Despite ongoing and prolific critical scholarship arguing for the widening of the secondary language arts curriculum, many practicing teachers are required or encouraged to teach a curriculum dominated by canonical texts. This is often the case at schools with highly diverse students whose varied cultural and linguistic backgrounds have…

THE STUDENT PACKET FOR GRADE 10 OF THE NEBRASKA ENGLISH CURRICULUM BEGINS WITH FOUR UNITS ON LITERATURE, EACH STRESSING AN ASPECT OF MAN'S CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. THROUGH A STUDY OF THE LITERATURE OF SEVERAL CULTURES, WRITTEN AT VARIOUS TIMES, STUDENTS FIRST CONSIDER "MAN AND NATURE, MAN'S PICTURE OF NATURE." THE SECOND UNIT, "MAN…

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a hierarchically-ordered questioning technique employed by beginning English teachers on their students' written responses to short stories. The subjects were 84 tenth grade students in three teachers' classes at two Lincoln (Nebraska) high schools. It was concluded that when presented with a…

This 10th-grade teaching unit on Robert Sherwood's "Abe Lincoln in Illinois" consists primarily of sample teacher questions and student responses designed to lead the student to a discovery of values and an awareness of the character development of Lincoln. Included are a scene-by-scene analysis of Lincoln's character, six quotations…

Compares Richard Adams's "Watership Down" to the "The Odyssey," and offers a selection of classroom activities for students that use Adams's novel to study classic literature. (NKA)

THE LITERATURE PROGRAM OF THE GRADE 10 NEBRASKA ENGLISH CURRICULUM EMPHASIZES MAN'S CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD--HIS PICTURE OF NATURE, OF SOCIETY, AND OF MORAL LAW--AND HOW THESE THREE CONCEPTS ARE PRESENTED IN LITERATURE. UNITS COVER THE FOLLOWING TOPICS--(1) "MAN'S PICTURE OF NATURE," (2) "THE LEADER AND THE GROUP," (3)…

Most of this 10th-grade teaching unit on Robinson's "Richard Cory" is made up of sample teacher questions and student answers which lead students to think about values. Other sections include definitions of tools for poetry and analysis, notes on Robinson's life, and a list of poems on "successful living." A five-page…

The main section of this 10th-grade teaching unit on Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird" consists primarily of sample dialogue, between the teacher and students, which attempts to lead the students to think critically about values. Other sections list questions on the novel, major events of the plot, and page references for descriptions…

THE INTERRELATIONSHIP OF SUBJECT, FORM, AND POINT OF VIEW, WITH EMPHASIS ON THE LAST, IS THE CONCERN OF THIS 10TH-GRADE LITERATURE UNIT. BACKGROUND INFORMATION, STUDY AND DISCUSSION QUESTIONS, AND SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES AND WRITING ASSIGNMENTS ARE PROVIDED FOR SIX SHORT STORIES REPRESENTING VARIED POINTS OF VIEW--(1) H.G. WELLS'"THE COUNTRY OF…

To determine what characteristics of poetry are preferred by high school students, researchers asked 16 sophomores to use a semantic differential rating scale to evaluate 120 poems selected from high school textbooks and current publications. Seven sophisticated poetry readers numerically assessed 10 technical characteristics of the poems to…

A year-long holistic study of literary responses was conducted to determine the effects of using a transactive literary paradigm in secondary school English classrooms. (The transactive--for transactional--paradigm emphasizes the reader's involvement with a text and the reader's use of personal experiences to extract meaning from texts.)…

A CONTINUATION OF "TEACHING LITERATURE IN GRADES 7 THROUGH 9" (SEE ED 013 804.), THIS BOOK OFFERS A TEACHING APPROACH WHICH EMPHASIZES THE CLOSE READING OF LITERARY WORKS IN A SEQUENTIAL ORDER OF INCREASING COMPLEXITY. EACH OF THE FIRST THREE SECTIONS ("POETRY,""SHORT STORY," AND "DRAMA", PRESENTS A PROGRAM…