Argues that drama should be taught more often in high school English and literature classes. Describes how drama can generate a lively intellectual life at a school by stimulating interdisciplinary cooperation. (PRA)

Relates the story of how the author connected for the first time, in the 11th grade, with writing, awakening in her something she did not know she had. (SR)

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)

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)

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)

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 a writing exercise in which students write alternate versions of poems, and observes that interesting discussions about the nature and quality of poetry result when the class tries to identify the original poems. (MM)

Argues that Jane Austen's unpublished juvenile work "The History of England" has considerable relevance to twentieth-century high-school English classrooms. Notes that the work humorously shows the gender bias of traditional history texts because it is a "woman-centered" rewriting. (RS)

Examines criticism of and resistance to Robert Cormier's young adult novel "The Chocolate War." Argues that the book should be taught as tragedy and that teachers should pay their high school students the compliment of assuming their humanity and thus their need and ability to grapple with true tragedy. (SR)

Describes an assignment for high school or college literature classes in which students focus on a particular character, answer a list of questions about that character, and eventually write an imagined yet realistic dialog with that character. Notes that this helps students grasp a character's complexity and depth. (SR)

Takes a "snapshot" of a senior Literature class to see how all the participants--including the teacher--developed greater sophistication in their reading skills, while simultaneously cultivating their pleasure and appreciation of more challenging texts. Explores other aspects of the "interpretive community" of the classroom,…

Describes the content of a nine-week course on comedy in literature. (RL)

Describes methods for gaining student involvement and participation in reading a lengthy piece of literature in a high school English classroom. Discusses the use of videotaping, role playing, the precis, the double-entry notebook, various writing exercises, and integration with other content areas. (SR)