thomas c foster

How to Read Poetry like a Professor

How to Read Poetry like a Professor by Thomas C Foster

July 7, 2022 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

I’ve been reading Thomas Foster’s “How to Read…” series in preparation for teaching AP this fall. This volume is probably the technical of the books, and not the least enjoyable by any stretch, but the least playful. It’s also the book that I probably most need since like Thomas Foster mentions repeatedly I both fit the English major and English grad student as well as the English teacher who skirted by having not read nearly as much poetry as I should have been forced to […]

Is that a symbol? Sure it is.

January 26, 2018 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

So I teach high school English, and for the most part my job is not to teach literature. Instead, I teach literacy. Literature works for a lot of this because it’s rich, it’s dense, it’s good, and it’s timeless, so the notion of themes, symbols, figurative language are done well, correctly, and in a way that is in balance. But for a lot of kids, these kinds of things aren’t always available or appropriate for trying to make someone be a better reader. But then […]

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