Creating Characters and Grading Research Papers

This week has been hectic. The 11th grade research paper was due and I have been in the middle of grading them.  Such is my life. However, in the midst of this, I have been thinking about what makes excellent characterization as I construct my newest character driven novel series. In Orson Scott Card’s book Character

Feeding Squirrels: Taking AP Students to Do Research at a College Library

Yesterday I took my AP students to the University of Oklahoma Bizzell Library to do research for their critical perspectives paper.  Their assignment is to read a canonized novel of their choosing and then write an analytical research paper viewing that text through a critical lens (i.e. Marxist, Feminist, New Historical). Each year I take a group