I have always loved American Literature. It’s just so fresh, exciting, and inspiring—from Gothic horror to contemporary Native poetry, from immigration stories to feminist sonnets, from jazz-inspired poetry to accounts of the witch trials. Yet the more time you spend reading American literature, the more you realize that so much of our greatest writing comes from moments we’d rather forget. It’s a relatively short history, but it’s one full of injustice, cruelty, and just plain shameful acts.  So how do

There is so much incredible art to explore from the Harlem Renaissance that it might seem overwhelming to do the movement justice. This fabulous period in history is often taught as a side note to the Roaring Twenties or briefly paired with Gatsby, but there’s so much to teach—from music to fashion to essays to poetry to fiction to fascinating debates around what it meant to be a Black artist at the beginning of the 20th century. When I first

Ready to integrate more Native voices into your curriculum this year?   While trickster tales, creation myths, and other traditional stories definitely have their place in an American literature curriculum, it’s important that your students don’t get the message that Indigenous literature is only something from the past or something to read about in their history books.  That doesn’t mean those works—or the past itself—aren’t important. But some of the most powerful and accessible ways for students to understand that

It’s the end of the school year—how can you possibly get your ELA students excited about learning when summer vacation beckons? If you’ve spent any time around teens, you know the ticket to success in their learning is giving them as much choice as you can.  When they choose what they will learn and the stories they will tell, they feel empowered and engaged.  And they know that you care about their interests.  But you also need to have some