Sometimes teachers do not discover what is really important to students because they do not give them an avenue to explore issues close to their hearts. They must find ways to reach the gay or lesbian students who fear their secret might get out or those who are already out and oftentimes bear the ugliness of teenage teasing, taunts, and sometimes…

The documentary text, a relative newcomer to the textual armoury of subject English, has received remarkably limited theoretical discussion. It therefore provides an interesting opportunity for the contemporary researcher concerned with the reading/viewing practices that constitute modern textual study. This paper first presents an historical…

Sybil Wilson is a composite representation of an English teacher that typifies much of what most preservice English teachers have seen and experienced in U.S. classrooms. The authors' aim is to articulate textual frameworks often competing and unnamed in English curriculum (and evident in Sybil's classroom) and to argue for a particular reframing…

Suggests three levels of reading. The first is exemplified by E. D. Hirsch's prescriptive "cultural literacy." The second is interpretive, typified by the "strong reader." The third is critical and is best suited to dealing with the complexities of poetry. (ARH)

Reviews various methods of teaching literature and proposes that response to literature be an element in the teaching of literature. Considers the role of the teacher in a response-centered classroom and how to create a classroom environment that will encourage interpretation and response to literature. (SRT)

Reports on the Senior English Educators Conference, called in response to widespread feelings that English education needs to be reexamined in relation to current developments in education and society. Focuses on graduate studies and research, teacher education, and the nature of English as an academic discipline. (RS)

Discusses the importance of improving students' visual perception as a way of improving their literary perception. Describes visual perception exercises that can be used in the English classroom. (EL)

Discusses the concepts of play and imagination and how these shape personal development and the knowledge gained through experience with reading and writing. (SRT)

Written in the same spirit as the earlier edition but thoroughly revised and updated, this book is designed to make teachers aware of reader-response theory and its implications for literature instruction and curriculum. The book demonstrates how a response-centered curriculum brings students to a greater understanding of all forms of literature…

This book offers teachers a convenient means of broadening their understanding of reader response theory and criticism and applying this theory to the teaching of literature in high school and college classrooms. The book is designed to arouse individual teachers' interest in reader response theory and encourage them to apply it to their teaching.…

Provides a background of response theory, two Canadian perspectives on response theory, a description of transactional response theory and response-centered curriculum, a discussion of the concepts of participant and spectator roles in literature and of the idea of narration and storying as literature, and a discussion of analysis and criticism.…

This book offers teachers a convenient means of broadening their understanding of various kinds of composition theory and the steadily emerging field of teacher research by high school and college instructors. The book is designed to arouse individual teachers' interest in composition theory and encourage them to learn about and participate in…

What kind of meaningful learning goes on when an introverted and intuitive traditional professor imparts his knowledge to an extroverted student of the new wave generation? In a project exploring how teaching personalities influence student learning, a traditional professor of literature and a "new wave" (defined as characterized by…

Considers what literature does, its role in a child's education, and how it might be taught. Advocates the use of adolescent literature in the classroom. (NKA)

Considers literature as something different from the texts themselves (specifically, a way of reading that includes the writer, the text, and the reader) so that the purposes of teachers and readers may be considered, and a flexible approach to selection, organization, and pedagogy be permitted. (SRT)