Strange Bedfellows ─ Surprising Text Pairs and Lessons for Reading and Writing Across Genres

"Carol Rawlings Miller leads us-and in turn our students-into urgent conversations that have become all too scarce in many classrooms in recent years, places where the curriculum has become all too safe, too plain. When she pairs Martin Luther King and Shakespeare, there is a resounding cymbal crash in the head, as there is when Miller serves up speeches by Susan Sontag and George W. Bush. A stranger set of bedfellows has not been seen in some time.... Miller has created a course of study that will bring back to the classroom something of the fire it once had but which recent movements have dampened." -Jim Burke Author of "The" "English Teacher's Companion," Third Edition What do Arnold Schwarzenegger and Barack Obama have in common? When it comes to helping students become savvy about genre, rhetoric, and language: everything. In "Strange Bedfellows" Carol Rawlings Miller pairs short pieces by famous writers and speakers for side-by-side discussion and frames these pairs in lessons that help students meet a variety of curricular goals. With "Strange Bedfellows" your students will study the traits of effective writing and persuasion. They'll also sharpen their critical-reading skills through exposure to a variety of texts and authors:
Martin Luther King, Jr., and William Shakespeare
Barack Obama and Arnold Schwarzenegger
George W. Bush and Susan Sontag
Jonathan Swift and Leonard Lewin
Joseph Mitchell and Orhan Pamuk.
Miller saves you hours of prep time. She's built ready-to-use, discussion-based lessons around each literary odd couple that help students think critically and find solid approaches to more complicated texts. In each lesson you'll find that:


Every text is line-numbered for easy reference during discussion.
Key definitions and contextual notes at point of use support deeper understanding.
Discussion points, questions for readers, and writing activities accompany each lesson.
Blackline masters of all texts and student forms are in the book.
From the Bard to Barack. From the Maginot Line to the World Trade Center. With "Strange Bedfellows" it's never been easier to find high-quality instruction that engages students with top-notch, real-world texts.

Carole Miller is associate professor in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction, Faculty of Education, University of Victoria. Her primary area of research is the relationship of drama to learning across the curriculum. She is coauthor of Learning to Teach Drama (Heinemann, 2000).