The assumptions behind secondary school literature course tests--whether asking students to recall aspects of literary works, to relate literary works to each other, or to analyze unfamiliar literary works--are open to question. They fail to acknowledge some of the most important aspects of literature which, if properly taught, should provide a…

A review of research in the three areas of response to literature, reading interests, and the teaching of literature is presented. Each category of study is discussed in a separate chapter, with a bibliography included at the end of the chapter. In evaluating each study, the authors focus on the question with which it deals and its conceptual…

Reconsiders the nature of literature as a school subject. Discusses the notion that school literature is different from reading literature outside school. Discusses three anomalies: the text and the textbook; educators' idolatry of "naive readers" whose heads are to be stuffed; and the roles of the reader and writer in school programs.…

Advocates focusing literature instruction on the classroom community rather than the individual because through language, as through mathematics, concepts and worlds are fabricated. (CRH)

The role of literature in education is examined, and implications for assessment of student understanding of literature are outlined. There are three distinct views of the role of literature in school. Literature is variously construed as an adjunct to the learning of reading and writing, as a subject with its own body of knowledge, and as an…

Author responds to Margaret J. Early's review of his book, "Literature Education in Ten Countries". For related articles, see TM 501 491, 492, 493 and 494. (RC)

The purpose of the assignment described in this article was to help students see that reading a literary work is not a straightforward process and to have students arrive at an understanding of just how complex a thing the responding mind is. (Author/RK)

This article describes the problems that the College Entrance Examination Board's Committee of Review for the Examinations in English encountered in creating a fair, objective, hour-long literature achievement test which would meet four objectives--to measure the breadth of a student's reading, his understanding of that reading, his response to…

Explores the relationship and transaction between a reader and literature. Discusses the implications of this relationship on literature text choice and curriculum, as well as the feasibility of heuristics in a curriculum. (HTH)

This article discusses the notion that three radically different deep structures operate in literature education today, providing a useful way to examine and describe a culture's influence on its literature curricula. The structures are identified as (1) imitative--assumes that literature forms a heritage and that reading, absorbing, and imitating…

Offers examples of ways that college and university departments of English can broaden students' capabilities as readers and critics. (AEA)

Analyzes results of a ten-nation study of literature education in terms of three different "deep structures" or basic approaches to literature curricula. Analysis of responses reveals significant national differences in curricular deep structures and indicates that agreement between student and teacher responses increases as students'…

After establishing a theoretical depiction of the domain of literature learning, a study developed test packages which examined: (1) the relationship among multiple choice, short open-ended, and long open-ended responses; (2) whether there would be differences according to the genres; (3) the relationship between literary and non-literary texts,…

Summarizes the findings of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) pertinent to reading and response to literature and suggests ways the IEA data bank can stimulate research by suggesting hypotheses. (DD)

This paper reconsiders the nature of literature as a school subject. Musing on three anomalies that occur when language arts teachers consider their professions about school literature and what occurs in literature classrooms: (1) the anomaly of the text and the textbook; (2) the anomaly of the idolatry of naive readers whose heads have been…