Graphic novels take the text of a story and pair it with corresponding imagery, usually in the form of a comic strip or sequential art. As graphic novel authors have ventured outside of superhero narratives and improved at representing more diverse characters, graphic novel sales have soared. What’s fueling the recent rise in graphic novel popularity? Other than greater representation, many educators are finding that graphic novels are useful resources for struggling readers or students…
No offense to the worthy gentlemen, but the issue at hand is what to rename Woodrow Wilson High School, the comprehensive high school in Northwest Washington that has long carried the name of a two-term president. Wilson moved into the White House more than a century ago, and as a product of his time, he was also an unrelenting segregationist. Now in 2022, the D.C. Council is moving to change the name. School districts around…
When the Covid-19 pandemic took off in March, the poet and creator of Poetry 180 Billy Collins started reading a poem every weekday on Facebook Live. The readings—mostly of contemporary poems, peppered with the occasional classic by Shakespeare or John Donne—have been a surprise hit, with 47,000 followers. One woman in Paris left a comment saying that she listens in bed before she goes to sleep, while another in Australia joins with her morning coffee.…
If you ask the average person what they learned about poetry in school, they might remember suffering through a few 17th-century English poets, but poetry in the classroom doesn’t have to be stuffy. Modern poetry can give students a chance to be creative, break the rules, and express themselves. In a fun and open environment, students can think of poetry as an art class with words. They can get creative with language, rhyme, and meter;…
Julie Lythcott-Haims stumbled on something troubling and surprising about the independence of the young adults in her midst. It started about twenty years ago, when she served as a dean at Stanford. There, in the company of some of the best and brightest strivers in the world, she found that many students relied upon parents to handle the run-of-the-mill stuff of life for them. Meanwhile, members of the Millennial generation more broadly were going on…
Last fall, teacher Michael Palermo called the crew of Christopher Columbus to the witness stand. Wilfredo Lopez Murcia, a student at Wakefield High School in Virginia, strolled to the front of the classroom, followed by classmate Jhonnatan Moya Miranda. “Hello, mates,” Wilfredo quipped, giving a short salute to his peers. Wilfredo and Jhonnatan were about to defend themselves in The People vs. Columbus, et al. trial, a social studies role play that encourages critical thinking…
It can take years for a public school district to conceive, design and build a new school — but here’s a story about the incredibly fast creation of what could be America’s coolest new high school. It started a few months ago, when a friend asked Austin Beutner, superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, if he wanted to open a new public high school. He wasn’t asking for himself but, rather, on behalf…
Are you one click away from sabotaging your admission to college? According to a recent survey, you could be. For over a decade, Kaplan, the educational services company, has been conducting an annual survey of admission officers to track trends in policies and practices. Since 2008, it has explored the role of your digital footprint in application review, and not surprisingly, it has been growing every year. Nearly two-thirds (65 percent) of admission officers in the…
Studies show that the average teenager requires 9 to 9.5 hours of sleep per night, but she typically only gets 7. It’s becoming more and more common for the normal life of the average American high schooler to interfere with sleep. In a recent poll of 2,000 parents, 1 in 6 said their teen experiences frequent sleep problems, here defined as “having trouble falling asleep or staying asleep 3 or more nights per week.” More…
Podcasts have been growing in popularity over the past few years, and it’s more commonplace than not for adults to have a few favorites. It’s basically radio that is personalized to a topic in which you are especially interested–what’s not to like? Teens can also join in the trend! See our list below for some great podcasts for high school students. 1. Revisionist History. Malcolm Gladwell, author of Outliers and The Tipping Point, looks back through the…
