Matthew Bolton
M.S.Ed. Administration & Supervision/English Curriculum & Teaching, Fordham University
PhD. English Literature, City University of New York Grad School
Teaching philosophy
Important skills I want to teach my students
I want my students to be able to read critically, to write effectively, to work collaboratively, and to think deeply.
Teaching methods that reach these goals
Ninth-grade English class is a community of readers and writers. Working together allows us to understand and appreciate great works of literature in a way that is fundamentally different from reading on one’s own. Discussions, collaborative work, staged readings, multimedia projects, and other activities bring the written word to life. We likewise learn from each other as writers; through peer revision and workshops, we develop our academic voices.
My favorite projects
I’m torn between our “Postcards from Odysseus” project in the first semester and our film productions of “Much Ado About Nothing” in the second. Like so much of what we do in English 9, both of these projects call on students to reinterpret classic works of literature through our own modern sensibility and aesthetic.
What I like best about teaching at Seven Hills
I love the intelligence, warmth, and diversity of our student body. They are a remarkable group of young men and women.