Argues that the most important thing that teachers can teach their students about writing letters is to write in a way that reflects the writer's personality, ideas, and visions. Notes that student letter writers should also practice thoughtfulness and good manners. (RS)

Asserts that the most important part of the research process occurs before formal research writing begins, when students engage in expressive, genuine communication. Describes several activities that promote meaningful responses to literature as a prelude to researching an American literary work. (MM)

Observes that when teachers use their writing as "models" for their students, they motivate students to ask appropriate and instructionally profitable questions about other works. Notes that this "response heuristic" can decrease the distance between students and literature. (MM)

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 why and how the author uses writing-to-learn techniques in the study of literature to promote enjoyment, understanding, and imagination. Describes using learning logs (reader-response journals), varying aesthetic responses to link reading and writing, and incorporating technology. (SR)

The research on students-as-responders in high school writing classes alters the teachers' responsibility to define for students and themselves just what they mean by response and urges them to look closely at what they have to do to prepare students to become good responders. The responses made by high school students during peer reviewing are…

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)

Recounts the effective use of unusual teaching methods for poetry: (1) allowing students to read and write about Wordsworth outside on a warm spring day, and (2) asking students to keep a journal while reading the poetry of Hughes. Suggests that these approaches allow students to "bring their own experiences" to the poetry text. (NH)

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responses of several authors of young adult literature concerning the importance of first readers' reactions to their unpublished drafts.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)

Offers three explanations drawn from language and literature theories about what happens when people read: (1) receiving sense, (2) finding sense, and (3) making sense. (EL)

Shares how a 12-week course for second-semester seniors called "Cultures in Conflict: Post-Colonial Literature from Africa, the Caribbean, and the Pacific" offers students on a Navajo reservation important insights into how other peoples have dealt with racial misunderstandings, inequities of power, and shifts in traditional values and…

Examines the nature of personal, idiosyncratic interpretations and responses to reading assignments. Suggests how teachers can help students understand the differences between their interpretations and the authors' intended messages. Provides three strategies--anticipation guides, mapping, and role playing--to help students synthesize their…

Describes methods of approaching Toni Morrison's novel, "The Bluest Eye," for the secondary classroom. Suggests that it was the students' responses to the novel that showed to the teacher the importance of this controversial work. Provides numerous examples of students' written responses to the novel. (HB)

Provides four practicing teachers' written responses to Carolyn Henly's article entitled "Reader Response Theory as Antidote to Controversy: Teaching "The Bluest Eye," which appears in the same issue. (HB)

Describes a method of including students into a community of readers through which they are encouraged to respond individually to literary texts. Shows how writing prompts can be used in the classroom to foster reader response and the integrity of each reader's interpretation of a text. (HB)