Teaching English - Resources for English Education Majors

General Teaching Resources

We've collected some of the best resources on the web for new teachers, including syllabi, curriculum guides, lesson plans, classroom management tips, and education journals.

Screening Exam Resources - Secondary Education

Before students can be considered for a student teaching placement, they must pass all five sections of the English Department Screening Exam--Grammar, Usage, Punctuation, Spelling, and Literary Terms. The test is offered on a Saturday morning three times a year, once in April, once in September, and once October.

Students should begin taking all or part of the test as early as possible in their college careers. For more information, contact the English Department secretary or your advisor. In addition to studying the handouts available in the English Department, you may want to consult The Plain English Handbook by Walsh and Walsh for help on the first four sections of the exam. The Handbook to Literature by Harmon and Holman is helpful in preparing for the Literary Terms section.

Grammar and Punctuation

• Your English 101 handbook will be a helpful resource; see also Resources for Writers on the Calvin English Web

Literary Terms Section

As you prepare for this section, you'll find it easier to "learn" terms if think beyond memorized definitions, toward examples and ways of using the concepts in your own classroom. (These terms are important only insofar as they provide a vocabulary for discussing the concepts they define.)

• The best resource is the Harmon/Holman Handbook to Literature. The current edition is expensive, but you can usually find a reasonably-priced used copy (older editions are fine) through www.addall.com.

Here are some useful online resources for literary terms:

• The Gale Research Group Glossary: excellent, comprehensive definitions with cross-references.
• Glossary of Literary Terms and Handbook of Rhetorical Devices (Robert Harris)
• Literary Terms Glossary (Norton Introduction to Literature)
• Dictionary of Literary Terms - basic definitions for high school students ( Joel Sommer Littauer)
• More terms with some useful links (Cyber English, by Ted Nellen)

Scansion and Meter

• Interactive Quiz by Seamus Cooney, Western Michigan University. (This quiz is probably more difficult than the screening exam in that you are asked to identify some irregular lines, but Cooney provides helpful feedback.)
• Prosody page provided by Professor Engbers
• Verses to help you remember metrical feet
• Visit the Knightvision English organization page (Documents: Secondary Education) to download a handout with information, exercises, and answers, courtesy of Professor Saupe