Discusses the complexities of defining "realism," examining how the term fueled many discussions in the author's college adolescent literature course. Looks at how writers and critics define the term. Shares alternatives to circuitous arguments about the relative realism of a text that helps students explore texts in effective ways that can lead…

Discusses fostering democratic principles in the literature classroom, moving from reader response to democratic community, listening and democracy, listening together as teachers, and democratic reading and the integration of thought and feeling--all stemming from the work of Louise Rosenblatt and applied to the classroom and teacher/student…

Centers on the power of words (words from literature) that have woven themselves into the lives of the author's two daughters. Examines the children's response to literature as they became writers of prose and poetry in elementary school, showing how, when, where, and why the children use literary language to enhance and express their own verbal…