Presents six narratives from teachers including: "VCE English at Lilydale High School" (Valerie Mayer); "Should 'I' Be Their Teacher" (Mark Matcott); "Teaching Poetry to Year 7 English Students" (Janet Lyons); "Creative Art Therapy and Mandalas" (Demi Flessa); "Would the 'Real' Teacher Please Stand…

Describes how one teacher links the study of British Victorian and twentieth-century war poets to the world of her students. (MG)

Notes that when students write and exchange poetry and letters, they feel drawn by the responsiveness to their words of "real" audiences. Argues that students sharing letters and poetry give voice to ranges of experience, to name features of their worlds that might otherwise have remained unnamed. (RS)

Argues that literature teachers should select poetry that represents all ethnic groups, not only groups represented within the class anthology. Discusses the voice, theme, rhyme, rhythm, tone, and imagination of several gifted Black poets. Concludes that teachers must be aware of these voices and use the poetry of gifted Black poets to model the…

Describes how a teacher uses Stanley Kunitz's poem "The Portrait" to help students write poems full of concrete, sensory images about deeply private experiences. Presents examples of student poems. (RS)

Examines performance as a literary critical method. Describes group performances of James Dickey's "The String" in an advanced college interpretation course, and considers two central issues: (1) what is learned through the performance of a specific literary work; and (2) what features of a concrete text require performance attention,…

Explores reader and text effects on the production of mental imagery during and after reading a poem, a story, and two expository texts. Finds that imagery occurs spontaneously during and after reading all texts and that the production of imagery is affected by both reader and text. (RS)

Classes of 9th-grade and 11th-grade students with deafness read contemporary poetry and created their own poems through writing, sign language, and mime. The poetry of the profoundly deaf students followed the syntax of sign language, while students with residual hearing focused on the elements of form, especially rhyming. (JDD)

Describes the results of a study in which 32 English teachers were requested to identify passages of verse disguised as prose. Analyzes which features enabled the readers to recognize the poetry passages. (KEH)

Reports on comparisons of genres of award-winning picture books from Australia, Canada, Great Britain and the U.S. Most of the books were from the genres of folklore and fantasy. (NH)

Describes the teaching approach and materials in "Origins," a book about word origins and how to teach them to elementary students. Notes that this book includes step-by-step activities, a brief history of the English language, relevant poetry examples, and several writing ideas. (MM)

Examines the visualization of poetry through television. Describes how the television series, "Voices and Visions," uses a popular form of communication to expand the audience for poetry. Views television documentaries as a means of generating enough interest among viewers to draw them to books of poetry. (KO)

Focuses on the Nuyorican stage of Puerto Rican immigrant literature, suggesting topics and structural characteristics to discuss and teach along with other American literary traditions. Points out that Nuyorican literature shares many of the concerns of these other traditions. (SR)

Examines the limits of Julia Kristeva's approach to modernist language. The article argues that Kristeva draws on a structuralist model of language and the unconscious, utilizing a code and deviation framework, thereby restricting her ability to elucidate explicit effects of modernist dislocation of language. The article also probes the problems…

Discusses the advantages of actively using poetry in the classroom, such as development of students' language and communications skills, imagery and aesthetic appreciation, and confidence in reading and oral presentation. Offers examples of poems used on a monthly basis in the classroom, how they are used, and ways to integrate poetry with other…