Virtual worlds enable students to learn through seeing, knowing, and doing within visually rich and mentally engaging spaces. Rather than reading about events, students become part of the events through the adoption of a pre-set persona. Along with visual feedback that guides the players' activities and the development of visual skills, visual…

With the arrival of inexpensive camcorders and even video capability in cell phones, easy-to-use editing software such as iMovie and Windows Movie Maker, and instant universal distribution through YouTube and similar sites, individuals are coming to the point where they can create and manipulate images as easily as they do words. As an English…

This article begins by noting the tendency of certain academic practices to arrest thought, and attempts to circumvent that arrestation in the writer by reflecting on her adolescent response to the writings of William Wordsworth. It explores the possible implications of a youthful feeling that poetry is "true", tying this in with Wordsworth's own…

This article describes elaboration in "literary letters" (Atwell, 1984, 1987) written by developmental reading students. Nineteen community college students received instruction in "elaborative thought patterns," or types of elaboration, to improve the quality of their responses to popular fiction. This instruction was part of…

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of globalization upon the college-level instruction of English/American literature in Taiwan. The examination will be centered upon the subject of Englishness as demonstrated in the courses of English/American Literature taught in Taiwan. By focusing on the term "Englishness," the paper…

Stressing the importance of Lev S. Vygostky's ideas about teaching and learning, Peter Smagorinsky challenges readers to form their own interpretations of the Russian psychologist's work. He highlights three points with implications for secondary school English teachers working to "cultivate a literate citizenry."

The authors conducted a study of the use of "Early English Books Online" (EEBO) in research and teaching at one institution. The findings highlight the strengths and weaknesses of EEBO for research and teaching and the importance of librarian-faculty collaboration in instructing students to use large, electronic full-text primary-source…

In this paper, an application of one aspect of the Internet technology, namely Internet groups, into the teaching of American and British literatures is evaluated by means of a content analysis of the Internet group which was used as the course component. The aim of this paper was to see how students used the Internet group in the learning of…

For the last four semesters my courses in Shakespeare have used QwikiWiki and MediaWiki, two versions of the wiki software, for writing exercises and directed reflection on language--including both by the students about Shakespeare's language, and by the teacher/researcher regarding the students' performance in "Writing to Learn". In experimenting…

Tells of the author's search for and discovery of the first name of Lady Macbeth: Gruach. (DD)

In this chapter from his forthcoming book, Tom Romano reflects on the zigzag path that he has followed in making a life for himself in teaching.

While visiting the classroom of an English teacher on campus, the author noticed a large number of literature textbooks that were being replaced with a newer edition. In this article, she describes a project, which was inspired by these discarded literature textbooks, designed to introduce students to an art form based on ideas rather than…

To teach reading to a transient population of incarcerated young men on Rikers Island, Dave Iasevoli utilized the students' desire for knowledge and their talent for storytelling, humor, and acting to engage them. Students embodied the characters by reading aloud from the novel "The Planet of Junior Brown," from which discussions about obesity,…

The article explores writing-centered pedagogies that deepen student learning in literature survey courses. More broadly, the article also responds to Richard Fulkerson and Maureen Daly Goggin, who challenge professors of English studies to find disciplinary unity within the diverse epistemologies of rhetoric. (Contains 5 notes.)

Beginning with a brief account of the history of Westminster Abbey and its physical structure, this paper concentrates on the British writers honored in the South Transept or Poet's Corner section. It identifies those recognized who are no longer thought to be outstanding, those now understood to be outstanding who are not recognized, and provides…