The way in which analysis of a poem can increase the student's enjoyment of it is illustrated and discussed. The teacher is offered one short poem, written by a fifth grade student, which can be used as an exercise in poem analysis. It is believed that the poem analyzed, "The Ball," which is comprised of 11 words, is effective as an introduction…

This study presents the third of four reports of the 1970-71 National Assessment of Literature. The educational attainments of nine-year-olds, thirteen-year-olds, seventeen-year-olds, and adults (ages 26-35) were surveyed according to their ability to recognize literary works and characters. Five types of exercises were used: (1) an illustration…

This study undertook to determine (1) whether teaching sixth grade children elements of style would increase their pleasure in listening to "The Hobbit," (2) whether children who learned the most about style would respond the most positively to Tolkien's style, and (3) what children's preferences would be for selected examples of Tolkien's style.…

This study focuses upon the rock concert as a ceremonial or epideictic rhetoric. A major function of rhetoric, Kenneth Burke suggests, is to achieve a symbolic transcendence of the sense of division among men. Rock music, the author contends, fulfills this Burkean definition and serves the dual function of identification and unification for the…

Sex roles in two disparate areas, reading and literature, are treated separately in this paper. Sex-related factors listed which may attribute to the high incidence of boys experiencing reading difficulty were: (1) predominance of female teachers in the primary grades, (2) boys' lack of interest in basal readers, (3) adults considering reading a…

This paper discusses several novels written by black American writers that deal with the initiation experiences of young blacks, and should, therefore, appeal to black adolescents. The novels are grouped according to the three stages in the initiation experience of the adolescent: separation; transition; and incorporation. In separation, the…

The scope of this quinmester unit of instruction ranges from a cursory look at newspapers, magazines, and sources of biographic material to a development of skills which enable the student to make effective use of them. The focus of the course is primarily exploratory as the student moves through the various media, but he is made aware that not…

This volume, eighth in the annual series, provides for scholars, students, and general readers a systematic, evaluative guide to current published studies on American literature. Half the chapters summarize the year's published work on individual authors, and half are devoted to genres and periods. The eighteen contributors, acknowledged scholars…

The literary works of four American women who lived before 1900 deserve to be introduced, if not reintroduced, to the study of literature in the United States, because of their literary merit, variety, and valuable contributions to American literary history. In a journal edited from a diary kept during a round-trip horseback journey from Boston to…

"Children's Classics," a 1947 article by Alice M. Jordan reprinted from "The Horn Book Magazine," examines the dynamics and appeal of some of the most famous books for young readers, including "Alice in Wonderland,""The Wind in the Willows,""Robinson Crusoe," and "Andersen's Fairy Tales." Paul Hein's annotated bibliography, a revision of Jordan's…

This book contains lists of books which will aid the student of the literature of the United States in acquiring information and in using research techniques. Books are listed under the following categories: aids to information; philosophy and general methodology; technical procedures; definitions of literary terms; preparation of manuscripts;…

This volume provides annotations, which include publishing and price information, as well as syntheses of content, of science fiction books and other works which concern science fiction or its instruction. Part one, "The Literature," contains detailed introductory comments and bibliographic citations relevant to each of the following periods: the…

In this handbook, four authors write on the same topics but with varying emphases. Gwendolyn Brooks sketches the background of Afro-American poetry and offers practical hints and exercises for writing. Keorapatse Kgositsile discusses the role and situation of the black writer. Haki R. Madhubuti (Don L. Lee) explains an author's commitment and…

This paper attempts to distill John Dewey's theory of poetic compression and suggests its possible application as a technique that the performer can use to confront poetic language. Specifically, Dewey's discussions of modes of interaction in art and of the expanding and contracting character of language are used to illuminate the language of the…