Textbooks and grammar worksheets do not adequately convey to students how readers or listeners are shaped by the language of the writer. The best way to help students understand the emphasis of a dash or another device is to see one used during a suspenseful moment in a dramatic selection. It is up to the teacher to select dramatic works that…

Uses student reactions to Cordelia's death in "King Lear" to demonstrate how students can be made aware of what they are bringing to a literary experience. (DD)

Suggests three techniques for expanding the range of students' responses to literature. (DD)

Provides a structured approach to analyzing literature, based on transactional analysis. (DD)

Student response should play a greater role in the study of literature. (DD)

Explores a few of the trends contributing to the apparent decline in substantive literature instruction and suggests some teaching methods that can help restore the human element to literature. (HOD)

Discusses the utilization of films and transparenceies in teachn g poetry and recommends a multisensory approach to such instruction. (SW)

Research on literary response has had little to say about student response to authors' techniques in particular literary works. For this study, 165 senior high students of superior verbal ability were asked to read two short stories and to indicate what they thought made each story effective by selecting from an inventory comments which matched…

Claims students should be allowed to rank, rerank, and reshuffle thinking and then share their views with class members regarding poetry and poets before formal criticism is thrust upon them, and suggests teachers should be careful not to over-analyze and tell students about a poem's significance. (NH)

An approach to teaching foreign languages that acknowledges the importance of individual readers' responses to literary texts read in the course is discussed. (20 references) (VWL)

Responds to an article in an earlier issue of this journal about using reading response in a college literature classroom. Argues that the use of reader-response theory with two-year college students requires some caution. (SR)

Presents four teachers' reasons why they each favor teaching a particular novel. Discusses teaching "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" (Ken Kesey), "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" (Betty Smith), "My Antonia" (Willa Cather), and "The Wave" (Tod Strasser). (NH)

Reveals how ostensibly "irrelevant literature may often be closely relevant to students' lives. (SW)

Suggests that inappropriate book selections, the book report/test syndrome, and ineffective assignments turn students off to reading. Recommends alternative English classroom techniques (reading groups, oral and dramatic activities, writing, and media) to encourage students' enjoyment and appreciation of literature. (SJL)