This curriculum guide is designed to provide a basic framework of skills and activities useful to elementary and secondary teachers in the teaching of literature. The first section discusses activities to facilitate elementary school students' appreciation and understanding of literature. Activities are discussed for grades K-3 and grades 4-6…

Discusses "critique" in an analysis of the relationship between discourse, text, and subjectivity, particularly as it relates to the teaching of poetry. Stresses how to make students more aware of the power of the text and to comprehend more fully the nature of their own responses. Illustrates with student responses to Blake's poem, "The Rose."…

Based on cowboy poetry and songs, this lesson plan presents activities designed to help students understand that Old West cowboys produced a category of literature, people still write cowboy poetry, and cowboy poetry or songs have certain characteristics. The main activity in the lesson involves students in analyzing a classic of cowboy literature…

Discusses the radical dramatism of language and the implications for writing instruction. (MM)

Explores major themes in contemporary American Indian poetry that comprise the Native ethos of cultural resistance and survival. Correlates certain themes of Indian poetry with those of Black spiritual and blues. Discusses Western and Indian world views, political and social conflict, and art as the agent of criticism and change. Contains 28…

Maintains that both traditional and computerized scholars face problems when they attempt empirical research on women writers and women readers using currently available computational tools. Discusses factors that have inhibited empirical research and uses examples from research on 18th century English poetry. (CFR)

In an effort to learn more about the teaching of reading and interpretation of poetry, a structured experiment was devised whereby college English majors used a combination of reading, writing and discussion to study James Wright's poem "A Blessing." The primary aim was to involve the students emotionally in a poem. Students were…

The seven major articles in this journal issue are devoted to literature and to literary analysis. The articles deal with the following topics: (1) collapse and regeneration in Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself," (2) freedom and identity in "Invisible Man," (3) the character of St. John Rivers in "Jane Eyre," (4) integrating poetry study and…

As a result of a study of the situation of Canadian literature in Canadian high schools and universities, this course was developed to provide teachers with useful information about Canadian literature. Included in this kit are sections on Canadian literature (the great debate about the importance of Canadian content), history and sources…

An analysis of a poem by San Juan de la Cruz (St. John of the Cross), the sixteenth century Spanish mystic, identifies symbols and images, explains themes, and offers a synthesis of his structural patterns. The poem, "Tras de amoroso lance", deals with the theme of the search of the beloved (i.e., the soul) for the lover, and…

Because most poetry education is ineffectual, this book attempts to help the teacher stimulate student interest in poetry by (1) suggesting a rationale and objectives for teaching poetry, (2) warning the teacher to avoid those poems for which he has no personal enthusiasm and to avoid overexplaining those poems he likes, (3) urging, for example,…

Intended as a guide to scholarship on Romantic writers, this selective bibliography attempts to cover the major works and topics, with emphasis on work published in the 20th century. Omitted are unpublished dissertations and most literary histories, bibliographies of bibliography, short notes and explications, and older biographical works that…

Intended as a guide to scholarship on Victorian writers, this selective bibliography covers all of the major figures and a substantial representation of the lesser ones. It excludes writers and works of fiction, except as such writers are essayists or poets. Omitted are unpublished theses and dissertations, most non-English articles and…

Considering the plethora of annotation which accompanies John Milton's poetry, a plan of the structure of "Paradise Lost" is offered as an aid to comprehension for undergraduate students and as a teaching guide for college teachers. The poem is divided into three parts of four books each for pedagogical purposes, and major themes and…

One of a series of works aimed at presenting contemporary critical opinion on major authors, this collection includes essays by Marie Borroff, Wallace Stevens, Joseph N. Riddle, Hi Simons, Sister M. Bernetta Quinn, C. Roland Wagner, Harold Bloom, Ralph J. Mills, Jr., Roy Harvey Pearce, Louis L. Martz, Morton Dauwen Zabel, and Northrop Frye--all…