Recent Blog Posts
Waiting in To Kill a Mockingbird: Why the Slow First Half Is Already the Heart of the Book
We tend to rush students toward the trial in To Kill a Mockingbird. But the slow first half is where the novel does its quietest work — teaching us to misjudge Boo Radley before we’re asked to judge Tom Robinson. A teacher’s reading of waiting, with ideas for the classroom.
Atticus Finch’s Closing Argument: A Teacher’s Guide to Chapter 20 of To Kill a Mockingbird
Atticus Finch’s closing argument works as a legal argument, a study in rhetoric, a moral challenge, and a historical document — all at once. Here is how I read it, and what I have found most productive for teaching it.
Teaching East of Eden in High School: Are We Free to Choose Who We Become?
Steinbeck called it his most ambitious novel. At over 600 pages, with a cast of characters spanning two generations, East of Eden is not an easy text to teach. This guide explains why it belongs in your high school classroom anyway — and how to make it work.
Lee in J. Steinbeck’s East of Eden: The Wisdom of the Margins
In East of Eden, Lee speaks broken English by choice, studies Hebrew for fifteen
years, and raises two boys who are not his own. Steinbeck called him a better man
than himself. This article explores why.
Cathy Ames and the Mystery of Evil: Understanding One of Literature’s Most Unsettling Characters
Cathy Ames does not invite easy interpretations. In East of Eden, she stands as one of Steinbeck’s most unsettling creations—resisting explanation while quietly reshaping the novel’s moral landscape. This reflection explores her role as a figure of evil, illusion, and moral tension, offering educators a space to engage with one of literature’s most challenging characters.
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Allegory: Understanding C.S. Lewis’s Intent
Explore whether The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is a true allegory or a rich imaginative supposal by C.S. Lewis, and learn how this distinction can deepen students’ understanding of Aslan and the novel’s themes of redemption, sacrifice, and moral growth.
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