I’ve liberally sprinkled this blog and its sister website with references to Bruce Pirie’s Reshaping High School English
Rating: 5/5
Reshaping High School English is a decade old, but the ideas in it are fresh and for many of us English teachers, quite revolutionary.
Some of the key ideas that I took away were:
- Reading skills need to be taught to adolescents, and the best way to do that is by modelling reading. Conducting “think-aloud” readings of texts regularly is key.
- Writing is a mysterious process for most of us, including us teachers. To teach it, we need to model it authentically in all of its glorious, messy uncertainty. Let your students watch you write a poem on a topic of their choice.
- The five-paragraph essay is not the pinnacle of writing as some of us English teachers tend to speak of it. This is because,
(a) ideas can be shared in other forms of writing, like a poem, short story, or play; and
(b) some essays, crazily enough, actually hold together with paragraphs numbering more than five. It’s true: there are six-paragraph essays out there that are worth reading.
Pirie has challenged me to consider how I structure class time and how I go about the business of teaching students reading and writing. It’s probably best read with a group willing to talk about it, making it perfect for an English department book club or discussion group.
