Teaching a world literature class at a public college presented an opportunity to test Allan Bloom's and E. D. Hirsch, Jr.'s charges that today's college students are not only ignorant of great literature, but also ill-equipped to seriously consider such works. Beginning with a class survey of reading tastes and experiences, it was discovered that…

Educators at Georgia Southern University began using a whole language approach to developmental literacy instruction by adapting the model David Bartholomae and Anthony Petrosky provide in "Facts, Artifacts, and Counterfacts." Rather than a focus on information retrieval and transfer, whole language curricula encourage students to engage…

A case study examined the logic of a student's unconventional interpretation of a poem. The subject, an outgoing and well-spoken student from the lower-middle class enrolled in a remedial composition class at the University of California, offered an unconventional reading of a poem by a contemporary Japanese-American writer. Data consisted of…

An extension of conversations that originally took place at summer institutes devoted to literary theory (sponsored by the National Council of Teachers of English), this book presents diverse critical perspectives on current topics of literature, such as post-structuralism, cultural criticism, reader-response theory, and issues of gender and…

After students' interest in literature has been stirred by journal writing, it is time for them to turn their private journal writing into writing for an audience. Instead of having students write the usual responses to literature, vary their assignments by offering them creative responses, either occasionally or as an individual alternative to…

Although the concept of coherence is elusive, explorations of the historical, theoretical, and empirical discussions of coherence can illuminate, though not eliminate, the concept's elusiveness. There are three inter-related and overlapping ways that readers make coherence. Intratextuality, the notion that readers perceive a text as coherent if it…

Representing Australia, Canada, England, the United States, and Wales, this collection of essays focuses on ways in which teachers can adapt classroom activities and modify writing assignments to encourage personal response and exploration of texts. Essays, their authors, and nationalities are as follows: (1) "The River and Its Banks:…

The paper presents and demonstrates a heuristic for helping students learn how to read and understand figuration in literature. The heuristic contains elements from linguistics, New Criticism, and rhetorical analysis in a recursive process which enables students to see how features of words combine into figurative patterns. Beginning at the level…

Examines whether "social reading" can facilitate literary engagement. Indicates that social readers made a greater attempt to convey meaning than did nonsocial readers, but were less engaged with the text as literary discourse. (SKC)

A study to investigate whether admission personnel actually read letters received from prospective students and responded accordingly, or merely followed a set program--sending material they deemed essential regardless of specific requests for information--is discussed. (MLW)

Discusses some concrete examples of the kinds of conflicts that can surface when reader-response theory is actually practiced in the classroom, and considers some of the implications. Urges instructors to make room for contesting views and to facilitate serious, committed, personal interchanges. (MS)

Suggests the double-entry journal as an effective method of encouraging the creation and discovery of new information in literature classes. Describes the three processes involved (and the theoretical underpinnings of each), including: (1) activating prior knowledge and present feelings; (2) learning collaboratively; and (3) integrating reading,…

This article studies the effects of complexity and completeness in an introductory psychology textbook on students' understanding of the text materials. It was found that students presented with oversimplified versions made incorrect references. Complex presentation, however, did not adversely affect the students' test responses. (JAZ)

Describes the characteristics of an alternative writing workshop in which the author controls the discussion. Discusses the respective roles of the writer, the readers, and the teacher in such a workshop. (HTH)

To assess the effects of textual variation on students' preferred patterns of literary response, 166 college students were asked to read two poems and two short stories. The findings provided support for the notion that students' preferred patterns of response are strongly influenced by the nature of the texts they read. (HOD)