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.

Jim Burke is the author of numerous bestselling Heinemann titles, including the English Teacher's Companion, Fourth Edition and What's the Big Idea? The question he's always tried to answer is "How can we teach our students better?" He seeks these answers daily through his work in his own classroom at Burlingame High School in California where he still teaches after twenty years. Facing the same constraints and challenges as every other teacher, Jim shares his creative solutions in bestselling professional titles with Heinemann such as Reading Reminders and Writing Reminders as well as through Heinemann Professional Development Services. As part of his commitment to helping teachers and learning how to use the latest technologies, he founded the English Companion Ning, described by Education Week as "the world's largest English department" and winner of several Edublog Awards for Best Social Network for Education. In addition to the EC Ning, Jim offers a steady stream of recommended resources through his website (www.englishcompanion.com) and Twitter (@englishcomp) where he is ranked in the top 100 educators to follow at the top within the online English teacher community.

Jim serves on several national commissions related to adolescent literacy and standards, including the Advanced Placement English Literature and Language Course and Exam Review Commission with the College Board and the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) where he serves on the Content Technical Working Group, which advises PARCC on the national assessments being developed for the Common Core State Standards. In addition, he is a senior author on the Holt McDougal Harcourt Literature series.

Jim has received numerous awards, including the NCTE Intellectual Freedom Award, the NCTE Conference on English Leadership Award, and the California Reading Association Hall of Fame Award. He served on the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Committee on Adolescence and Young Adulthood English Language Arts Standards.

Through his work in the class and on such commissions, Jim Burke seeks not only to clarify but reimagine what English should be, honoring the past even as he works with others to create the future of the discipline he loves so much. Visit his website (www.englishcompanion.com) for more information.