Discusses classroom situations that foster superficial discussion of literature and suggests that teachers focus on what students write rather than how, in order to encourage open exchange of ideas. (HTH)

Discusses classroom literary practices related to teacher questioning, retelling, literalism, and figurative language for children in the concrete operational stage; concludes that recent research on response to literature may say as much about what children are taught to do as what they do developmentally. Offers suggestions about teaching…