Literature can and does change minds – and, in so doing, it develops and enriches students’ thinking. The activities in Changing Minds with Literature are centred on high-quality texts that are intrinsically interesting, so that learning is irresistible. As highly experienced English teachers, the authors have found the activities to be successful over and over again with a wide range of students. These teachable resources can be completed as one teaching block or as independent tasks without an introduction or input from the teacher, including a relief teacher. Further, the topics (for example, history, war, science, technology, family relations, love and politics) invite extension study that can fit in with other aspects of the classroom programme. Covering everything from prefixes to spelling reform, letters to cell phones, Roman warriors to market researchers, this book is an engaging and virtually effortless way to extend students’ English comprehension.
Features – This book:
- Challenges students with thought-provoking activities related to high-quality literature
- Explores both the message (meaning and comprehension) and the medium (figurative language, literary devices and structure)
- Covers most genres of short literature, including short poems (lyrics, epitaphs, limericks), short stories, sonnets, songs and speeches
- Includes extension activities and suggested answers
About the Author:
Guy Gifford began teaching at Mairehau High School in Christchurch, New Zealand but steadily moved north to Whanganui City College where he teamed up with David Dowling in the English Department. His most productive and enjoyable teaching experiences were on two exchanges to Canada where the lack of uniforms, semester timetabling and emphasis on graduation appealed. An amateur musician and DIY builder, he has constructed several boats and houses, some of which survive to this day. He is retired in Whanganui and struggles to keep up with his several grandchildren.
David Dowling currently teaches and writes in British Columbia, Canada. He has taught in New Zealand at Rotorua and Hamilton Boys’ High Schools, and English at Massey University. He was Chair of English at the University of Northern British Columbia. A former editor of Landfall, the New Zealand literary quarterly, he has written books (published in the UK and USA) on Virginia Woolf, William Faulkner and modern literature, and also edited books on Bruce Mason, New Zealand dramas and short stories.
