Notes that it is important for educators to remember to avoid battles with critics who tie up and wear down educators with arguing--not arguments--because it drains limited time and energy and pulls them away from more important things like working with children. Suggests that it is more effective to prepare a thoughtful, reflective response…

Considers and discusses different ways of teaching phonemic awareness. Suggests that 5 factors should be included to have an adequate background for informed decision making about phonemic awareness instruction. Describes 10 books, guidebooks and activity books with phonemic awareness or phonological awareness in their titles. (SG)

Presents findings from a study of treatment of the Vietnam war in children's literature. Found that there have not been a large number of books published on subject. Those dealing with subject witness the horrors of the war while treating the conflict as an isolated incident, without a past, and having only a tenuous relationship to our national…

Documents the author's interpretation of Frances Hodgson Burnett's "The Secret Garden." Explores a series of questions dealing with issues such as sight, speech, power, gender construction, and symbolism. Reveals the positive and potent ways women subvert the hegemony of patriarchal society and the celebration of the divine feminine…

Discusses a course in which female students were instructed to compose argumentative compositions in the empathic style of Carl Rogers. Reports that students disliked the style, believing it pretended to accept minority opinions while making women feel as if they had to change their views to belong to the majority culture. (SG)

Elaborates on the continual problem of male dominance in literature, as it pervades the literary canon, literary criticism, and the language. Suggests how changes can be made through the application of feminist criticism. (KEH)

Claims "rhetorical eavesdropping" may make possible moments of convergence in order to effect personal and cultural change. Redefines eavesdropping as an ethical rhetorical tactic and argues that within the United States the dysfunctions of whiteness have remade rhetorical theory in ways that circumscribe available agencies. (NH)

Creates a general set of guidelines for playgoing. Presents and discusses ideas such as: reading the program, looking at the space, studying the set, listening to the language, meeting the characters, watching the actors, examining the director's influence, and imagining the logistics. (SC)

This document contains a critical analysis of Project Learning Tree (PLT). PLT was developed and distributed in the mid-1970s. It consists of 2 activity guides, one for grades K-6 with 89 activities and another for grades 7-12 with 88 activities. The program also provides free workshops for teachers and others. The analysis of PLT includes the…

Criticism is the art of disclosing the qualities of events or objects the connoisseur perceives. Criticism is not negative appraisal, nor a list of unfavorable judgements; its essence is illumination. The key characteristics of criticism used as an evaluation method are: (1) inherent subjectivity; (2) reliance on the perception of the critic (its…

Recognizing the proliferation of persuasive language in advertising and in politics, this guide explains how to analyze political language for its persuasive techniques and why it is important to do so. The first chapter of the book provides a rationale for analyzing persuasion, and an overview of the book. The remaining chapters explore various…

This book on educational standards describes how standards create more harm than good, and it takes to task the pro-standards movement. The volume opens with a discussion of what is wrong with standards, claiming that the push for standards generally results in long lists of facts that are freighted with cultural baggage and are typically the…

Discusses characteristics of poststructuralism, and describes some applications of poststructural theory in the English classroom. Argues that a poststructuralist pedagogy need not neglect traditional terminology and traditional close reading of texts. (RS)

Suggests an approach to literature (derived from post-structuralism and deconstructionism) which goes beyond the concept of "teacher as authority," without totally abandoning form or structure. Demonstrates this approach in a discussion of Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter" and Philip Larkin's poem "High…

Notes that the hopeful threads binding Herman Melville's book "The Confidence-Man" also weave a valuable lesson for literature PhDs considering their career options. Suggests that the values crucial to a teacher or scholar are also crucial to those who work outside the university: willingness to entertain other points of view and an…