Joshua Block

Humanities Teacher at Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia. Passionately believes that education is a tool to help people understand and transform their individual and collective realities.

Theme for English B

The other day a teacher friend who is in a new classroom setting wrote me and asked about a lesson that I teach using Langston Hughes’ poem “Theme for English B.” This multi-layered poem challenges students and provides an interesting framework for an intro writing assignment. Here is the lesson that I shared with her: First […]Read Post ›

Getting Started

This week my students are working on their Language Autobiographies (here are some past examples). The assignment (inspired by Marsha Pincus years ago,) requires them to use personal experience, written in the form of scenes of memory (thanks Jessi), to develop larger ideas about language in their lives or language in the world. It’s a […]Read Post ›

Rethinking Learning

When I graduated from college it was shocking to realize how little I knew. I was not equipped to handle most everyday problems. My math classes had filled me with knowledge but I wasn’t able to apply it to calculate the size of stair stringers that I was trying to build. My bike and car […]Read Post ›

CES Fall Forum Presentation, 2012

This is the slideshow for the presentation that I gave along with Larissa Pahomov and students Anissa Ahmed and Terrance Oliveri-Williams at the Coalition of Essential Schools Fall Forum. The students made the slides and did a wonderful job presenting. Our main goal was to help people to think of 21st Century Schools as places […]Read Post ›

Mirror on the Wall: Public Art and the Face(s) of Youth | Edutopia

This is the blog post Melanie Manuel and I wrote for Edutopia about our public art project from last year. Mirror on the Wall: Public Art and the Face(s) of Youth | Edutopia.