This study investigated whether adolescents' response to film is similar to or different from their response to literature and what these similarities or differences mean. Tenth grade students read two literary selections and viewed two films paired on the basis of similarities in treatment of subject and theme. Students' written responses to…

Although a growing body of research and practice in reading strategy instruction in secondary education has identified specific and successful methods for encouraging metacognitive awareness, there is little published research connecting these findings to post-secondary literacy education. Consequently, a gap remains in the conception, and…

Considers how teaching Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" creates special problems--and thus affords special opportunities--not encountered in the reading of or critical response to this text. Discusses different editions of "Frankenstein" and reasons for using them. Notes that "Frankenstein" is a story that appeals to all…

This course outline for the study of novels by representative writers of the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries emphasizes the various novelistic forms. Study objectives include: (1) explanation of how psychological elements motivate characteristics; (2) explanation of how sociological factors influence characters and situations; (3)…

Makes a case for asking students to produce their own film version of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream." Explains how to manage student filming projects logistically; how to teach students about filming techniques through the study of modern movies; and how filming becomes a lesson in the interpretation of Shakespeare. (TB)

Able 11th- and 12th-grade students can enjoy the imagery, direct language, and indirect thought of T. S. Eliot. Eliot's treatment of the apathetic society and the isolated individual, his concern for spirituality over sensuality, and his plea for collective responsibility for evil are themes that can be traced in his major works through…

Describes "doing" literary criticism with secondary students, illustrated with S. E. Hinton's novel "The Outsiders." Discusses evaluating a book in terms of how well it represents the reader's life experience, the author's desired response, and as an expression of the author. Discusses evaluating other criticisms of the book.…

The problem, emphasized by I. A. Richards, of cultivating in students an awareness of literature which enables them to discern good and bad writing remains unsolved. As demonstrated in critical essays about a poem written under examination conditions by two 16-year-old boys, an ability to identify poetic techniques is not enough to ensure proper…

Based on Ken Kesey's novel "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," this lesson plan presents activities designed to help students understand that all works of art lend themselves to critical reviews; critical reviews consist of opinions and support for the opinions; and a critical review may compare and contrast a work in one medium to the same work in…

The teaching-questioning strategy developed in this paper, based on reader-response criticism and Kenneth Burke's pentad, can be used by teachers to elicit responses to any literary work and is designed to help students participate in a work's dramatic context, discover meaning as they read, and assure that their critical essays are based on an…

Describes how Mark Twain's essay "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses" helped students to get interested in writing and inspired them to write a similar essay critiquing the movie "Batman." Provides excerpts from students' essays. (PRA)

Asserts that "The Changeover," by Margaret Mahy, is a fantasy of opposites which try to explain the feminine psyche and the universe. Shows how Mahy weaves Maori animism, pre-Hellenic moon mythology, Christianity, Jungian psychology, and modern science into one rich human tapestry of thought. (PRA)

Contrasts the complaints of a class of gifted students about Dickens' novel "A Tale of Two Cities" with their teacher's discomfort at sitting through the long and tedious movie "Brazil." (NKA)

Discusses the importance of the reader's response in achieving an understanding of literature. (RB)