Retired Herndon High School English and journalism teacher Connie Casserly released a new book at the beginning of this month, The House of Comprehension.

Casserly, who retired in 2011 and blogs on Patch, regularly writes about education and lesson plans. She shares information on her website, TeachItWrite.com, as well as shares and sells lesson plans on TeachersPayTeachers.com.  

The House of Comprehension, published by Compass, is a program that helps English language arts instructors teaching grades 6 through 9 how to teach students to fully understand literature.

Casserly’s new book covers the elements of literature including character, plot, conflict, setting, theme, symbolism, point of view and tone as the building blocks of the “house of comprehension.”

Learning each of the elements helps students to be able to put them together to fully understand the literature. With better understanding of literature students can better explain, both orally and in writing, what the story is.

The book includes step-by-step instructions for teachers, and 40 activities, including printable activity sheets. The activities are aligned to the English Language Arts Common Core Standards and Bloom’s Taxonomy.

Casserly taught English language arts in high schools and middle schools for more than 30 years, including teaching journalism, creative writing and English. At Herndon High School she was responsible for the school’s literary and art magazine, as well as the student newspaper.

She also enjoys creative writing in her spare time, and published the young adult novel, A Fine Line, and has other manuscripts in the works. 

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