This study focused on understanding the impact of incorporating digital reader response into a middle school literature class. Through interviews and the use of artifacts, a classroom teacher documented how altering the way students wrote about their readings shaped the quality and quantity of their writing. Outcomes reveal that blogging during…

One of the greatest challenges for English language arts teachers today is the call to engage students in more complex texts. Tim Gillespie, who has taught in public schools for almost four decades, has found the lenses of literary criticism a powerful tool for helping students tackle challenging literary texts. Tim breaks down the dense language…

Based on Ken Kesey's novel "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," this lesson plan presents activities designed to help students understand that all works of art lend themselves to critical reviews; critical reviews consist of opinions and support for the opinions; and a critical review may compare and contrast a work in one medium to the same work in…

Presents activities designed to bridge the gulf between scientific culture and literary culture. (DD)

Presents an exercise intended to help students understand that reading literature is a worthwhile endeavor. (RB)

Considers the ways in which different ideologies promote particular understandings of texts and certain kinds of readings. Outlines three broad ideologies of reading and interpreting literature. Argues for the usefulness of a reading pedagogy drawing upon cultural criticism. Provides classroom activities to foster such a way of reading. (HB)

Outlines a procedure that increases students' understanding of an assigned novel as it encourages them to write poetry. Suggests that students create lists of about 10 words or phrases that they felt helped create a successful opening to the novel and build on these words to create tone poems. (MM)

Presents a discussion tool that the author has incorporated into the classroom. Describes how she combines two approaches into a non-graded group work with a role-playing component, a technique she integrates into the classroom numerous times throughout every semester. Concludes how eventually students confidently present their well-supported…

Asserts that ethnic studies are interdisciplinary, and should be incorporated into all areas of learning to expand the students' world view. States that students must learn to judge the works of Black artists using an Afrocentric, not Eurocentric, model. Suggests ways of implementing the "Black aesthetic." (MM)

This lesson plan complements study of plot and characterization in "Romeo and Juliet" by focusing on Shakespeare's use of lyric forms and conventions to spotlight moments in the drama and thereby heightens the impact of the action on the stage. Students look first at the sonnet in which Romeo and Juliet meet, analyzing the imagery to…

Describes a 4-week unit of study that focuses on Shakespeare's "The Tempest," a text that has been especially controversial in today's climate of increased multicultural awareness. Involves students in a larger conversation about the possibilities for reading and interpreting literature and prepares them to write mature analyses of the…

Describes an assignment used at the beginning of a unit on poetry in which students analyze rhyme scheme, meter, feet per line, lyric quality, and theme of the lyrics to a favorite song. Notes that after this students may move more easily into analyzing poems. (SR)

Offers 50 diverse suggestions intended to offer students new ways to think about a piece of literature, new directions to explore, and ways to respond with greater depth to the books they read. (SR)

A way in which poetry can be successfully approached in the classroom is discussed in this book about teaching poetry. It presents a method by which teachers can teach students to read poems rather than teaching them about poems. The first chapter discusses and criticizes the "what-does-this-poem-mean" approach to teaching poetry. The…

Based on Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel "Crime and Punishment," this lesson plan presents activities designed to help students understand that: a close study of the characters of a literary classic will yield important clues to an understanding of the work as a whole; an effective analysis of stylistic devices depends upon selection and interpretation…