Sea of Troubles has been designed for classroom teachers struggling to address the overwhelming issues facing our world today. By embracing the Common Core's emphasis on the inclusion of more nonfiction, informational texts, the authors have demonstrated how to incorporate meaningful informational texts into their favorite units of literature. Sea of Troubles shows teachers how literature and informational texts can work together, to enhance each other, and, by extension, enhance student's abilities to critically think and respond to the sea of troubles that pervades society.
Elizabeth James is the coauthor of Method to the Madness: A Common Core Guide to Creating Critical Thinkers through the Study of Literature. She teaches at the high school and college levels and provides professional development for English teachers. She and B. H. James share two wonderful sons. B. H. James is the author of Parnucklian for Chocolate and coauthor of Method to the Madness: A Common Core Guide to Creating Critical Thinkers through the Study of Literature. He teaches high school English in Northern California, where he lives with his wife, Elizabeth James, and their two sons.
Preface Acknowledgements Introduction Chapter One: Syntactical Othering and The Merchant of Venice Chapter Two: Racial Injustice and A Raisin in the Sun Chapter Three: Intertextuality in The Merchant of Venice and A Raisin in the Sun Chapter Four: Abuses of Power and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Chapter Five: Authoritarianism in 1984 and Animal Farm Chapter Six: Genocide and Ethnic Internment in Night and Farewell to Manzanar Chapter Seven: Gender Inequality and The Handmaid's Tale Chapter Eight: The Tragedy of Growing Up in Romeo and Juliet and To Kill a Mockingbird Bibliography About the Authors
Are you keen to explore contemporary issues with students but more than a little bored with the titles in your curriculum? Sea of Troubles offers a model for re-envisioning how traditional texts are taught. Elizabeth and B.H. James describe instructional moves designed to demonstrate how literature "reflects the world and the world is reflected in fiction." Whether you teach online or in person, their lessons integrating informational readings with literary works are sure to enliven classroom conversations.--Carol Jago, past president, National Council of Teachers of English; author, "The Book in Question: Why and How Reading Is in Crisis"
