Focusing on the nature of revision in lyric poetry, a study investigated poets' writing processes. Primary data sources included poets' commentary, letters, recorded conversations, interviews, and essays. Two case studies were also conducted--an evaluation of two poets at work (one a novice and one an experienced poet) and a textual analysis of…

To make learning about various forms of poetry more interesting to high school students, this paper presents ideas based on an example and precept method of teaching instead of an analysis and explication method. In an introductory section, the paper explains how students will produce a poetry portfolio consisting of 10 or 12 types of poems such…

Some of the denial and fear that accompanies homosexuality and the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) can be dealt with by discussing the following three issues: the AIDS epidemic, the problems of gay and lesbian community college students, and finally, the teaching of literature--especially poetry. Exploring both poetry and the AIDS…

Intended as a guide for students of literature, this book introduces literary analysis through discussion of forms, elements, and genres. The first half of the book focuses on theory, with each section preceded by literary passages and interpretative questions. The second half is devoted to practice, and contains three contrasting literary genre…

Eight coaches of oral interpretation from colleges across the United States were asked to tape record the coaching sessions that brought eight novices to tournament readiness. All of the students used the same three-poem program on the general theme of animals and children, but each student was required to write the introduction and transitions.…

This issue of the "Goldfinch" is devoted to Iowa folklife. The first article explores what "folklife" is and provides several examples. The second article is about artwork and poetry done by Mesquakie Indian children from the Sac and Fox Settlement School near Tama, Iowa. Dome-shaped structures, called "wickiups," in…

Students are faced with many subjects related to death in their everyday lives--war, euthanasia, disease, teenage suicide. A unit on death that focuses on literary and artistic conceptions of death, as well as historical trends concerning beliefs about death and burial, can help students express their feelings about death coherently and…

Songs and poems with origins in Hispanic-American cultures are presented for the classroom use of Spanish teachers. Some information about the selections, their characteristics and idiosyncracies, and their specific uses in instruction is provided. (MSE)

Intended to provide teachers of poetry with both inspiration and teaching advice, this paper explains how one teacher developed a method for teaching poetry successfully in high school. The first part of the paper consists of an autobiographical fragment describing how the teacher used free time to begin seriously writing poetry, as well as how…

Teachers can help students learn the art of good poetry writing in a number of ways. One is to offer students a list of poetry standards that ask students to consider the poem's conciseness, clarity of thought, and imagery; the use of nouns and verbs, and of metaphors; the sound of words; the structure, tone, and control of the poem; and the…

Articles in this journal issue explore the relationship between the reader and the literature text, and discuss ways that instruction can enhance reader response to that literature. Following an introduction summarizing the nine articles, the titles and their authors are as follows: (1) "It Is the Poem That I Remake: Using Kenneth Burke's…

Intended for college teachers and students of Anglo-Saxon literature, this paper provides an overview of the sophisticated poetic devices used by the "Beowulf" poet. The paper examines how old English words for color range in hues in a way that modern English words do not, and how these words for color are used in "Beowulf."…

The connections among language learning, language education, and children's wordplay are explored in this book. Each chapter examines some aspect of the interrelations between wordplay activities and the goals of language education. The book is divided into three sections, with the first section exploring wordplay and language learning in the…

The article discusses nine detrimental and six distinguished books about Hispanic people and cultures, published since 1979 for young readers. It is suggested that many recent books that depict Hispanic people and cultures repeat the same stereotypes, misconceptions and insensibilities that were prevalent in books published in the 1960s and early…

Differences in metaphor recall from poetry were investigated using 10 female and 10 male college student subjects hypothesized as having either an analytic or a holistic processing style. Style was determined using bilateral alpha (8-13Hz) scores measured from the cerebral cortex. It was suggested, on the basis of bimodal theory, that holistic…