Teaching Particulars by Helaine L. Smith, Teacher of Meringoff Award Winners

This year’s Meringoff High School Essay Awards went to two eleventh grade students of the same teacher and ALSCW member, Helaine L. Smith, whose most recent text, Teaching Particulars: Literary Conversations in Grades 6-12 (Paul Dry Books, 2015) describes the sort of classroom teaching out of which such writing grows. The link to the book’s website is http://www.pauldrybooks.com/products/teaching-particulars.

Both Sylvie Thode’s essay, “Seeking Out Solace,” which addresses Lear’s going-off-to-prison speech at V.iii, and Sophie Starck’s essay on Elizabeth Bishop’s poem, “Questions of Travel,” reveal what close textual examination can yield.