This article describes the structure and operation of three literature seminars offered in the English curriculum at the Indiana Academy for Science, Mathematics, and Humanities. The seminar approach puts the responsibility on the student and fosters creativity, thinking skills, and problem solving. The seminars include:…

Reviews essays by Raymond Williams, which explain how, within the context of a 150-year literary history, rural stereotypes have been constructed and imbedded within a collective consciousness by a form of cultural colonization. Suggests that Williams' insights can help rural education researchers think outside the conventional wisdom that…

Recounts author's experience in teaching 'King Lear' to her community college students. States that many students denounced Shakespeare's work as having little relevance to contemporary society. Argues that the author's plays and poems are relevant and timeless, and that one should "reason not the need" for reading his work. (AUTH/NB)

More than sixty years ago, John Dewey and Louise Rosenblatt produced theoretical work that challenged prevailing assumptions concerning art and aesthetic experience. Today, their work continues to be relevant and particularly useful for exploring the troubled interface between literary scholarship and classroom practice. Rereading Dewey and…

This paper describes two prospective English teachers' beliefs and understandings regarding literature and the teaching of literature. Through extensive interviews that included context-specific tasks, the study explored the subjects' prior experiences with literature, their conceptions regarding the nature of literature, and their perceptions of…

This study compared students' learning experiences in a set of courses in British literature and a set of courses in marketing, in which each set included a course taught in an intensive format and a semester-long format with the same instructor and content. Data collection included participant observation, videotaped class sessions,…

An approach to teaching English literature to first-year students of translation, emphasizing literature as a vehicle of culture, of literary experience, and for development of communication skills in English as a Second Language, is recommended based on one teacher's experience at an Iraqi university. Literature is seen as a means of helping…

An analysis of four writers' portrayals of nineteenth and early twentieth century working class life reveals a progression of political thought about the treatment of people's struggles to effectively change society. In Dickens'"Hard Times" (1854), the protagonist is a martyr-saint who finds solace in subduing his anger and continuing to…

TRAGIC AND COMIC FORMS OF DRAMA ARE EXPLORED IN THIS TWO-PART 11TH-GRADE LITERATURE UNIT. A SECTION ON TRAGEDY, TREATING THREE PLAYS, EMPHASIZES STRUCTURAL DIVISIONS, CONVENTIONS, AND SUBJECT MATTER PECULIAR TO THIS TYPE OF DRAMA. FOLLOWING A DISCUSSION OF THE CLASSICAL GREEK THEATRE AND THE ARISTOTELIAN VIEW OF TRAGEDY, THE FORM AND THEME OF…

The unparalleled residue of unsifted primary materials relating to the nineteenth century London theater present tremendous opportunities and challenges for theater historians. The histories of individual London theaters may be studied for insights into changes that distinguished nineteenth century theater from that of the eighteenth century; and…

NINE CASE STUDIES ILLUSTRATIVE OF INCIDENTS ARISING FROM THE OBJECTIONS MADE BY INDIVIDUALS TO SPECIFIC BOOKS AND POEMS USED IN ENGLISH CLASSROOMS AND SCHOOL LIBRARIES ARE REPORTED HEREIN BY THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF TEACHERS OF ENGLISH (NCTE) COMMITTEE TO REPORT ON CASE STUDIES OF CENSORSHIP. EACH STUDY DESCRIBES ANONYMOUSLY (1) THE COMMUNITY'S…

A COMPANION VOLUME TO THE COLLECTION OF ESSAYS, "ON TEACHING LITERATURE" (TE 000 393), THIS BIBLIOGRAPHY IS DESIGNED PRIMARILY TO MEET THE NEEDS OF THE TEACHER OF ENGLISH IN THE SECONDARY SCHOOL. IN NINE SECTIONS, EACH BY A DIFFERENT AUTHOR, IT DESCRIBES AND SUMMARIZES THE CONTENTS OF WHAT THE WRITERS HAVE JUDGED TO BE THE MOST VALUABLE AND…

The teacher can sucessfully present Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales" to 11th- and 12th-grade students by concentrating on "The Prologue" and one of the tales--e.g., "The Pardoner's Tale." The structure and plan of the entire work, however, should first be considered before its various parts can be fully understood.…

This book discusses the history of European and American drama from the advent of the "modern" era (around 1870) until the early 1970s. Coverage is further restricted to persons and events most characteristic of an era or of greatest significance later. Both theatrical and dramatic practice are treated as integral parts of a whole. Some…

This is the second publication of the Literature Study Group using the thematic approach to literature for third through fifth year students in Scottish schools. Eight programs are presented which are a collection of literary texts grouped round a central theme. The programs are the work of different teachers who set out to discover in the…