Recently- quite by accident – I shared a book about the Beatles in a basic skills class. It was sticking out of my backpack: Sgt. Pepper at 50. To my absolute surprise and delight, my students were inspired by the look, the sound, and the legend of the Beatles. Who knew? We are now developing research papers about the sixties. We are writing about John F. Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe, Cesar Chavez. Women’s Liberation, The Moonlanding, Woodstock…

As part of the project, I’m showing them how to effectively incorporate important quotes into their essays and class blogs. Below I model a post based on a controversial statement made by John Lennon.