Discusses an English teacher's approaches to introducing English-as-a-second-language students to Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet." Notes that the students responded with more enthusiasm than they had to any other selection they had read, and that the teacher had underestimated her students' ability to understand Shakespeare. (RS)

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)

Describes how five fourth-grade students and a teacher transacted with text and with each other as they talked about books. Finds that students' responses to literature are not limited to movements among text and personal experiences but also include movements among improvisations stimulated by the text and related texts such as other books 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)

Describes the responses of one English teacher recorded in a journal throughout her second reading of Margaret Mahy's novel, "Dangerous Spaces." Considers how later rereadings of the novel were influenced by earlier readings. Shows how one reader can fail to do justice to a book when reading it alone. (HB)

Discusses reader-response theories and response-centered literature instruction. Outlines fundamental problems that impede the transfer of authority from teacher to community to reader, and offers suggestions for their correction. (PRA)

Provides the reactions of Louise M. Rosenblatt, a key figure in the field of reader response criticism, to the developments in reading, writing, and critical theory in the 1980s. Gives a brief personal history of Rosenblatt and the field. Describes her transactional theory and interpretations of it by other critics. (HB)

Discusses how films portraying the lives of young adults can serve as the basis for a "viewer response" study of film and filmmaking. Lists and summarizes 50 films found to be suitable for teaching to young adults. Provides criteria by which the films were selected. (HB)

Argues that elementary language-arts teachers should expand their definition of "text" to include film, a valuable instructional material. Notes that today's elementary students come to class with a great deal of knowledge about films--prior experiences which teachers can tap into. Discusses the application to film of reader-response theories. (SR)

Presents a teaching method that provides students with the necessary tools to analyze college-level poetry. Suggests that because reader response has greatly overplayed its corrective to "New Criticism," the HEI (Hypothesis-Experiment-Instruction) method of teaching literature could serve as a third choice among teachers interested in avoiding the…

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)

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)

Although there is abundant theoretical matter concerning the critical role that various interpretive communities play in making meanings of literary texts, most scholars do not take up the matter of the composition of these interpretive groups in their university classrooms. How may the interpretive strategies of groups of students change over the…