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)

Argues that literature provides a vehicle for inquiry-based teaching that can encourage reflective thinking and help students to learn to make informed decisions by carefully thinking through ill-structured, realistic dilemmas that have no right or wrong answer. Describes strategies that promote carefully structured investigation of such dilemmas,…

Argues that a curriculum of peace must include ways to define human problems. Describes how the author taught a literature course called "The Healing Word: Literature About Coping with Death and Illness" that used literary selections and a film series to examine physical healing, mental healing, and healing from grief. (SR)

Notes that the author likes to involve her students in the evolving literary canon. Uses "The Shipping News" (E. Annie Proulx, 1993) as a model to illustrate why and how a new book enters the classroom. Describes introducing it, analyzing sentence structure in voice, character analysis, metaphor, writing assignments, and other teachers'…

Argues English teachers should stop treating film as a back-up activity and instead embrace it as a visual reinforcement of the curriculum. Describes how film can be used to teach literary terms such as protagonist, antagonist, conflict, setting, and characterization; to introduce material; and to introduce students to authors they may not…

Describes how, giving an exam that included working with uncontextualized poetry, a teacher inadvertently discovered that the least accomplished students were the biggest risk-takers; the so-called best students were ironically self-limited by their own drive to succeed; tracking only encouraged this lack of risk-taking; and the less good students…

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,…

Discusses changes in the field of young adult literature since the 1980s. Examines how the definition of "young adult" has evolved. Offers a brief overview of the history of young adult literature from the 1940s. Considers the rise of awards for merit in young adult publishing, noting three in particular. Concludes this is a golden age of young…

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)

Discusses a method of analyzing "A Clockwork Orange" in terms of the protagonist's personality, the point of view, and the violence-sex theme. (RB)

Concludes that teachers of English are more responsible than ever for the task of bringing to their students' attention the traditions of great art and literature. (RB)

The importance of the teaching and learning of literature is expounded. (PG)

Because of the wide and continuing interest in a previous issue on techniques for teaching works by Shakespeare, this journal issue presents 19 additional articles on a broad range of Shakespeare related topics. Following an introduction, the titles of the articles and their authors are as follows: (1) "Making Changes/Making Sense"…

Adolescent literature should deal with the problems of adolescents, should provide them with pleasure, and should say something to them. The adolescent novel is a bridge through a difficult age, a bridge from literature for children to literature for adults, and a bridge to major literary works. Adolescent novels can also be used to approach a…