The Website
Teaching the works of James Joyce in secondary school? Yep! Whether it be the adolescent trials of Stephen Dedalus in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, the awkwardness of social obligations in "The Dead", the complicated nature of relationships (and humor of flatulence) in Ulysses, or the profoundly fun exploration of intricate word play in Finnegans Wake, secondary school is the perfect time to introduce readers to Joyce's Dublin. For decades Joyce has been a name synonymous with intimidatingly dense literature, typically reserved for the stone halls of universities. However, if one throws those dusty old preconceptions into the elitist dustbins they belong in, it can quickly be discovered that Joyce was, in fact, writing for you!
This website's mission is to help guide secondary teachers through the process of introducing and teaching Joyce's works to students. Everything on this website is free to use from presentations and notes to lesson/unit plans and resources. And every lesson is attached to educational standards for use in the classroom. Given that I teach 10th grade students in Florida, the standards will be grade 10 B.E.S.T. Standards; however, they are easily adapted for wherever you may happen to teach. NOTE: I do not include answer keys for three main reasons: 1) Many of these lessons do not have binary responses or multiple choice answers. They are open-ended, though by necessity evidence-based and an answer key can create stifling perimeters around complex questions. 2) we always ask our students to read the materials we provide, build on previous knowledge, step out of their comfort zone, own their learning process, and to establish an evidence-based analytical conclusion. And 3) these are active lessons and if a student were to find them online...well, you understand. I simply ask the same of any teacher attempting Joyce. First, be a student; then, be a teacher. I promise it'll be worth it. If you want to ask questions, find answers, or talk shop, email me below! I'd love to hear from you!
Have fun exploring the site and discovering or re-discovering Joyce in a whole new light -- as a teacher with a classroom full of secondary students! As a side note, all work on this website is copyrighted to Dylan Emerick-Brown; however, it is all free to use. Please just give credit where credit is due, spread the word, and enjoy!
This website's mission is to help guide secondary teachers through the process of introducing and teaching Joyce's works to students. Everything on this website is free to use from presentations and notes to lesson/unit plans and resources. And every lesson is attached to educational standards for use in the classroom. Given that I teach 10th grade students in Florida, the standards will be grade 10 B.E.S.T. Standards; however, they are easily adapted for wherever you may happen to teach. NOTE: I do not include answer keys for three main reasons: 1) Many of these lessons do not have binary responses or multiple choice answers. They are open-ended, though by necessity evidence-based and an answer key can create stifling perimeters around complex questions. 2) we always ask our students to read the materials we provide, build on previous knowledge, step out of their comfort zone, own their learning process, and to establish an evidence-based analytical conclusion. And 3) these are active lessons and if a student were to find them online...well, you understand. I simply ask the same of any teacher attempting Joyce. First, be a student; then, be a teacher. I promise it'll be worth it. If you want to ask questions, find answers, or talk shop, email me below! I'd love to hear from you!
Have fun exploring the site and discovering or re-discovering Joyce in a whole new light -- as a teacher with a classroom full of secondary students! As a side note, all work on this website is copyrighted to Dylan Emerick-Brown; however, it is all free to use. Please just give credit where credit is due, spread the word, and enjoy!
About Dylan
Me holding a copy of the James Joyce Quarterly with my article in it (the Ulysses shirt goes nicely with the cover)
Dylan Emerick-Brown is an independent scholar and teaches English at Deltona High School in Deltona, Florida, where he was named Volusia County Secondary English Teacher of the Year for 2014-15 and was a member of the Florida Teacher Leader Fellowship desigend by the University of Florida and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. "...to satisfy his literary as well as his criminal aspirations..." (Book 1, Chapter 3 of the Wake) the units he teach include Joyce’s "The Dead" and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man as well as a Ulysses Reading Group for his AICE/Cambridge students. To read more about the reading group, check out this article published by the James Joyce Quarterly: https://jjq.utulsa.edu/reading-ulysses-high-school-fun/. His article on teaching “The Dead” was published in issue 56.3-4 of the James Joyce Quarterly, and he presented a paper for the 26th Annual International Joyce Symposium at the University of Antwerp. Another paper on Joyce's use of language focused on the Anglicization of Ireland was presented at the James Joyce Italian Foundation's Conference at the University of Rome in January 2019. Other academic presentations include steganographic Joyce for the James Joyce Society in 2018 at New York University’s Ireland House and Joyce’s therapeutic use of his play, Exiles, for the 43rd Annual Comparative Drama Conference hosted by Rollins College in 2019. Additionally, he has taught an online lecture for Professor Enrico Terrinoni's masters level English Literature course for the Università per Stranieri di Perugia on the first three episodes of Ulysses known as the "Telemachiad". His paper on the influence of Percy Bysshe Shelley's closet drama, Prometheus Unbound, on Joyce's Ulysses was published in Language, Literature, and Interdisciplinary Studies, volume 3, issue 2. His paper on Leopold Bloom of Ulysses subconsciously performing the Jewish ritual of Tashlikh on the O'Connell Bridge over the River Liffey was published in Volume 10, Number 1, March 2020 of Qorpus. The James Joyce Literary Supplement, in Volume 34, issue 1 for Spring 2020, published his paper on teaching a variety of Joyce's texts in high school. His paper on the use of literary appropriation for populist aims involving John Tenniel in Punch magazine and James Joyce in Ulysses was published in the Volume 5, issue 1 (2020) issue of Kairos: a journal of critical symposium. Dylan Emerick-Brown is also the author of the book, As One Generation Tells Another: Teaching James Joyce in the Secondary Classroom in 2020.
You can view his modest contributions to Joyce studies HERE if you're interested.
In a past life, Dylan created Deltona High's student literary magazine, Howl, which published poetry, fiction, memoir, and art from around the world for 5 years. He and his students were also nationally recognized for their 86 interviews of acclaimed writers including 2 Nobel Laureates, 24 Pulitzer Prize winners, and 8 US Poets Laureate. They also conducted Maya Angelou's last recorded interview which is now in the permanent archives of the Library of Congress. The preserved site can be found HERE.
You can view his modest contributions to Joyce studies HERE if you're interested.
In a past life, Dylan created Deltona High's student literary magazine, Howl, which published poetry, fiction, memoir, and art from around the world for 5 years. He and his students were also nationally recognized for their 86 interviews of acclaimed writers including 2 Nobel Laureates, 24 Pulitzer Prize winners, and 8 US Poets Laureate. They also conducted Maya Angelou's last recorded interview which is now in the permanent archives of the Library of Congress. The preserved site can be found HERE.
Email Dylan
If you would like to reach out, say hi, or ask a question, feel free to fill out the form below! I'd love to hear from you!
