DEMONSTRATES COMPETENCE IN CONTENT KNOWLEDGE APPROPRIATE TO THE TEACHING POSITION.

The teacher:

a. Understands and uses key concepts, underlying themes, relationships, and different perspectives related to the content area.

b. Uses knowledge of student development to make learning experiences in the content area meaningful and accessible for every student.

c. Relates ideas and information within and across content areas.

d. Understands and uses instructional strategies that are appropriate to the content area.

A. Understands and uses key concepts, underlying themes, relationships, and different perspectives related to the content area.

C. Relates ideas and information within and across content areas.

Since 2009, I have created and utilized a class website for each of the classes I teach, updating it not only each year but each day. Each day's lesson plan is detailed for students, educators, and parents to view and interact with. We use it daily for visuals, lesson plans, hand-outs, and everything else the students will need in order to do their best work. I continue to add links and resources that will help both classroom management and instruction, as well as student achievement. As identified in the example to the right, each daily lesson plan is organized with the elements of Common Core State Standards, unit, concept, enduring understanding, HOT discussion focus, and the activity of the day.  In addition, you will note that the Common Core State Standards are presented not only as standards but as transferable job and life skills, which helps draw students' attention to the fact that whatever we do, read, discuss, or write about in English class relates to other areas of content and life beyond the English classroom.  

B. Uses knowledge of student development to make learning experiences in the content area meaningful and accessible for every student.

D. Understands and uses instructional strategies that are appropriate to the content area.

Having an effective tool box with which to work is important for any construction worker. The same goes for a teacher helping her students construct their knowledge. I continue to experiment and master many different tools with which to teach. Below is my "Classroom Learning Tools" page that contains pages, links, and explanations of the main teaching strategies and learning tools I utilize in my high school classroom.  Two of my favorite strategies (both because I see student engagement and growth and because my students comment on their growth through these teaching strategies) are Socratic discussions and QFT (Question Formulation Technique).  We conduct Socratic discussions with every major unit of the year and see amazing growth throughout the year. And we use QFT for anything from Socratic discussions to literary analysis prep, to research papers. In addition, two of the online learning tools I use the most would be InfuseLearning.com and Padlet.com.  Being able to pull these tools out of the tool box whenever I see the need or the opportunity for engagement is a good feeling.

Bibliography - Content Knowledge

Below is a listing that, at one point in 2012, was a mostly-comprehensive (though not exhaustive) listing of the literature I read, studied, and/or taught in my adulthood.  Since then, my appetite for reading has surpassed my willingness to keep a detailed record of the books I devour.  And although the individual books in each category may bleed from one category into another (e.g. from Biographies into American Literature), from this bibliography you will be able to see the content I both enjoy and consume. I use this repertoire and continue to build on the like to increase my content knowledge necessary to be an effective English teacher.

Adolescent Literature:

Anderson, Laurie Halse. Speak. New York: Speak, 2001. Print.

Bloor, Edward. Tangerine. New York: Scholastic Signature, 2001. Print.

Chbosky, Stephen. The Perks of Being a Wallflower. New York: Pocket Books, 1999. Print.

Collins, Suzanne. Catching Fire. New York: Scholastic, Inc., 2009. Print.

Collins, Suzanne. The Hunger Games. New York: Scholastic, Inc., 2008. Print.

Collins, Suzanne. Mockingjay. New York: Scholastic, Inc., 2010. Print.

Creech, Sharon. Walk Two Moons. New York: HarperCollins, 1994. Print.

Denenberg, Barry. Early Sunday Morning: The Pearl Harbor Diary of Amber Billows. New York: Scholastic, 2001. Print.

Farmer, Nancy. The House of the Scorpion. New York: Atheneum Books, 2002. Print.

Fitch, Janet. White Oleander. New York: Back Bay Books, 2000. Print.

Flinn, Alex. Fade to Black. New York: Harper Collins, 2005. Print.

Funke, Cornelia. Dragon Rider. New York: Scholastic, 2004. Print.

Haddon, Mark. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. New York: Vintage Contemporaries, 2003. Print.

Hiaasen, Carl. Hoot. New York: Random House, 2002. Print.

Hinton, S.E. The Outsiders. New York: Puffin, 1995. Print.

Hodgson Burnett, Frances. The Secret Garden. New York: Modern Publishing, 2005. Print.

L’Engle, Madeleine. A Wrinkle in Time. New York: Square Fish, 2007. Print.

Lewis, C.S. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. The Chronicles of Narnia. New York: HarperCollins, 2004. 107-198. Print.

