"Teachers are both rewarded and punished for something over which they have no control—the kids who walk in the door."
—Susan Ohanian (One Size Fits Few: The Folly of Educational Standards)
I am a first year English teacher, and I am writing curriculum for a course entitle, "Minnesota Writers." I was just wondering if you have any ideas for lessons, authors, projects, books, activities, or anything that could be adapted for this course. It is all about writers of MN, Minnesotan themes, and eventually, because they are living in MN, will become MN writers. If I come off as a little desperate...well...I guess I am...but I have a feeling that we have all been there! Thank you for any nugget of wisdom you share. I look forward to hearing your responses!
Comments
The folks at
The folks at http://www.826seattle.org/ are doing useful work here in Seattle. Dale
Minnesota Writers ideas
In grad school I took a course on Minnesota Writers, and I later proposed an honors English course that didn't make. The course I proposed started with Sinclair Lewis and ended with Keillor. I included multiple genre presentations, lots of poetry and humor writing, and a couple films. I chose the following texts for required reading: Hassler, Staggerford; Haynes, Live at Five; Keillor, Leaving Home: A Collection of Lake Wobegon Stories; Landsman, Basic Needs; Lewis, Elmer Gantry; Olson, Welcome to My Planet: Where English is Sometimes Spoken. I also planned to incorporate attendance at readings by current Minnesota authors, which was easy because my school was located in Minnesota and had an excellent program that brought writers to campus.
MN writers
certainly Louise Erdrich since she now lives in Minneapolis. Will Weaver writes about northern Minnesota. How about whoever wrote the story that is now the movie NORTH COUNTRy? Ole Rolvaag?can't remember exactly where this is set. I suspect most of the colleges in MN have a course in this if you can find their syllabi. good luck.
Markie