Because Robert Lowell's poem "Hawthorne" focuses on Puritan New England, both as a setting and a subject, and shows the dark side of human nature, and Hawthorne as the alienated artist with a definite place in American literature, it is a most appropriate conclusion for a teaching unit on Hawthorne.

Offers a panel discussion assignment which requires students to draw from the patterns of ideas presented throughout the semester and apply them to a longer text and engage more actively with literary texts--it also provides a detailed introduction to a wide range of novels impossible to present in one course. Details the assignment. (PA)

Describes and outlines a course in which students read and write about the social, cultural, and ethnic mores of minority groups in this country. (RB)

Discusses a classroom exercise designed to introduce the themes prevalent in a survey of American literature. The exercise explores issues familiar and applicable to the students' lives, such as cultural attitudes toward masculinity, femininity, community, and heroes, thus making the literature more relevant to student interests. (HTH)

Describes a unit which offers high school students a broader perspective on African American history in general and African American writers in particular. Describes how students choose a book (from a list with synopses) to read and then choose at least one activity (again from a list) to complete. (SR)