to access.  She astutely points out that adult writers constantly target adults; therefore, those producing young adult literature are able to more aptly write "to" young people, including describing issues and developmental "tasks" outlined by Robert J. Havinghurst.  These tasks include "selecting and preparing for an occupation", "acquiring more mature social skills", "achieving a masculine or feminine sex role", "accepting the changes in one's body", and "achieving emotional independence from parents and other adults".  Holly cites defenses of distributing YA literature in public schools, using their points to drive home the point that modern teen juggernauts such as Twilight and The Hunger Games were inspired by Bram Stoker and Shirley Jackson, respectively.  

Overall, it seems like the key to motivating boys to read is mixing a solid amount of literature dedicated to the classics in with YA literature, and ensuring a balance between male and female-directed reading.  Holly J reminds readers that the first "young adult" novel was The Outsiders, written about a gang...of boys.  For my part, I recall my love of reading truly igniting in 8th grade when we were asked to read Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes.  A potent extended metaphor for not only the cyclical nature of being born, getting older and losing control but also the changing body and raging emotions of puberty, the novel enamored me for reasons that I would be unable to describe until college.  Not only did the thematic strands of the text resonate with me, a special note must also be made of the form of the novel, taking shape with Charley's journals throughout the story.  As it begins, the journals seem hastily written and poorly constructed and as his treatments improve his intelligence, the reading level of the journals nears college-level.  Imagine my heartbreak, as a child, spotting the first typos in the middle of the novel, signalling Charley's descent into fear and madness again.  These techniques are present in popular fiction today; in one of my classes I spotted a student reading Push, the source material for the 2009 film Precious.  I believe that these interesting textual presentations can enthrall students as easily as recognizable characters, but when they can get both out of one novel, lifelong readers may be born.

2 Websites 10/28

1)  A major part of the struggle to teach English to any age bracket is the fight to promote the final phase of writing, publication.  Scribd.com takes care of that, at least on an electronic front.  As a sort of "Facebook" for writers, the website functions as a publication blog for writers of any age.  The site is broken down into different genres and types of writing, while also offering writers/readers the ability to follow others, similar to blogging functionality.  One feature that distinguishes Scribd in my eyes is actually the deficit of a specific feature: it does not offer cash reparations for prospective authors on the site.  Therefore, the site could exist within the classroom without any threat of monetary influence.  I would use the site to promote flash-fiction writing on a weekly basis within an English classroom, using their weekly submissions as a gauge of sentence construction skills as well as a way for them to have their work privately critiqued (Scribd offers privacy settings and group controls so as to only allow certain readers to access materials).

(the New Yorker Fiction Podcast, 2009)

2)  The New Yorker Fiction Podcast offers a wealth of resources for teachers seeking ways to contextualize certain stories that may seem inaccessible to young writers.  While teaching American Literature, the website could be used to update students on contemporary meanings in something like John Updike's "A & P", read aloud on the podcast by Allegra Goodman.  Because the website is accessible to non-subscribers, the episodes could be used in the classroom or as an independent supplement (all of the readings contain about a 20-minute interview with the new writer about the classic story).  Diversity is an important facet of the modern literary classroom and it abounds in this podcast, as multinational writers and readers are encouraged.