Ree Nae Roberge-Greene holds a BA in English and an MEd. She has 19 years of experience in education, including teaching and administration at various levels.

As an older Millennial teacher, I find that I am stuck between two worlds: the one I was born in and the one in which I grew up. The one I was born in was analog: paper, pencils and highlighters, and books. The one I grew up in—although it was ever-evolving—was decidedly not analog. It was keyboards, screens, and software updates. Like me, students are caught between these two worlds. Traditional schooling requires students to complete tasks that might be considered “old-fashioned” while also trying to prepare for a technologically advanced society that uses AI and other tech to enhance everything, including learning.  

I have found that my teaching career, like my childhood, is also dichotomous—split between teachers who are older than me, most of whom prefer the traditional books, papers, and red pens, and those that are younger than me, many of whom prefer their teaching tools to be entirely digital. Being in the middle is not always easy but, for a blending of the old and new learning tools, I find The Norton Introduction to Literature to be just right. 

I have been using The Norton Introduction to Literature in my AP^® Literature and Composition class for several years. Though most of my students also use the ebook at home, I have a classroom set of hard-copy readers. During class, students grab a copy from the shelf and we revisit the assignment they did outside of class with their ebooks. Having a classroom set of physical texts allows students to remain grounded with the text during classroom discussion, and it encourages them to practice referencing paragraph or line numbers during conversation. Students must be able to reference the line numbers rather than using CRTL-F. For instance, when discussing “The Sonnet: An Album,” each student chose a sonnet to prepare and lead the discussion on. Outside of class they prepared for the discussion with the ebook, noting lines with prosody variance, figurative language, sound devices, and shifts. Then while leading the discussion, students used the physical book and referenced the line numbers of the poem. Having physical books allowed us to use the outdoor classroom and enjoy connecting with the outdoors while reading poetry. Additionally, having the book in front of the students in this way allows students to use their Chromebooks to collaborate in a Google Doc or other digital platform while still easily accessing the reading, without having to use a split screen or navigate between multiple windows. A few students prefer reading the physical book, and for those students, I assign a book to them for the year.  

Homework assignments are assigned through the ebook, allowing me to see if students have accessed the reading and for how long. When students are not engaged in the in-class discussion, I can check a usage report from the ebook to determine if it is a comprehension issue or a preparation issue. If I see that most everyone has read the text, then I modify my teaching strategy or approach. One of the principles of good teaching is adaptation. When I recognize that students are struggling, I have been able to ask leading questions or refocus the lesson through annotation of a passage. Using the book in class and a projection of the ebook on the SmartBoard, I can model how I read one of the difficult passages. Then, using Post-It notes (alone or in pairs), students can try the modeled task in the reader, so I am able to check for progress and provide assistance. Later, when they are practicing on their own, they can access my notes in the ebook. When a particular skill seems to be a sticking point for a larger group of students, the ebook has companion tasks through the interactive tools of InQuizitive and Close Reading for formative assessment or to reinforce skills taught in class.  

For instance, early in the academic year, the AP^® Literature and Composition course requires students to more deeply analyze character and setting. Unit One of the Course and Exam Description guide requires students to identify and describe specific textual evidence that conveys character development or reveals something essential about the setting. To address these objectives, students read the short stories “Hills Like White Elephants” and “Good People” outside of class from their ebooks. In class, we discuss the stories individually and intertextually. I have included a sample plan incorporating both digital and physical text to enhance student learning accessible for download here. 

Once a month or so, I select a text, as illustrated in the example week plan, that has a companion InQuizitive activity to reinforce the skills we are working on in class. The activity, done as homework, allows students to earn a grade they’re happy with using the gamified platform. Students must complete a minimum number of questions, but if they have not earned the grade they want, they can continue to work through the questions until they master them. Individualized feedback for each student guides them toward mastery by providing answer-specific feedback for both correct and incorrect responses, scaffolding relearning by directing them back into the specific pages of the text in real time.  

The assignment platform provides me with an estimate of the time it would take for an average student to complete the assignment. I can adjust the minimum number of questions based on the time I want students to spend or the number of skills I want them to work on. In the end, I can see how much time each student spends on the assignment. The amount of time, coupled with the number of questions to get to their score, also informs my teaching. If students take longer than I would expect to complete the InQuizitive activity, I know I need to reteach or provide opportunities for a specific group of students. 

Students that are already skilled often take much less time, and those that are not as adept at reading or analysis skills can earn the same score but often take 50–100% longer. InQuizitive motivates my students to take control of their learning. Motivated students who struggle are excited to know that effort on these assignments pays off because, despite getting a few wrong early on, they can make up for it by doing a few more later. Students who have already mastered the skills like that they can complete the minimum number of questions and spend more time on the other homework they find more challenging. Win-win. 

Navigating the “real world” students are going to live in is one of the most important outcomes of education. Some students will go on from my classroom and live in a world of primarily physical objects, writing on paper; using tools; and manipulating objects. Many others will leave my classroom and enter a fully digital experience—with no-one-knows how much AI assistance. The Norton Introduction to Literature helps me prepare students for both worlds. It also helps to showcase to students that it doesn’t have to be one or the other, just as humans of differing skill sets work in toward creating a superior outcome than what one is capable of alone, digital and print can coexist and enhance each other for improved outcomes. Using a hybrid approach benefits us all now and into the future. 

AP^® is a trademark registered and/or owned by the College Board, which was not involved in the production of, and does not endorse, this product. 

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