This study investigates the interpretive approaches of three English teachers working in different grade levels with the same poem, Walt Whitman's "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer." The researcher sought to learn what the teachers identified as most valuable about studying poetry in school, what interpretive approaches they employed…

This article presents the results of five open-ended surveys administered to two Advanced Placement classes in a primarily White high school in upstate New York. Surveys sought to explore how students make sense of the course diversity selection, Chinua Achebe's "Things Fall Apart," which was inserted into a primarily White textual…

There is a transcendent force at work in the world, and its design for learning and life is far too complex to be executed through lesson plans and textbooks. In this article, the author describes a phone call from a student he taught in a high school English class 16 years earlier and has not seen since. After the student reveals how his life was…

Higher and lower schools routinely take their cue from luminaries like NYU dean Catherine Stimpson, who famously opined that academic objectivity and intellectual rigor equal "mishmash." As a result, they feed students a diet of bland, uninspired readings. Carol Iannone is thus not surprised at the ensuing hand-wringing when the teaching…

As this report goes to press, the nation's capital is in the midst of a six-moth, city-wide celebration of William Shakespeare. With this celebration as a backdrop, the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) researched how Shakespeare fits into English curricula at 70 of the nation's leading colleges and universities. ACTA surveyed English…

This taxonomy is designed to be used by teachers who are preparing New York state students to take the Tests of General Educational Development (GED). The skills included in this taxonomy are representative of those skills which must be mastered in order to pass the reading skills test of the current six-hour GED. Educational objectives in the…

THIS PUBLICATION IS A TEACHING GUIDE TO PROVIDE GUIDANCE FOR INTEGRATING CAREFULLY SELECTED AUDIOVISUAL ITEMS INTO EXISTING NINTH-GRADE CURRICULUMS IN ENGLISH. IT IS ONE OF FIVE GUIDES PREPARED FOR USE IN PROJECT CUE, AND EXPERIMENTAL PROGRAM DESIGNED TO INCREASE CULTURAL UNDERSTANDING AND ENRICHMENT IN THE EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS OF HIGH SCHOOLS.…