Trevor Wells

Subject: Language Arts

What will my child walk away with? A more sophisticated relationship with literary texts and the analytical skills to read them carefully, argue about them precisely, and connect them to ideas that extend well beyond the page. My M.A. research at the University of Chicago on Nabokov’s overlooked allusions to Keats, partially funded by a Winchester Fellowship, reflects the kind of close, careful reading I bring into the classroom.

What can families expect? A teacher who strives to foster a collaborative classroom in which the roles of student and teacher constantly change hands. I currently teach Grade 7 World History at a charter school in Brooklyn, and I bring that experience of working with curious, capable students directly into my practice with Brain Power students.

What does class actually feel like? Collaborative, intellectually serious, and genuinely respectful of what students bring to the room. I believe the best literary discussions happen when everyone in the room, including the teacher, is genuinely uncertain about something and working toward an answer together.

How do you challenge a curious mind? I give students texts that reward careful, slow reading — the kind where the first impression is interesting but the fifth reading reveals something surprising. Teaching students to sit with a text long enough to let it complicate their initial response is one of the most valuable things a literature teacher can do.

Credentials and Experience M.A. in Humanities, University of Chicago (partially funded by Winchester Fellowship from Wesleyan University’s English Department). Thesis on Nabokov’s allusions to Keats presented at the English Department Workshop Fund’s 17th-20th Century Cultures Series. B.A. in English with Social, Cultural, and Critical Theory Certificate, Wesleyan University. Recipient of the Geraldine J. Murphy Prize from Wesleyan’s English Department. Current Grade 7 World History teacher at a charter school in Brooklyn. Research interests in post-modern anglophone fiction and deconstruction.