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I’ve asked my students to share their MVP ( Most Valuable Part) of their Reading and Soundtrack Selection from their Fall Semester 2025. They will need to think back to the authors, short stories, and poems we have read. Here is the cool part: There is no right or wrong position in a student’s vote…
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This week I invite my students to go to the movies with me. I mean, we are not going to watch anything on the big (or small) screen, but we are going to download movie posters to help us develop our visual analysis skills. Everybody loves their movies. Visual Analysis is an important academic…
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SUMMER WAS FUN – FALL WILL BE A BLAST! This summer in ENGLISH 1000 we went to NEW YORK CITY – Come On! – In what other class doyou ever have the opportunity to do THAT? To supplement our PARADISE TRAVEL novel-reading experience, I asked each of my students to choose a JUICY…
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I don’t know much how other people choose their books. I never hear it come up in everyday conversation. I’m sure many book readers go to their own secret websites and podcasts. I DO. Choosing the right book is a big deal for me. As I get older, I have difficulty squeezing my reading…
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Does anyone ever ask how you choose the books you read? Probably not. Sadly, over the last forty years or so, I have seen a gradual decline in reading. NO INTEREST. That’s not news, but that’s not GOOD. I’m an ENGLISH TEACHER. When I ask my students where they find their books, they tell…
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In every beginning writing class that I’ve ever taken, I hear the advice, “Write what you know.” This sounds good, but it doesn’t always work. Often, you get so close to your subject, you can’t see the forest from the trees On the other hand, you can try to distance yourself from your subject…
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In the first or second week of each semester, I share Sandra Cisneros’s “Only Daughter,” with my composition classes. My students often connect with Sandra’s background. She beat the obstacles of racism, sexism, and poverty in her world to become both an influential writer and activist. Sandra’s childhood experience of being “the only daughter” proved…
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Fig. 1. "Caleña," I asked. I turned around and she planted a couple of kisses on my cheeks in greeting. [This is Marlon talking, from the novel Paradise Travel, meeting up with a traveling partner in NYC.] Holding on to my hands, she took a step backward to look at me, and I noticed…
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This Summer 2025, I have assigned a novel with my classes I recently plucked off my shelf here in Mexicali. It's called Paradise Travel, and it is written by Jorge Franco. I'm not giving any spoiler alerts, but it focuses upon the American Dream – two teen-age lovers, Marlon and Reina from Medellín, Colombia,…
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They told her not to come, but she came anyway. That's Bobby Kennedy on the left. That's President Kennedy on the right. And you know who that is in the middle – That's Marilyn Monroe. She had flown to New York to sing "Happy Birthday" to the president on his 45th birthday at Madison…