Meaningful discussion helps students develop new knowledge about the world around them. "Progressive discourse" is talk that encourages people to develop a new understanding together. In this article, the author discusses how she used student collaboration to foster progressive discourse and describes assignments that engage her students in group…

Contrasts the complaints of a class of gifted students about Dickens' novel "A Tale of Two Cities" with their teacher's discomfort at sitting through the long and tedious movie "Brazil." (NKA)

When the literature anthologies did not arrive, Allen Webb turned to the Internet, where he found a wealth of classic and contemporary e-texts. Using these online resources opened up possibilities for new ways of teaching and learning traditional skills of close reading and critical analysis. Students created blogs of poems and commentary,…

Suggests students will view film adaptations of Shakespeare plays more critically by carefully analyzing the same scene from several different film versions. Discusses relevant scenes from "Romeo and Juliet" for classroom interpretation. Suggests that by providing students the vocabulary to discuss the film, educators can encourage them…

J. B. is the modern Job updated in history by thousands of years. Author compares the two in the light of cultural differences. (Author/MB)

Compares selected aspects of Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey" with Homer's The Odyssey." (SW)

Compares Roman Polanski's film adaptation of "Tess of the D'Urbervilles" with the original novel by Thomas Hardy. Suggests that a comparative analysis of the two works enhances students' awareness of Hardy's artistry and sharpens their ability to respond critically to literature. (MM)

Examines the parallels between Ellison's "Invisible Man" and Hamilton's works. States that Hamilton is strong in elucidating the experience of growing up simultaneously black and American and that it is a continuing condemnation of our times when she must reiterate Ellison's words concerning the duality of nonwhite literature. (CRH)

Presents three assignment sequences--covering both canonical and noncanonical stories, mini-anthologies, and novels--that encourage secondary school students to think critically about the concept of literature. Notes that students can learn to analyze literature critically by comparing both canonical and noncanonical texts. (MM)

Compares and contrasts the two nineteenth-century domestic romances, "What Katy Did" and "Jack and Jill" and examines how the protagonists grow into mature and capable women. (CRH)

Establishes a link between the themes of Golding's fiction and the paintings of the Brueghel. Traces their use of the grotesque to impress a message on the mind of the reader or viewer. (CRH)