English

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Looking for something like They Say, I Say?

Try these open educational resources recommended by other faculty who have taught with They Say, I Say.

Open Textbooks

  • 88 Open Essays: A Reader for Students of Composition & Rhetoric
    A composition reader compiled by librarians at Northwestern Michigan College. “You can search for essays thematically that relate to topics like education, the environment, politics, health, heroes, etc.. You can also search for essays based on whether we see them as displaying composition concepts like analysis, synthesis, and research. You can search for essays that are based on shared values, essays that rely heavily on ethos, logos, or pathos, essays that are very kairos-dependent, and even essays that are scholarly.”
  • Compact Anthology of World Literature
    Broad-ranging anthology of world literature in six parts from ancient to contemporary times.
  • English Composition: Connect, Collaborate, Communicate (University of Hawai’i)
    “This OER textbook has been designed for students to learn the foundational concepts for English 100 (first-year college composition).”
  • Linguistics for Teachers of English
    “The primary goals of this text are to acquaint prospective teachers of English with certain aspects of the history, structure, and use of the English Language. Through considering the nature of the English language; how language and culture are interconnected as well as how it is acquired and how and why it changes, readers will come to a fuller understanding of sociolinguistics.”
  • Literature, Rhetoric & Writing Books
    A collection of open books of various topics and levels from the University of Minnesota Open Textbook Library.
  • Literature, the Humanities, and Humanity (SUNY Fredonia)
    By Theodore L. Steinberg. “After an introductory chapter that offers advice on how to read (and teach) literature, the book consists of a series of chapters that examine individual literary works ranging from The Iliad to Charles Dickens’ Bleak House. These chapters can not substitute for reading the actual works. Rather they are intended to help students read those works.”
  • My Slipper Floated Away: New American Memoirs
    My Slipper Floated Away is an anthology of fresh, compelling essays written by students at Lehman College in the Bronx. The writers are immigrants or the children of immigrants and/or POC. They grew up hearing gunshots and sirens at night, played fire escape basketball and still celebrate Thanksgiving by dancing. The stories reveal the writers’ intense longing to belong in America and their passion to succeed in this country, while dealing with myriad challenges. They bear witness, in riveting, artful narratives that will be revelatory to Americans who fear and resent immigrants or people of color.”
  • Naming the Unnameable: An Approach to Poetry for New Generations (Western Michigan University)
    “With consideration to the psychology of invention, Bonczek Evory provides students with exercises aimed to make writing in its early stages a form of play that gives way to more enriching insights through revision, embracing the writing of poetry as both a love of language and a tool that enables us to explore ourselves and better understand the world.”
  • Open-Access Books on the WAC Clearinghouse

    To date, more than 85 books are available on this site and additional books are in production. All books are available for free viewing and/or download. Many are also available in low-cost print editions.
  • The Open Anthology of Earlier American Literature (to 1899)

    Anthology created by Robin DeRosa and her students at Plymouth State University. A great example of a collaborative and ever-evolving open educational resource.
  • Open Journalism books (OER Commons)
    A variety of open materials for journalism courses.
  • Rhetoric and Composition (a wikibook)
    The Rhetoric and Composition Wikibook is “designed for use as a textbook in first-year college composition programs, written as a practical guide for students struggling to bring their writing up to the level expected of them by their professors and instructors.”
  • Rhetoric & Composition Textbook (Bay College)
    Open textbook from Bay College designed for an introductory English course.
  • Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, Vol. 1

    A book series containing peer-reviewed collections of essays–all composed by teachers for students–with each volume freely available for download under a Creative Commons license.
  • Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, Vol. 2

  • Writing Spaces: Web Writing Style Guide Version 1.0

  • Writing the Nation: A Concise Introduction to American Literature 1865 to Present
    By Amy Berke (Middle Georgia State University), Robert R. Bleil (College of Coastal Georgia), and Jordan Cofer (Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College). This text “surveys key literary movements and the American authors associated with the movement. Topics include late romanticism, realism, naturalism, modernism, and modern literature.”

Repositories of Open and Zero-Cost Materials

  • CORE: Open Access for the Humanities

    Part of the Humanities Commons, CORE is a repository of open access monographs, articles, projects, course materials, and grey literature related to the Humanities.
  • Fairy Talez
    Freely accessible and large collection of fairy tales, folk tales, and fables online. Fairytalez also accepts submissions of fairy and folk tales.
  • Internet Archive

    “A non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more.”
  • Library of Congress – Archive of Recorded Poetry and Literature

    The Archive “contains nearly two thousand recordings—of poets and prose writers participating in literary events at the Library’s Capitol Hill campus as well as sessions at the Library’s Recording Laboratory. Most of these recordings are captured on magnetic tape reels, and only accessible at the Library itself. . . . The material featured on this online presentation represents a sample of this collection. The site will continue to provide additional items from this archive on a monthly basis over the next several years.”
  • LibriVox Audiobooks
    A volunteer-run digital library of audio recordings of books in the public domain.
  • Lit2Go

    “Lit2Go is a free online collection of stories and poems in Mp3 (audiobook) format. An abstract, citation, playing time, and word count are given for each of the passages.” Some passages include supplemental reading strategies.
  • Open Folklore
    “A partnership of the American Folklore Society and the Indiana University Libraries, Open Folklore is a scholarly resource devoted to increasing the number and variety of open access resources, published and unpublished, that are available for the field of folklore studies and the communities with whom folklore scholars partner.”
  • Perseus Digital Library
  • Project Gutenberg

    Collection of over 57,000 public domain ebooks that can be downloaded for free or read online.

Open English Courses & Resources

 

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