Sparkler Coffinmaker produced a video explaining thesis statements. I like the emphasis on claims, and the Martin Luther jokes (theses! Get it? Is this thing on?).

Book nerds, did you love Anastasia Krupnik when you were little? If so, you probably have a special place in your heart for William Wordsworth's poem "I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud." Remember that scene in which Anastasia and her dad discuss Wordsworth's phrase "The inward eye which is the bliss of solitude"? It really sums up the pleasures of close reading:

"Tell me what it means," said Anastasia. Inside, she pictured a head with a spooky eye.

"Well," her father said thoughtfully, "'the inward eye' can mean memory. Solitude means being alone. And bliss means happiness. So what do you think the whole line means?"

She put it together like a puzzle. "Memory is the happiness of being alone?" she asked.

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