The pedagogical principle of experiential learning embodied in the oral interpretation of literature through Readers' Theater provides an avenue to accomplish a seemingly daunting task. Students' participation in reading, interpreting, discussing, writing, assessing, and performing their own creative responses to a literary work promotes a…

This document presents the proceedings of the 19th Annual Research Forum held June 26, 2014, at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Included are the following 17 action research papers: (1) Using Voices to Change Minds: Oral Performance and Poetry in the English Classroom (Erika Bunpermkoon), (2) Imagining Audiences: The Use…

Despite high levels of disengagement in urban literacy classrooms, few teachers have seen fit to explore spoken word--the performance of poetry--as a tool to engage students in literacy. Spoken word poetry serves as a powerful means of self-representation for youth that are traditionally portrayed as threatening, menaces to society that do not…

Describes six inadequate approaches used in teaching, analyzing, and interpreting poetry, and suggests a useful key" for the interpretation of poems. (SW)

Draws information from documents in the ERIC system to define oral interpretation, demonstrate its benefits for students, and describe classroom approaches to oral interpretation, including readers' theatre. (DD)

For many reasons, oral histories should commend themselves to classroom teachers. Sensitively edited, they are eminently readable because of their intimacy, their authenticity, and their varied presentation of human life. As with other books, especially novels written in the first person and autobiographies, oral histories can provide students…

The author presents a rationale for using the oral interpretation approach to literature. (SJL)

Suggests that oral interpretation units in language arts courses have value in themselves in addition to their value in helping students improve their writing skills. (DD)

Argues that English teachers who use plays in their classes should emphasize the effects and interpretation of the words of the scripts as they are spoken. Offers four suggestions whereby teachers can focus on the playscript as it is performed, not written. (RL)

Describes a poetry assignment in which students select a poem to analyze and present before the class. Observes that unlike the traditional postures of detachment and impersonality, this approach of self-selections encourages students to establish an intimacy with poetry. (MM)

Describes a poetry-presentation assignment in which students select poems from examples studied in class and prepare oral presentations incorporating visual, dramatic, technical, or musical arts. Describes several student presentations resulting from this assignment. (MM)

The author declares, The play is the thing. As a tool for teaching, it's incomparable. It can painlessly teach reading, reciting, reasoning and writing." She describes techniques for class study. (Author/JB)

WRITTEN FOR BOTH THE "GENERAL" STUDENT INTERESTED IN CRITICAL APPROACHES TO LITERATURE AND THE ORAL INTERPRETATION STUDENT WHO NEEDS A VARIETY OF CRITICAL ANALYSES TO COMBINE WITH ORAL PERFORMANCE IN HIS STUDY OF LITERATURE, THIS BOOK PROVIDES FIVE EXAMPLES OF DIFFERENT CRITICAL APPROACHES TO LITERATURE AND ITS ORAL INTERPRETATION. PART 1, "THE…