Describes an approach to teaching George Orwell's "1984," emphasizing the main characters' struggles through the themes of innocence and experience, conformity and rebellion, love and hate, discovery and creation, and death. Notes that this reader-response approach forces students into the process of self-examination. (MM)

Suggests that one of the most compelling reasons teachers should write with students is that it motivates the students. Discusses how a ninth-grade English teacher shares with students her own successes and failures with writing, giving students insight and perspective into their own writing. (RS)

Presents the responses of nine English teachers to the question "Who has been the most positive influence on you as an English teacher, and how does your teaching reflect that influence?" (HB)

Discusses studies that examine literature instruction in U.S. secondary schools. Examines studies of required book-length works, titles recently taught, the importance of book-length texts, sources of literary materials, and selections included in popular anthologies. Concludes that the curriculum as a whole remains relatively traditional in its…

Argues that business communication courses should be accepted for high school English graduation requirements. (SR)

Describes two short lessons on individual objectives (main idea and fact/opinion) to prepare 10th graders for the Spring exit test. (SR)

Describes how a high school student was able to express powerful feelings and achieve some kind of reconciliation with his father through his therapeutic exploration of Arthur Miller's play "Death of a Salesman." (PRA)

Leila Christenbury is well known as a writer and researcher in English Education: her classic book "Making the Journey," [ED437654] now in its third edition, has been a guide to countless middle and high school language arts teachers. In her new book, this veteran teacher and teacher educator reveals what did and---more surprisingly---did not…

Presents a teaching guide for the novel "Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant," including questions for discussion and writing about individual characters and the novel as a whole. (HTH)

Describes how a teacher sparked her students' interest in Henrik Ibsen's "A Doll's House" by having them conduct a classroom trial of the play's lead character. (JL)

Sixteen teachers offer their alternative methods of evaluating student work in the English classroom. (RL)

Argues that of all the nineteenth century novelists, Thomas Hardy is the most poorly taught. Presents a plan to remedy the situation. (FL)

Describes a two-week unit in a high school English class which teaches high school students how, why, and when to use professional study notes, such as "Cliffs Notes." Prepares students with the skills to research and write their own notes. (SR)

Describes how a high school business English teacher convinces her students that the rules of grammar are important. Discusses how and what grammar issues to teach and how to apply the rules of grammar. (RS)

Notes that the best teaching, like the best poetry, can often be found in reflection, lingering in the margin, in the periphery, in any place you would not expect to find it. Describes the author's personal experience with poetry in teaching her high school class. Suggests that poetry acts as a natural, personal, imperfect force for truth and…