Lewis, C.S. The Magician’s Nephew. The Chronicles of Narnia. New York: HarperCollins, 2004. 7-106. Print.

Lord, Cynthia. Touch Blue. New York: Scholastic, 2010. Print.

Lowry, Lois. The Giver. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1993. Print.

Montgomery, L.M.Anne of reen Gables. New York: Scholastic, 1989. Print.

Myers, W.D. Monster. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1999. Print.

O'roark Dowell, Frances. The Kind of Friends We Used To Be. New York: Scholastic, 2010. Print.

Paterson, Katherine. Bridge to Terabithia. New York: Harper Entertainment, 1977. Print.

Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. London: Bloomsbury, 1998. Print.

Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. London: Bloomsbury, 2007. Print.

Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. London: Bloomsbury, 2000. Print.

Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.London: Bloomsbury, 2005. Print.

Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. London: Bloomsbury, 2003. Print.

Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. London: Bloomsbury, 1999. Print.

Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. London: Bloomsbury, 1997. Print.

Sachar, Louis. Holes. New York: Dell Yearling, 2000. Print.

Stead, Rebecca. When You Reach Me. New York: Random House, 2009. Print.

White, Ellen Emerson. Voyage on the Great Titanic: The Diary of Margaret Ann Brady. New York: Scholastic, 1998. Print.

American Literature:

Angelou, Maya. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. New York: Random House, 1970. Print.

Capote, Truman. Breakfast at Tiffany's. New York: Vintage International, 1993. Print.

Capote, Truman. In Cold Blood. New York: Vintage, 1994. Print.

Conarroe, Joel, ed. Six American Poets: An Anthology. New York: Vintage, 1991. Print.

Connell, Richard. “The Most Dangerous Game.” The Lanauage of Literature. Dallas: McDougal Littell Houghton Mifflin, 2001. Print.

Coupland, Douglas. Generation X. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1991. Print.

Crane, Stephen. The Red Badge of Courage. New York: Barnes & Nobel Classics, 2003. Print.

Fitzgerald, F. S. The Great Gatsby. New York: Scribner, 2004. Print.

Hemingway, Ernest. For Whom the Bell Tolls. New York : Scribners, 1940. Print.

Hemingway, Ernest. The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway. New York: Scribner, 1987. Print.

Hemingway, Ernest. A Moveable Feast. New York: Scribners, 2009. Print.

Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Scribners, 1952. Print.

Hemingway, Ernest. The Sun Also Rises. New York: Scribner, 1926. Print.

Hughes, Langston. Selected Poems of Langston Hughes. New York: Vintage Classics, 1990. Print.

Jackson, J. Benson. John Steinbeck, Writer: A Biography. New York: Penguin, 1990. Print.

James, Henry. The Turn of the Screw. New York: Barnes & Noble Classics, 2004. Print.

Johnson, Denis. Jesus’ Son. London: Methuen, 2004. Print.

Kaplan, Fred. 1959: The Year Everything Changed. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2009. Print.

Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. New York: Warner Books, 1982. Print.

London, Jack. Call of the Wild. New York : Macmillan, 1963. Print.

Lynn, Kenneth S. Hemingway. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1995. Print.

Miller, Arthur. The Crucible. New York: Penguin, 1985. Print.

O'Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried.New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2009. Print.

Salinger, Jerome David. The Catcher in the Rye. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1951. Print.

Silko, Leslie Marmon. Ceremony. New York: Penguin Books, 1977. Print.

Smith, Betty. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2005. Print.

Stein, Gertrude. Three Lives. New York: Barnes & Noble Classics, 2005. Print.

Steinbeck, Elaine, and Robert Wallsten, eds. Steinbeck: A Life in Letters. New York: Penguin Books, 1989. Print.

Steinbeck, John. Cannery Row. New York: Penguin Books, 2009. Print.

Steinbeck, John. East of Eden. New York: Penguin Books, 1992. Print.

Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Penguin Books,

Steinbeck, John. The Long Valley. New York: Penguin Books, 1995. Print.

Steinbeck, John. The Log from the Sea of Cortez. New York: Penguin Books, 1995. Print.

Steinbeck, John. Of Mice and Men. New York: Penguin Books, 2009. Print.

Steinbeck, John. The Pearl. New York: Penguin Books, 2009. Print.

Steinbeck, John. The Red Pony. New York: Penguin Books, 2009. Print.

Steinbeck, John. Tortilla Flat. New York: Penguin Books, 2009. Print.

Stowe, Harriet Beecher. Uncle Tom's Cabin. New York: Barnes & Noble Classics, 2003. Print.

Twain, Mark. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. New York: Children’s Classics, 1992. Print.

