Engaging 9th grade students in contemporary reality-show parodies based on "Great Expectations," the author helps students explore the intricacies of Charles Dickens's novel. In "Stay Tuned for Our Next Episode: Teaching 'Great Expectations' in Installments," the author highlighted the benefits of teaching "Great Expectations" in installments, as…

Author gives specific suggestions to high school teachers; he feels that pairing the two plays offers additional valuable insights into each. (Author/SP)

Describes a writing exercise in which students write alternate versions of poems, and observes that interesting discussions about the nature and quality of poetry result when the class tries to identify the original poems. (MM)

When the literature anthologies did not arrive, Allen Webb turned to the Internet, where he found a wealth of classic and contemporary e-texts. Using these online resources opened up possibilities for new ways of teaching and learning traditional skills of close reading and critical analysis. Students created blogs of poems and commentary,…

An English teacher provides some sentence comparison activities that enlarge students' linguistic resources for writing. He believes that students can learn to revise for style if they recognize the stylistic choices writers make.

Presents three assignment sequences--covering both canonical and noncanonical stories, mini-anthologies, and novels--that encourage secondary school students to think critically about the concept of literature. Notes that students can learn to analyze literature critically by comparing both canonical and noncanonical texts. (MM)

Establishes a link between the themes of Golding's fiction and the paintings of the Brueghel. Traces their use of the grotesque to impress a message on the mind of the reader or viewer. (CRH)

Concludes that young people are reading less and are less influenced by reading than their counterparts of almost a decade ago. (EL)

Considers: (1) research by George Hillocks using meta-analysis to examine four modes of composition instruction; (2) role playing in classroom to improve student writing of persuasive letters or opinion essays; (3) process approach to English instruction, which allows for complex nature of individual learning styles; and (4) resource for promising…