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…

Presents several class activities for eighth and ninth graders that explore how different readings of a text are constructed, what values each reading supports, and whose interests it serves. Discusses multiple meanings, constructed readings, dominant and resistant readings, and reading character. (SR)

Maintains that the literature curriculum should reflect our pluralist society, not a canonical tradition. Suggests pairing canonical works with works instantiating pluralism. Describes a unit on the novel for a ninth grade honors class and the use of an "adolescent problem novel" in a sophomore intermediate class. (SR)

Presents lists of exercises to be done in conjunction with students' independent reading that emphasize the affective domain. Includes activities that were developed for high school literature and college poetry classes. (MM)

Outlines a student-conducted literature course that uses several classic novels ("My Antonia,""The Pearl," etc.) as the basis for group discussion, writing, and oral performance activities--all directed toward extracting "meaning" from the books selected. (NKA)

Assesses students' responses to and production of story conventions in detective or mystery stories and explores students' responses to literature as potential connections between comprehending and composing text. (MM)