Vonnegut, Kurt. Slaughterhouse-Five. New York: Dial Press Trade, 2009. Print.

Wells, H.G. The Time Machine. New York: Ace Books, 2001. Print.

Wright, Richard. Black Boy. New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2006. Print.

Wright, Richard. “The Night I Won the Rights to the Streets of Memphis.” The Language of Literature. Dallas: McDougal Littell Houghton Mifflin, 2001. Print.

Autobiographies/Biographies/Memoirs:

Ali, Nujood. I am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced. New York: Broadway Paperbacks, 2010. Print.

Angelou, Maya. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. New York: Random House, 1970. Print.

Burpo, Todd and Lynn Vincent. Heaven is for Real. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2010. Print.

Dugard, Jaycee Lee. A Stolen Life. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2011. Print.

Fey, Tina. Bossypants. New York : Little, Brown & Co., 2011. Print.

Gilbert, Elizabeth. Eat, Love, Pray. New York: Viking Adult, 2006. Print.

Hillendbrand, Laura. Unbroken. New York: Random House, 2010. Print.

Karp, Brianna. The Girl's Guide to Homelessness. Ontario: Harlequin, 2011. Print.

Lynn, Kenneth S. Hemingway. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1995. Print.

Morris, Edmund. The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt. New York: Modern Library, 2001. Print.

Morris, Edmund. Theodore Rex. New York: Random House, 2001. Print.

Mortenson, Greg, and David Relin. Three Cups of Tea. New York: Penguin, 2007. Print.

Myers, Alyse. Who Do You Think You Are? New York: Touchstone, 2008. Print.

Nafisi, Azar. Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books. New York: Random House, 2004. Print.

Scheeres, Julia. Jesus Land. New York: Counterpoint Press, 2005. Print.

Sorenson, Ted. Counselor: A Life at the Edge of History. New York: Harper, 2008. Print.

Ten Boom, Corrie. The Hiding Place. New York: Walker and Company, 1996. Print.

Walls, Jeannette. The Glass Castle. New York: Scribner, 2006. Print.

Walls, Jeannette. Half Broke Horses. New York: Scribne, 2009. Print.

Wiesel, Elie. Night. New York: Hill and Wang, 2006. Print.

British/European Literature:

Camus, Albert.The Stranger. New York: Vintage International, 1988. Print.

De Maupassant, Guy. “The Necklace.” The Language of Literature. Dallas: McDougal Littell Houghton Mifflin, 2001. Print.

Dickens, Charles. A Tale of Two Cities. New York: Signet Classics, 2007. Print.

Frank, Anne. The Diary of a Young Girl. New York: Bantam Books, 1993. Print.

Joyce, James. Dubliners. New York: Barnes & Noble Classics, 2004. Print.

Milton, John. “Paradise Lost.” The Language of Literature. Dallas: McDougal Littell Houghton Mifflin, 2001. Print.

Lewis, C.S. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. The Chronicles of Narnia. New York: HarperCollins, 2004. 107-198. Print.

Lewis, C.S. The Magician’s Nephew. The Chronicles of Narnia. New York: HarperCollins, 2004. 7-106. Print.

Lewis, C.S. Mere Christianity. 3rd ed. New York: HarperOne, 2001. Print.

Lewis, C.S. The Screwtape Letters. New York: HarperOne, 2001. Print.

Orwell, George. 1984. New York: Penguin, 1990. Print.

Orwell, George. Animal Farm. Mountain View, CA: First World Library, 2004. Print.

Shakespeare, William. As You Like It. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1994. 611-640. Print.

Shakespeare, William. The Comedy of Errors. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1994. 166-186. Print.

Shakespeare, William. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1994. 670-713. Print.

Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1994. 858-884. Print.

Shakespeare, William. Macbeth: The Graphic Novel. Original Text Version. UK: Classical Comics, Ltd., 2008. Print.

Shakespeare, William. The Merchant of Venice. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1994. 388-415. Print.

Shakespeare, William. A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1994. 279-301. Print.

Shakespeare, William. Much Ado About Nothing. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1994. 520-549. Print.

Shakespeare, William. Romeo & Juliet. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1994. 245-278. Print.

Shakespeare, William. The Taming of the Shrew. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1994. 329-358. Print.

Shakespeare, William. The Tempest. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1994. 1135-1159. Print.

Shakespeare, William. Twelfth Night. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1994. 641-669. Print.

Swift, Jonathan. “A Modest Proposal.” The Language of Literature. Dallas: McDougal Littell Houghton Mifflin, 2001. Print.

