What do you mean by that? Connotation vs Denotation

A retired English teacher, I hold an MFA in Creative Writing and a bachelor's degree in Language Arts Education from the University of Nebraska at Omaha.  I currently work as a reading and writing coach for students of all ages. (Continued below the class list.)

Teaching allows me to share my passion for the written word. For example, inspiring a love of Shakespeare in formerly fearful young readers is one of my proudest accomplishments. I also believe writing is an essential tool for communication with the world and with the self.  Art is for everyone! 

For what it's worth, whenever I get a chance to travel to see a Shakespeare play, I do it. I've been fortunate to go to England a few times recently and have seen wonderful plays at both the Globe Theatre (The Tempest, As You Like It) and the Royal Shakespeare Theatre (Macbeth, Richard III). Sometimes when I think about that "then I scorn to change my state with kings." (Sonnet 29.)

SCHEDULING NOTE: I understand sometimes it is necessary to miss a class. Just let me know and I can send a link to the video of the class missed.

A little bit about my teaching methods:

For all classes, students are encouraged to interrupt with questions, comments, etc. whenever they arise.

--My one-hour concept courses ("Irony" and "Connotation/Denotation") are more lecture-heavy, though questions and discussion are encouraged. I do pretty frequent checks for understanding because we are covering a lot of information in a short amount of time. These are the only courses where students are not expected to produce a final project.

--For the literature courses, I try to keep the lecturing to a minimum. I begin class by presenting background information and use guiding questions for discussion. The amount of reading done in class varies depending on the material and the students.

For the Shakespeare courses, there is no outside reading beyond what the student chooses for their final project. We use the Reader's Theatre method, with all willing students reading a part and fairly frequent checks for understanding. The reading is usually followed by video clips from different film versions of the scenes we have read.

For novels such as The Great Gatsby, The Haunting of Hill House, and The Hobbit, most of the reading is done outside of class, though I do like to read together occasionally when there's something particularly challenging in the material.

High-interest short stories like "The Cask of Amontillado", the 19th-century horror survey, and the novel Ready Player One are especially good for students who might be a little fearful or uninterested in reading, although in any given class only a third or a half of the students fit that description. Every now and then I'll have a group where every student is passionate about reading. 

For these high-interest courses, we read a higher percentage of the work in class. I spend a good amount of that time modeling good reading skills; for example,  "interrogating the text" by asking questions, replicating aloud what goes on in the mind of a good reader. This is especially good for students who need to work on reading comprehension.