Describes how "The Garden of Forking Paths" presents teaching challenges that ultimately yield benefits worth the effort for students and instructors. Discusses a three-tiered approach: spy story, family history and character, and ideas of time and timelessness. Concludes that the three layers provide a structure to get the discussion started and…

Describes a 4-week unit of study that focuses on Shakespeare's "The Tempest," a text that has been especially controversial in today's climate of increased multicultural awareness. Involves students in a larger conversation about the possibilities for reading and interpreting literature and prepares them to write mature analyses of the…

Suggests that focusing on paradigms of work--the way it is described, together with the thematic implications it embodies--can be useful in teaching literature to young adults. Examines how examples from literature illustrate Erik H. Erikson's paradigm of the psychosocial stages of development in late childhood and adolescence. (MM)

Discusses the false dichotomy pitting aesthetic power against political complicity in literary criticism. Considers the sexual politics of the household of Nathaniel Hawthorne in light of this opposition. Suggests how literary works keep warring voices and inner conflicts alive and at odds. (HB)

Describes several methods by which practicing English teachers enhance the instruction of literary terms in the classroom. Focuses on the actual methods used in an English class, including "theme seeds" and the fostering of metaphoric thinking. (HB)

Defines the term "cultural model" as the set of assumptions a particular group has, or the kinds of goals a group strives for, or the attitudes that shape how one cultural group reacts to another group. Shows how cultural models shape student responses to Richard Pick's short story "I Go Along." Suggests writing assignments that reflect on…

Demonstrates several of the pitfalls inherent in traditional textbook definitions of the "formal essay" and academic discourse in the teaching of literary criticism. Suggests alternative approaches and assignments that make students aware of other ways to read and write about literature. (HB)

Focuses on how textual analysis might be renovated at a level as basic as freshman writing. Considers the possibility of combining textual analysis with personal narrative and reporting. Considers how recent literary criticism utilizes personal narrative strategies. Outlines six ways authorial presence is detectable in critical works. (HB)

Examines the possibility of negotiating ethical issues productively in the postmodern classroom. Reviews Iris Marion Young's refutation of distributive ethics and Young's alternative system based on group difference. Describes recent work on classroom ethics relying on distributive language. Suggests ways of extending this work in light of Young's…

Considers the effects of gender on the way high school students respond to literature. Provides results of a study designed to measure how gender differences affect reader response to a poem by Marla Ropchan. Shows how the female students read "against" themselves. (HB)

Describes a method for teaching students how to write about literature that asks students to produce numerous "parts" in one large project. Provides a basic outline and explanation of the assigned tasks. (HB)

Describes an assignment used at the beginning of a unit on poetry in which students analyze rhyme scheme, meter, feet per line, lyric quality, and theme of the lyrics to a favorite song. Notes that after this students may move more easily into analyzing poems. (SR)

Offers 50 diverse suggestions intended to offer students new ways to think about a piece of literature, new directions to explore, and ways to respond with greater depth to the books they read. (SR)

Examines George Herbert's sonnet "Prayer" to argue for the integration of literary and linguistic approaches to the critical appreciation of poetry at both A/AS and university levels of the GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education). Presents a model analysis of the sonnet and discusses why its distinctive linguistic and literary features…

The vigorous public debate over the definition and function of the literary canon has raised certain important questions for English educators. One of the chief among all questions is how the literary canon debate has affected the content of English methods courses. The word "canon" has long been associated with a static and dogmatic…