This instructional resource, designed to be used by and with elementary level students, presents six works of art which tell stories. These images, created by master artists from diverse cultures and historic periods, serve as starting points for exploring various artistic techniques. Images include: "The Bayeux Tapestry" (Late 11th…

Three installments of "Writing Assignment of the Month," a regular feature of the National Council of Teachers of English publication, "Notes Plus," are presented in this compilation. The articles describe writing exercises which have proven to be successful in the classroom. The first article gives suggestions for introducing…

Teachers' role as primary audience has important implications for writing instruction. Teachers represent a combination of two audiences: a literal audience--a specific person or group of people implied in a writing assignment--and an ideal audience shaped by the writers themselves. As these two general types of audiences imply, writers both…

When students write in response to literature, they make reading a creative act. Recording their personal reaction to a poem or an excerpt from a larger work, students become aware of the complex web of past experiences, associations and ideas triggering their responses; they learn to interact more fully, more consciously, with the text. Besides…

Providing students with the opportunity to earn college credit while still in high school, the Advanced Placement English course described in this guide is designed to help students (1) want to choose from a wide range of literature for independent reading; (2) develop a critical awareness about literature; (3) recognize connections among works of…

Focusing on reader response in the classroom, the works collected in this book represent the results of a five-week summer institute in which 25 middle school, high school, and college teachers studied the principles and applications of literature instruction. The following essays are included: an introduction by G. Garber; "An Overview of the…

Poetry of the romantic age is often uninviting to students, leaving them puzzled because they do not sense the connections between the poetry and themselves. Yet, much romantic poetry can be enjoyed and comprehended if approached in terms of some personal, reflective, and connective readings. Wordsworth and Whitman are often avoided because they…

Discusses "critique" in an analysis of the relationship between discourse, text, and subjectivity, particularly as it relates to the teaching of poetry. Stresses how to make students more aware of the power of the text and to comprehend more fully the nature of their own responses. Illustrates with student responses to Blake's poem, "The Rose."…

Murals created by Diego Rivera, Jose Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueiros embody a time of change in Mexico. The murals they created were intended to educate an illiterate population. Today these murals embody national pride. The goal of this curriculum project is rooted in learning about the history, culture, and art of Mexico. The project…

This handbook demonstrates how studio art concepts may be broken down into their simplest level, thus, allowing preschool and elementary students to work with one particular concept and technique at a time. Teachers are encouraged to coordinate open-ended painting activities with major study units taking place in the classroom. The fourteen…

This book presents the ideas and premises that define the reformation called discipline-based art education, or DBAE. The volume identifies the contexts of art education that influenced this reformation and attempts to offer compelling reasons why art should function as a "basic" in the core discipline in education. The chapters in the…

This paper proceeds through an interdisciplinary unit of inquiry-based instruction, using the Vietnam War combat novel or memoir as a coming of age narrative, the classic thematic structure of the "bildungsroman." The paper discusses several key inquiry activities and asks readers to focus on two other key inquiry activities to help illustrate how…

Based on cowboy poetry and songs, this lesson plan presents activities designed to help students understand that Old West cowboys produced a category of literature, people still write cowboy poetry, and cowboy poetry or songs have certain characteristics. The main activity in the lesson involves students in analyzing a classic of cowboy literature…

This three-week high school American Literature lesson plan guides students to show how cultural artifacts from "The Grapes of Wrath" support one of the book's many themes. The teacher's guide describes the five lessons that constitute this lesson plan: (1) ethnography; (2) photo analysis; (3) oral history; (4) material artifacts and…

Summarizes the essential research on the interrelationships of reading, response to literature, and composition. Shows that readers and writers are both creators of meaning. Discusses a plan by which students develop--and appreciate--their responses to literature and integrate the acts of reading and writing. (RL)