While humor has long been documented as a useful teaching tool, it is almost entirely untheorized in terms of its potential for multicultural education. Specifically, the learning opportunities that racial comedic media offer in multicultural and anti-racist coursework is a particularly under-studied area, while research in this vein has great…

Tom Stoppard's play, "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead," focuses on the antics and tragedy of two minor characters in Shakespeare's "Hamlet." Although satirical of their philosophical pretensions, the play conveys the uncertainty and confusion of its two principal characters and thus reflects modern man's dilemma. The…

DISTINCTIONS BETWEEN THE NARRATIVE AND DRAMATIC MODES CAN BEST BE UNDERSTOOD BY EMPHASIZING WHAT IT MEANS TO THINK AND CREATE DRAMATICALLY. ALTHOUGH BOOKS (WHICH ARE READ) AND PLAYS (WHICH ARE SEEN) TREAT PLOT, CHARACTER, AND SETTING SIMILARLY, CONVENTIONS THAT PARTICULARLY DISTINGUISH THEATRICAL FORM ARE--(1) THE AUTHENTICATING REALITY OF THE…

To develop better communication with students, English teachers must acquaint themselves with the interests of teenagers and use these interests to establish a common ground of discussion. Movement toward such a dialogue can be started by radical teaching techniques that bridge the gap between the immediate concerns of the students and important…

Four speeches illustrating important principles in the teaching of English are collected in this booklet: (1) "The Teaching of Writing as Art" by William E. Coles, Jr., who, in posing ambiguous, provocative questions as writing assignments, compels the student to explore language in its relationship to his experience and his persona; (2)…