Contemporary Native American poets have a continuing influence on American poetry through the introduction of elements of oral tradition and through their concern with spirit. Indian poets use oral tradition in various ways; their concerns with the story may have affected the movement to reestablish the narrative line in poetry. (CM)

Examines Gonzales' extensive rhetoric in his campaign to improve the life of Chicanos. Gonzales' rhetorical vision focused on the need for Chicanos to know and take pride in their heritage. Some of his harshest criticisms deal with the education of his people. (PD)

Describes a course in which students choose the poet they want to study and learn that the process of reading poetry is one of discovery of meaning, even for the teacher. (MKM)

Examines the individual self of the writer and the growth of Singaporean poetry in relation to the determining pressures of the past and present. The way that the colonial experience and the political, economic, intellectual, and psychological recovery from that experience have affected the self-definition of the poet is explored. (28 references)…

Puts four poems written by Vladimir Mayakovsky into social and historical context by performing a content analysis. Discusses the revolutionary nature of the poetic and typographic communication and the circumstances surrounding the poems' publication. (KEH)

Discusses the reclusive life of Emily Dickinson, recounting the discovery of Dickinson's poems after her death. Concentrates on the problems Dickinson's sister encountered in securing an editor. Contends that Dickinson's poems were distorted by editors and critics, and includes the original version of "Because I Could Not Stop for…

Shows how a teacher used paintings as a basis for writing exercises designed to teach students about the subjectivity of interpretation and the importance of visual imagery. Describes a number of specific writing assignments and classroom activities involving description, interpretation, drawing, poetry, and research papers. (TB)

A review of over 1,000 student poems reveals the wide variety of forms taken by concrete poetry. Although not exhaustive, the list includes (1) figured verse, which uses poetry or poetic language to shape images; (2) letter/word images, created by the arrangement of letters of words in nonsentence form; (3) letter/word compounds, in which words…

The "Wooster Review," a national literary magazine staffed by undergraduates, began in 1983 as an experiment in student publishing. A naturally formed interpretive community emerged as the "Review" developed: as students read, they noticed weaknesses or thought of other options the writer could have chosen; as they discussed,…

Four Native American poets in easy narrative style tell about some of the aesthetic judgments they make in their work and, in the process, shed some light upon the traditions from which their poetry emerges. Joy Harjo discusses how she wrote "The Woman Hanging from the Thirteenth Floor Window," her use of repetition influenced by music…

The four articles in this journal explore various aspects of empathy and its application to oral interpretation of literature. The first article examines the concept of empathy, discusses measures of it, and includes an "accurate empathy exercise" and an empathy scale. The second article discusses the way in which the writings of Dylan…

This paper shows how the analysis of works by women writers can be used to help students explore their own values and feelings concerning sexism. It first presents a teacher-written dialogue in which a woman accuses a man of making a sexist remark and describes the lively class discussion engendered by the reading of the dialogue. It then recounts…

This book is intended for teachers, prospective teachers, language arts supervisors, designers of curriculum, and others interested in the teaching of English in the elementary school. Subjects covered include reasons why literature should be part of a child's education, what it means to "teach" and "study" literature, the foundation necessary for…