Suggests that reading appropriate short stories aloud can help students better understand the nature of violence. (DD)

Argues that Fritz Lang's film "Metropolis" deserves exploration and analysis because of its outlandish plot, dazzling visual and technical elements, and its reflection of the closing days of Weimar Germany. Presents a brief study guide designed to stimulate student curiosity and facilitate further interest in the film. (RS)

Defines the concept of "audience" as a theoretical concept for writing instructors and readers. Discusses its relationship to the teaching of English. (HB)

Describes theological views about written texts, related attitudes exhibited by current protestors, and problems such views and attitudes create for English language arts teachers. Suggests that such an awareness of the religious perspective might help to lead to more constructive outcomes to conflicts between teachers and individual students and…

Describes Patti Cleary, an eighth-grade teacher, and her students. Discusses their perceptions of young adult literature and the reading workshop. Lists and describes new young adult titles that may appeal to fans of romances, S. E. Hinton, short books, and sports novels. (TB)

Describes an experience during classroom discussion of Alice Walker's "Roselily" that led a teacher to revise her understanding of multiculturalism. Defines three problematic yet popular approaches to understanding the differences in culture in the United States and then presents a fourth approach that encourages students to see themselves and…

Discusses the usefulness of literary theory to instruction. Identifies, from a brief classroom transcript, a student's "misreadings," explains how theory helped understand their nature, and how it suggested an instructional strategy. (SR)

Discusses the issues involved with the selection of materials for English classrooms, particularly literary selections. Provides guidelines for teachers faced with the selection of texts. (HB)

The teacher tends to be a major factor in students' choice of literary critical approach. (JH)

Suggests an approach to teaching about symbolism in literature. (DD)

Explains how analogies teach students to read critically as well as independently. Presents examples of student-written analogies, and notes that this exercise gives students confidence in their powers of literary interpretation. (MM)

Claims students should be allowed to rank, rerank, and reshuffle thinking and then share their views with class members regarding poetry and poets before formal criticism is thrust upon them, and suggests teachers should be careful not to over-analyze and tell students about a poem's significance. (NH)

Contributors discuss aspects of occult literature and present varying views on whether it is creative and involving or macabre and satanic. (JD)

Claims that most teachers who read "The Great Gatsby" in high school English courses do not notice the work's extensive use of nautical imagery. Cites examples and claims that close reading reveals Gatsby to be not only the dreamer and unsuccessful suitor but also the American fisherman who "hooks a big one." (JD)

Reports responses of several authors of young adult literature concerning the importance of first readers' reactions to their unpublished drafts. Offers comments on the general subject of writers' attitudes toward criticism and revision. (EL)