It's always interesting to get a glimpse into another teacher's classroom.
An innovative teacher turns kids into writers
Nancy Barile's flair for teaching has captured her students' attention - and just earned her an award from the College Board.
By Stacy A. Teicher | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
REVERE, MASS. - Most of the hallways in Revere High School are lined with skinny, sherbet-orange lockers. But outside Nancy Barile's classroom, her sophomore lit students have placed a stately row of poster-board gravestones, complete with epitaphs, for the characters who died in "Hamlet."
Ms. Barile knows how to hook the CSI generation. But it's her flair for teaching them to write that earned her a recent award from the College Board.
On this particular morning, the teens in her "Mysteries" elective class focus intensely as they draft their own suspense stories. Barile has already led them through the criteria she'll be looking for, and the priority today is imagery - part of "Standard 15" measured on statewide tests.
"What's imagery? Language that appeals to your senses," Barile says as she writes on the whiteboard. "What does it smell like out in the woods? Is there a smell of decay?" she suggests with a mischievous grin.
"Out of all my classes, this is the most exciting - she captures your attention while she's teaching," says senior Phillip Longo, who first encountered her in an after-school class for students who had failed English.
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