Confessions of an English Teacher Book 1

A Memoir of My Teaching Years

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About Confessions of an English Teacher Book 1

Confessions of an English Teacher: A Memoir of My Teaching Years was written to share some of my extraordinary experiences teaching English at six high schools and seven community colleges in Orange County, California, from 1973 to 2018. I share these memories because their discovery was so disappointing. I imagined that as an English teacher, I was prepared to teach the subject I was trained for, but I learned that was far from the truth. My training as an English teacher should have prepared me to teach essential skills. It did not. As I reflect on my teaching at these schools, I discovered that my English degree should have prepared me to teach the skills of reading, grammar, and writing. Looking back at what I was mandated to teach revealed a sad truth: teaching English to high school and college students was filled with traditions that needed to change. Based on what I found to be traditional problems in teaching English, I offer recommendations for change for high schools and community colleges.

Published: 2024/07/19

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About Richard P. Sinay

Richard P. Sinay
Richard Sinay taught English and reading in high school and college in Orange County, California, for 35 years. He spends most of his time reading and writing. His most recent publication is Confessions of an English Teacher: An Analysis of Common Core. His first, Who We Met on the Way to Stanford: A Father's Memoir, tells how he and his son met famous golfers while pursuing a golf scholarship at Stanford. His second publication, How to Get a Golf Scholarship to Stanford: A Parent's Guide, is intended for parents who want to see their golfer play for Stanford. His third publication, Observations of America and My Ancestral Past: An Epistolary Autobiography, is a daily account of a twenty-five-thousand-mile trip around the country. His subsequent work, Crazy Little Children Are Jangling the Keys of the Kingdom: The Estrangement Epidemic in America, examines the phenomenon shattering families across America. Next, his Confessions of an English Teacher: A Memoir of My Teaching Years is his first book about teaching English in California high schools and community colleges. He followed that with Confessions of an English Teacher: How High School and Community Colleges Can Improve Instruction. Then he wrote Confessions of an English Teacher: How Textbooks Affect Literacy and What to Do About It, Confessions of an English Teacher: All About the Teaching of Writing in the High School, Confessions of an English Teacher: All About the Teaching of Reading in the High School, and Confessions of an English Teacher: The Problem and the Solution to Teaching Literature to Average Students. With the completion of Confessions of an English Teacher: The Problem and the Solution to Teaching Literature to Average Students, he has fourteen publications. He currently resides in Palm Desert, California, where he reads, writes, and enjoys life in the desert.

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