Discusses the usefulness of literary theory to instruction. Identifies, from a brief classroom transcript, a student's "misreadings," explains how theory helped understand their nature, and how it suggested an instructional strategy. (SR)

Shows how the reader-response approach can provide interesting and meaningful ways of teaching literature in a second language. Illustrates its use in teaching a short story in an English reading class for engineering students in Malaysia. (SR)

Offers an overview of contrasts and similarities in various approaches to Shakespeare studies. Discusses how a shift in perspectives from grappling with tragic moral themes to examining aesthetic and semantic complexity represents a productive way to respond to Shakespeare. (NH)

Tells the plot of the novel "Tuck Everlasting" by Natalie Babbitt--the Tucks are invulnerable and immortal, but everlasting life holds trials for them. Provides seven questions for stimulating student response to the novel. (PA)

Discusses why and how the author uses writing-to-learn techniques in the study of literature to promote enjoyment, understanding, and imagination. Describes using learning logs (reader-response journals), varying aesthetic responses to link reading and writing, and incorporating technology. (SR)

Focuses on the use of writing frames in a secondary school in order to raise the achievement of boys in GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education) English Literature. Discusses the inadequacies of some earlier frames before outlining a new departmental approach. Analyses examples of boys' work to show what a difference the frame made. (SG)

An ongoing study for the National Research Center on Literature Teaching and Learning, conducted by Alan Purves, Sarah Jordan and others aims to identify the problems and challenges facing teachers and students of culturally diverse texts. It is also trying to determine how best to incorporate multicultural literature into the curriculum, grades 7…

Recounts the effective use of unusual teaching methods for poetry: (1) allowing students to read and write about Wordsworth outside on a warm spring day, and (2) asking students to keep a journal while reading the poetry of Hughes. Suggests that these approaches allow students to "bring their own experiences" to the poetry text. (NH)

Suggests humorous ways to generate student interest in literature such as creating advertising campaigns for characters in fiction. (SRT)

Argues that children's responses to the literature in their classroom need not always be formal and structured and that spontaneous, informal responses are equally meaningful. (DF)

Discusses how romantic novels can be used to generate interest in the secondary school classroom. (DF)

Explores preschoolers' responses to life and childhood experiences and how this response carries over into their subsequent response to literature. (HTH)

Contrasts the dramatic potential of two media--the novel and the television production--and illustrates why great novels should not be made into television shows. (AEA)

Describes a teaching technique that capitalizes on the individual meanings a piece of literature can have for different students. Explains how it encourages students to concentrate first on facts that they notice in a text and in the inferences they make based on those facts. (FL)

Discusses the opposing viewpoints of the two most influential linguists of this century--Saussure and Chomsky--suggesting that while both are interested in form as opposed to substance, Saussure sees linguistics as a branch of semiotics and Chomsky sees it as part of cognitive psychology. Evaluates the relevance of these two viewpoints to the…