Secondary student performance in the domain of reading has been a cause for concern for educators and scholars alike. To understand the demands placed on students we must first understand how reading changes within content areas and across grades. Furthermore, we must have an understanding of teachers' conceptions about the texts they teach. This…

Both the method of the New Critics and the modern student's interest in "macro-questions" are briefly discussed by way of introduction. The primary concern of the essay, however, is for an ampler conception of metaphor. Instances of "advanced metaphorical thinking," among them More's "Utopia," Kant's "Critique of Pure Reason," and Pascal's…

To increase a student's insight into imaginative works, help him relate his personal experience to the metaphoric structure of literature, and bring him to perceive the value of an educated imagination, the teacher should introduce him to literary analysis and various approaches to literary form. Although a perfect critical system which…