Read this First: Thoughts for Teachers

Roy Tennant and Clarice Stasz, as well as the Jack London electronic group, get numerous requests for help from students.

Some of these are students looking for others to do their work. Be assured they will not get that kind of help from on-line experts. Most are too busy, or are teachers who understand how to redirect the student's question so the work will be original.

With all the pressures you are under, we nonetheless hope this site will prove helpful to your students and yourself. Here are some thoughts we have based upon our experiences with students.

• Skim through this web site overall so you are familiar with what students can and cannot find. In order to avoid cut-and-paste papers, we provide primarily reference material. Still, some students may cut-and-paste from the on-line biographies, encyclopedia, and book summaries.

• Teach students about the importance of citing sources and footnotes so they understand academic honesty and plagiarism. We have included a link on the Student: Homework Help page to show how they must also cite electronic source material.
  

• Be sure your local libraries have the materials students need to do their assignments. We often hear from students at 9-12 level who are told to find literary articles on Jack London, but there is no nearby junior college or university that would have these. Much of the Jack London scholarship is in journals or books available only at such libraries.

• Another common problem is students who do not understand their assignment. That is why the first advice we give on Students: Homework Help is that they make sure they comprehend what the teacher wants. If you want students to write a paper on Social Darwinism in Jack London's writings, then be sure they understand Social Darwinism, and what you expect them to do with that information. You could, for example, in class take a different term, such as Atavism, and give examples of how you would put a paper together. Our Glossary of Critical Terms should be helpful here.

• Do not assign a project where students have to interview experts. We simply do not have the time. Similarly, advise them not to post questions on the Jack London discussion group unless they have already done their work. They will get good help then. But too often students write first, asking "Tell me all about...." or "Send me all your information on...."

Please do send us your ideas to help other teachers! This is your part of our web site!