This article explores why we need to be intentional about the literature we explore in our English language arts classrooms. It explores the question of what literature should be considered and strategies for using democratic practices in support of literature circles. It also reinforces the importance of collaborative practitioner research to…

Promoting student power in the choice of high school literature can prove uncomfortable, unruly, and contentious. Without enough preparation, research, and reading, teachers may find language, content, and themes to be more mature than initially anticipated. This essay explores one teacher's reflection of two instances when choice reading…

Great literature gives students a window to other places and times, but it often requires students to step outside their comfort zones and take on challenges they wouldn't usually attempt. Unfortunately, research shows that many schools are not assigning literature that pushes students beyond their current reading level. Jago encourages teachers…

The reading students are required to do for school bears little semblance to the reading they do outside of school. Students today are reading the same texts in school that students read a generation ago, but the varieties of text used outside of school are much different. One result is that many students are unmotivated to become readers.…

Notes that a middle ground of accommodation offers to settle the impasse in the debate over revising the literary canon. Discusses cross-gender reading--the pairing or clustering of a text in the canon with one outside the canon with similar structures and themes. (RS)

School administrators and teachers need to recognize that most persons--including would-be censors of school-related media communications--simply do not understand the complexities germane to measuring the impact of the mass media and the specific messages transmitted to broader audiences via a variety of media channels. In particular, what most…

Presents three teachers' recommendations for works of literature that use a strong oral tradition. Discusses each of the teacher selections: "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (J.K. Rowling); "Cuentos: Tales from the Hispanic Southwest" (compiled by Juan B. Rael); and "The Way to Rainy Mountain" (N. Scott Momaday). (SG)

Just as schools can teach consumerism and active criticism toward unfair advertising techniques, so too can schools teach a watchdog attitude toward prejudice through the use of multicultural reading materials in libraries and classrooms. (HOD)

Considers two contending views of moral reading, the "fabulist" or antibook view and "affective" or values clarification view, and argues for the superiority of the latter view. (HTH)

Discusses the ongoing debate about the role of literature in the freshman composition course. Claims that teachers of these courses individually determine the nature of each course. Shows that, for many decades, literature has not retained a secure place in freshman composition courses. (HB)

Discusses the debate about the use of literary works in freshman composition courses. Calls for more extensive research into the period of the 1950s and 1960s, with particular attention to the changes in composition instruction and the loss of literature from that curriculum. (HB)

Annotates trade literature dealing with children or adolescents who are both handicapped and members of a minority group. (FL)

Focuses on the debate about the role of literature in the freshman composition course. Argues that literary works are suitable for these courses because they hold multiple points of view and are by nature multidisciplinary. (HB)

Focuses on the debate regarding the use of literary texts in freshman composition courses. Questions the assumptions embedded in the framing of the debate itself. Asserts the blurring of genre lines. Proposes a way to reframe the debate in more fruitful terms. (HB)

Relates the discovery of censorship of certain Chinese classics deemed "yellow" books during a five-week travel study seminar in Beijing. Describes the author's reflections on what content in a book would result in it being censored. (VWC)