World Literature:

"Epic of Gilgamesh." World Traditions in the Humanities. Dallas: McDougal Littell, 2001. Print.

Kincaid, Jamaica. "Girl." The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Short Stories. Ed. Tobias Wolff. New York: Vintage, 1994. 306-07. Print.

Homer. The Iliad. Trans. W.H.D. Rouse. New York: New American Library, 2007. Print

Sophocles. Oedipus the King. Trans. Paule Roche. New York: New American Library, 2001. Print

Miscellaneous Fiction:

Dallas, Sandra. The Persian Pickle Club. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1996. Print.

Enger, Leif. Peace Like a River. New York: Grove Press, 2001. Print.

LaHaye, Tim, and Jerry B. Jenkins. Apollyon. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale, 2000. Print.

LaHaye, Tim, and Jerry B. Jenkins. Armageddon. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale, 2003. Print.

LaHaye, Tim, and Jerry B. Jenkins. Assassins. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale, 2000. Print.

LaHaye, Tim, and Jerry B. Jenkins. Desecration. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale, 2002. Print.

LaHaye, Tim, and Jerry B. Jenkins. Glorious Appearing. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale, 2004. Print.

LaHaye, Tim, and Jerry B. Jenkins. The Indwelling. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale, 2001. Print.

LaHaye, Tim, and Jerry B. Jenkins. Left Behind. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale, 1996. Print.

LaHaye, Tim, and Jerry B. Jenkins. The Mark. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale, 2001. Print.

LaHaye, Tim, and Jerry B. Jenkins. Nicolae. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale, 1998. Print.

LaHaye, Tim, and Jerry B. Jenkins. The Remnant. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale, 2003. Print.

LaHaye, Tim, and Jerry B. Jenkins. Soul Harvest. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale, 1999. Print.

LaHaye, Tim, and Jerry B. Jenkins. Tribulation Force. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale, 1996. Print.

Sheehan, Jacqueline. Lost & Found. New York: William Morrow, 2007.

Print. Shreve, Anita. Testimony. New York: Little Brown & Co., 2008. Print.

Miscellaneous Non-Fiction:

Bassnett, Susan. Comparative Literature: A Critical Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1997. Print.

Bly, Robert. The Sibling Society. New York: Addison-Wesley. 1996. Print.

Boo, Katherine. Behind the Beautiful Forevers. New York: Random House, 2012. Print.

Buchanan, Mark. Your God is Too Safe. Sisters, OR: Multnoma Publishers, 2001. Print.

Foster, Richard. Celebration of Discipline. New York: Harper & Row, 1978. Print.

Herrick, James A. The History and Theory of Rhetoric: An Introduction. 3rd ed. Boston: Pearson Education, 2005. Print.

Kaplan, Fred. 1959: The Year Everything Changed. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2009. Print.

Swindoll, Charles R. Job: A Man of Heroic Endurance. Nashville: W. Publishing Group, 2004. Print.

Yson, Lois. Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge, 2006. Print.

Villanueva, Victor, ed. Cross-Talk in Comp Theory: A Reader. 2nd ed. Urbana, Illinois: National Council of Teachers of English, 2003. Print.

Multicultural/Renaissance Literature:

Carter, Forrest. The Education of Little Tree. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1976. Print.

Castillo, Ana. The Guardians. New York: Random House, 2007. Print.

Dove, Mourning. Cogewea. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1991. Print.

Gates, Jr., Henry Louis, and Gene Andrew Jarrett, eds. The New Negro. Princeton: Princeton UP, 2007. Print.

Larsen, Nella. Passing. Ed. Carla Kaplan. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2007. Print.

Lewis, David L., ed. The Portable Harlem Renaissance Reader. New York: Penguin, 1994. Print.

Morrison, Toni. Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination. New York: Vintage Books, 1993. Print.

Nafisi, Azar. Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books. New York: Random House, 2004. Print.

Perkins, Mitali. The Not-So-Star-Spangled Life of Sunita Sen. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2005. Print.

Senna, Danzy. Caucasia. New York: Riverhead Books, 1999. Print.

Thuy, Le Thi Diem. The Gangster We Are All Looking For. London: Picador, 2004. Print.

Tomine, Adrian. Shortcomings. Montreal: Drawn and Quarterly, 2007. Print.

Toomer, Jean. Cane. New York: Liveright, 1993. Print.

Vecianna-Suarez, Ana. Flight to Freedom. New York: Scholastic, 2002. Print.

Wilkerson, Isabel. The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration. New York: Vintage Books, 2010. Print.

Yan, Gene Luen. American Born Chinese. New York: First Second, 2006. Print.