Students in the English Language Arts classroom have access to more author commentary than ever. While following authors on social media may deepen students' engagement with their assigned reading, it also threatens to subdue students' own interpretations of the authors' texts. This essay explains how educators can introduce basic aspects of…

Much research exists about adolescent reading, particularly young adult literature (Allington, 2014; Gallagher & Kittle, 2018; Krashen, 2009). Within that body of research are explorations of nontraditional reading experiences among today's adolescents. This research includes gaming narratives (Ellison & Drew, 2019; Hall, 2011; Sylven…

This essay seeks to recognise the value in a literature-focused model of the discipline of English, using I.A. Richards, C.K. Ogden and the American New Critics as models of critics who placed the text, and the reader's relationship with the text, at the centre of any study of literature, arguing that this relationship is analogous to that which…

This paper explores the treatment of London by two authors who are profoundly influenced by the concept of the power of place and the nature of urban space. The works of Peter Ackroyd, whose writings embody, according to Onega (1997, p. 208) "[a] yearning for mythical closure" where London is "a mystic centre of…

Although secondary school teachers have long been aware of the pedagogical possibilities of Louise Rosenblatt's Reader Response (articulated first in "Literature as Exploration," 1938) and I. A. Richards' Close Reading (first broached in "The Meaning of Meaning: A Study of the Influence of Language upon Thought and of the Science of…

In this article the authors provide a general overview of the controversies associated with urban street fiction, a brief introduction to the genre and an introduction to the complex representations of Black adolescent femininity within two contemporary titles, "Black and Ugly" (Styles, 2006) and "Bitch" (King, 2006). The authors provide a…

Discusses Eric Lomax's autobiographical book "The Railway Man." Notes how it chronicles his boyhood obsession with train-spotting and the subsequent ways in which his life has been freaked by railway co-incidences. Describes how the author invited Eric Lomax to come and discuss this work with his students. (SG)

Considers how reading Jane Tompkins'"Sensational Designs" helps foster a new appreciation of the ways in which students contribute to the creation of a literary work. Discusses how students responded to their semester-long study of various "neglected" 19th-century women writers. (SG)