Describes a test to determine students' understanding of poetry that avoids the difficulties of objective tests and involves the students with poetry on the test. (TJ)

Records the dialog between Northrop Frye and a panel of teachers who quizzed him about the direct application of his theories to the teaching of English in elementary through university classrooms. (RL)

Describes a one-semester elective English course for seniors. (DD)

Emphasizes the advantages of offering a variety of oral interpretations to students. (DD)

Discusses ways in which Mikhail Bakhtin's two key ideas--multivocality and carnival--are played out in John Knowles' novel "A Separate Peace." Suggests that the novel will remain vital, alive, and accessible to students as long as they hear, respond to, and participate in the dialogues in the novel. (RS)

Questions the reasons for continuing to teach the same texts by canonical writers, instead of works of greater depth and meaning by the same authors. Describes other, less canonical works that are suitable for the secondary English classroom. (HB)

Examines four factors contributing to the polarization in the current debates concerning the literary canon. Investigates how two groups of teachers approach the study of literature not as an impasse but as a dialectical interchange. Argues that the four factors informing canon debates need not be resolved. (HB)

Investigates the uses of the rhetorical strategy of identification by John McPhee in his novel, "Coming into the Country." Describes the technique articulated by Kenneth Burke as identification. Identifies three of Burke's techniques in McPhee's prose. (HB)

Considers how Carol Kendall's fantasy novel, "The Gammage Cup," can be read as utopian literature for children. Provides a close reading and explication of Kendall's novel. Pronounces Kendall's novel a stimulating success providing hope for young readers. (HB)

Examines the meaning of the word "history" as used in the common phrase "literary history" by critics and scholars. Asserts the differences between historical scholarship and literary history. Argues that the grounding activity of literary history is insulated from the relativism insisted upon by poststructuralist theorizing.…

Shows how the Genre Teaching Methods from Australia can be adapted to literature study in secondary English classrooms. Finds that the genres of Narrating, Describing, Explaining, and Arguing can be used to analyze specific features of literature analysis--plot, character, setting, theme, and style. Finds that modeling texts and providing…

There is a continuing need to investigate how contemporary students in schools are writing the word, and their world, beyond modernist parameters of the page. This article explores the online writing of a senior English world literature class, located in a Western Canadian city, as examined through a recent qualitative case study. Borrowing a 17th…

Argues that the individual literary work should be the first and last concern in the study of literature at the graduate level. (RB)

Presents a method for interpreting "The Tyger" both literally and figuratively while leading into additional assignments on Blakean poetry. (RB)

Compares teaching literature to prison inmates and to college students, concluding that prisoners benefit greatly from the experience because it reestablishes a sense of identity. (RB)