Author Archives: Bill Sullivan

About Bill Sullivan

I am an English teacher working with great students at Suffield Academy. I also teach seniors in various project-based learning environments. Some of the #PBL topics included global issues, such as Pandemics, Climate Change, and Water; more recently I have asked students to research and identify topics important to our school community and their generation. We curate these topics with a #StudentCenteredPBL. For the past eleven years, I also created a driving question for a class to research a local history mystery and present their findings in a community program partnering with our local historical society. These topics encompass researching the lives of enslaved individuals who were contributors to the foundation of our community.

Leveraging this year’s Booker Prize Short List for #PBL

Posted on December 3, 2022 by Bill Sullivan

How can we measure academic growth among students regarding their four years journey of reading, thinking, and writing through their high school English class assignments? How can we create a capstone assessment at the top of a 9-12 vertical design … Continue reading →

Posted in 2022 Booker Prize Short List, booker prize | Tagged | Leave a comment

Damon Galgut’s, The Promise

Posted on February 28, 2022 by Bill Sullivan

After a seven year hiatus, previously nominated writer, Damon Galgut, delivers an emotional and introspective look into family dynamics and the manifestations of grief. Through the lives of three south African children, Astid, Anton and Amor, Galgut mirrors the turmoil … Continue reading →

Posted in #PBL #StudentCentered, #PennPBL, 2021 Booker Prize Short List, Literature Circles aka #litcircles, Podcast, Reading, Reflective Assessment | Tagged | 5 Comments

Into The Portal

Posted on February 27, 2022 by Bill Sullivan

In this podcast, we hear excerpts from No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood, which consists of excerpts and connections to social media and current events.

Posted in 2021 Booker Prize Short List, Literature Circles aka #litcircles | Tagged | 8 Comments

Podcast on Patricia Lockwood’s No One is Talking About This

Posted on February 27, 2022 by Bill Sullivan

Click here to listen to this great podcast: https://suffield-my.sharepoint.com/personal/22jl_suffieldacademy_org/_layouts/15/onedrive.aspx?id=%2Fpersonal%2F22jl%5Fsuffieldacademy%5Forg%2FDocuments%2FMicrosoft%20Teams%20Chat%20Files%2FENG4H%20NOITAT%20Podcast%20%2D%203%5F1%5F22%2C%2012%2E07%20AM%2Ewav&parent=%2Fpersonal%2F22jl%5Fsuffieldacademy%5Forg%2FDocuments%2FMicrosoft%20Teams%20Chat%20Files Produced by Jina and Kennedy.

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Leveraging this year’s Booker Prize Short List for #PBL

Posted on October 9, 2021 by Bill Sullivan

How can we measure student growth over four years in a department’s curriculum? How can we create a capstone assessment at the top of a 9-12 vertical design? How can we ask students to figure out what makes a novel … Continue reading →

Posted in 2021 Booker Prize Short List, booker prize | Tagged | Leave a comment

Appreciating Our Literature Circles aka #LitCircles

Posted on May 13, 2021 by Bill Sullivan

How can we measure growth or create a capstone assessment at the top of a vertical design? What makes a novel literary? How do we locate a novel’s literary qualities? How can a project encourage opportunities for life-long reading? How … Continue reading →

Posted in #PBL #StudentCentered, Literature Circles aka #litcircles, Project-Based Learning | Leave a comment

How can we apply an interdisciplinary approach to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein?

Posted on January 28, 2020 by Bill Sullivan

We will return to the “In Our Time” podcast to open our unit on “The Modern Era.” This particular podcast will help us appreciate Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and promises to be quite a podcast. It has been noted to be … Continue reading →

Posted in 21st Century Learning, British Literature, Interdisciplinary, Podcast, YouTube | Tagged | 24 Comments

What Will You Create for the Sonnet Project?

Posted on January 21, 2020 by Bill Sullivan

This sonnet project will be a great learning opportunity for you to express your understanding of Shakespeare’s language and content as well as how it might illuminate something of our humanity today. While I have been giving time lengths for … Continue reading →

Posted in 21st Century Learning, Digital Shakespeare, Shakespeare, YouTube | 1 Comment

Let’s Celebrate Divergent Thinking!

Posted on October 29, 2019 by Bill Sullivan

Do you see how one thing these two thinkers have in common about explaining divergent thinking involves school? With that in mind, let’s leave behind your school brain and enjoy this moment to foster a new cognitive skill that helps … Continue reading →

Posted in #PBL #StudentCentered, 21st Century Learning, 21st Century Skills, Design Thinking, Design Thinking on HMK, Divergent Thinking, Project-Based Learning, Reflective Assessment, TED Talks/TEDx Talks, Twitter | Tagged , | 43 Comments

Let’s Have Each Student Design a Project in our British Literature Survey

Posted on October 21, 2019 by Bill Sullivan

What is project-based learning? Let’s start by celebrating this diagram that will explain our instructional goals during this creative and meaningful learning process. After deliberate reflection, the way for us to enter into this great mode of learning is for … Continue reading →

Posted in #PennPBL, Project-Based Learning, Reflective Assessment, Twitter | 30 Comments