States that the teacher's ultimate responsibility is to assist individuals to continue to appreciate Shakespeare's plays in later life. Discusses (1) the play as a live process, (2) methods of play appreciation, and (3) the play experience as an integrated whole. (EL)

Explores the tenets of both the New Criticism and reader response criticism, and concludes that there is a need for a new imperative in criticism that conceives literary understanding in terms of a communication process in which both text and reader are granted importance. (FL)

Explores the possibility that literary theorists and reading researchers are unconscious of each others interests, goals, and assumptions. Seeks to explore how the gaps between these two areas might best be bridged. (EL)

Suggests five important but seldom asked questions that can direct a reader's attention to some basic properties of literature. (RBW)

Discusses the role of literature in the secondary school English curriculum, then examines the current state of literary criticism and analysis in the classroom. (FL)

This collection of 14 articles aims to help teachers make the most of student discussion and inquiry in classrooms from middle school to high school to college. Contributors to the collection--secondary and college practitioners--offer theory-grounded, classroom-tested approaches for literature study in which students engage in democratic dialogue…

Examining how teachers help students respond to short fiction, this book presents 25 essays that look closely at "teachable" short stories by a diverse group of classic and contemporary writers. The approaches shared by the contributors move from readers' first personal connections to a story, through a growing facility with the…

Considers the arguments for seeing work rather than response as key to the poetic experience. Explains the development of such experience in the classroom. Notes that this is worth exploring not only in terms of literacy curriculum, but with respect to curriculum as a whole, since poetry is often invoked as an important resource for the…

Ruminates on and analyzes the author's experiences in teaching the first course in women's literature and feminist criticism at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. Asserts that the course brought to consciousness the author's femininity, feminism, and a new understanding of feminist criticism. (MM)

Examines four stages of reading development, and discusses the differences between a developing adolescent reader and an adult reader. Notes that early stages of reading development are bridges to the world of mature, adult experiences with books, and urges English teachers to encourage developing readers' enthusiasm for all literature. (MM)

Studies 53 undergraduate preservice English teachers to determine their critical orientation to the teaching of literary analysis in the classroom prior to their taking methods courses. Finds that these future teachers were already convinced of the necessity of multiple interpretations. (TB)

Considers 1 student's responses to literature assigned to a 10th-grade English class in the midwest. Asks if students can be expected to "decontextualize" their personal responses to literary texts. Questions the viability of such decontextualized readings. (HB)

Discusses a thinking-writing-organizing technique that Kenneth Burke called the dramatistic method. Suggests that having students ask and answer a series of questions prompted by five words (who, what, where, why, and how) placed at each of the points of a star can help students think and write about works of literature. (RS)

Reconsiders the nature of literature as a school subject. Discusses the notion that school literature is different from reading literature outside school. Discusses three anomalies: the text and the textbook; educators' idolatry of "naive readers" whose heads are to be stuffed; and the roles of the reader and writer in school programs.…

Provides an update on the progress being made at the National Research Center on Literature Teaching and Learning. Discusses research-in-progress with teachers struggling to adapt their instruction to a response-based approach to reading literature. Presents a framework of optional strategies for teachers. (RS)