Famous People

My teacher at USM, Angela Ball, has a poem featured on The Writer's Almanac today. Oh, she's wonderful. She taught me everything, and she did so with wise grace.

(Click Writer's Almanac for the link.)

What I Told My Students About Reading

In my syllabus, for the Into to Lit course I'm teaching. I think I'm going to expand it into a longer sort of lecture and handout, but I was pleased with what I said so far. I prayed before I started working on it, and I think He helped me say what I meant, what I've been trying to say since I started teaching. Not that this is particularly profound, but it's what I mean.


A Note on Reading: Reading is hard work. One of my hopes for the class is that you’ll enjoy it, but the best way to enjoy it is to work hard at it. All semester we’ll be practicing reading slowly and carefully with the idea that these habits will rub off on the way you read in general. Take notes in the margins, ask questions, get in the habit of putting yourself in the character’s shoes, be both generous and critical when you evaluate their choices, laugh when it’s funny, cry when it’s sad (if you’re the crying sort), pay attention to the feeling you get when something is beautiful or true. For me that feels like a literal, small swelling of the heart.