Purpose: Preservice English teachers are expected to use literary theories and criticism to read and respond to literary texts. Over the past century, two of the most common approaches to literary encounters in secondary schools have been New Criticism -- particularly the practice of close reading -- and Rosenblatt's transactional theory, both of…

Three writers debate whether English teachers should depend on external or internal criteria when analyzing and teaching literature. Each writer discusses the meaning of Elinor Wylie's poem, "The Eagle and the Mole," according to his particular view of literary analysis. Edward Ducharme, in "The Evasion of the Text," submits…

This dissertation is concerned with the role that close reading (textual analysis of a literary work) plays in the methods, teaching materials, and training of prospective secondary school English teachers. Despite the impact of the movement of close reading in higher education and educators' recent call for its practice in the high school, there…

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…

Suggests that poetry can be made meaningful and timely for students who read it in terms of such universal themes as the Seven Deadly Sins, the Four Cardinal Virtues, and the Theological Virtues. (RB)

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…

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…

Discusses some of the difficulties of teaching poetry that arise from the need to interest students while avoiding an explication that turns them away from poetry. (RB)

Discusses the importance of teaching poetry and lists the works of poets widely liked by adolescents. (RB)

Outlines the teaching of Edward Thomas' poetry over a six-week period. (SRT)

This paper describes Rod McKuen's theories of poetic composition, arguing that McKuen appeals to the anti-intellectual, blindly sentimental capacities of the American public. A comparison of McKuen's work with the work of such poets as James Dickey, Robert Lowell, and Theodore Roethke is outlined in order to demonstrate to students the superficial…

Describes a study in which students taught by a creative method liked poetry more and understood it better than those taught by a directed method. (DD)

Describes a class activity in which students analyze modern song lyrics and their poetic devices as an introduction to the study and analysis of poetry. (SR)

Indicates some of the problems students encounter in interpreting poetry and cites the reasons that students express for liking or disliking poetry. (RB)