While English teachers want students to enjoy reading, to appreciate the beauty of literature, and to recognize the universality of the classics, many adolescent students do not become interested in the aesthetic aspect of literature until they are beyond high school age. Some works, outside the traditional literary canon, speak more directly to…

Presents a way of interesting students in high school literature by starting with children's books. The technique involves teacher modeling, using illustrations to motivate writing, and linking a children's book with a more advanced work on a similar topic. (SKC)

Offers a method for teaching English using biographies in conjunction with creative writing assignments, for example, writing a short biography of another student in the class. (SRT)

Finds that utopias act as catalysts to young people exploring issues of personal growth through reading. Discusses several books that contain utopian elements. (EL)

Designed to make the study of Dickens'"Great Expectations" an appealing and worthwhile experience, this paper presents a unit of study intended to help students gain (1) an appreciation of Dickens' skill at creating realistic human characters; (2) an insight into the problems of a young man confused by false values and unreal ambitions…

Intended to help parents and teachers select books for young people that reflect the actual interests of adolescents, this booklet discusses titles that both appeal to teenagers and help adults gain insight into their needs, their concerns, and their values. Titles of chapters in the booklet are as follows: (1) "Are Young Adult Books…

Explains how a five- to seven-minute daily reading of popular children's books fostered aural comprehension and literary appreciation in students. (HOD)

Intended for the junior high school or secondary school English teacher, the articles and features in this journal focus on young adult literatue and the adolescent audience. The first article, Zibby Oneal's "Writing for Adolescents: Pleasures and Problems," describes the responsibilities of authors of adolescent fiction, while the second article,…

Reports on a survey of the leisure reading of 700 teenagers in rural North Carolina which collected data on reading for pleasure, types of materials selected, favorite authors and books, differences in interests of boys and girls, reasons for reading, and how respondents find out about books. Implications for teachers and library media specialists…

Reflecting the rapid changes that have occurred in young adult literature, this second edition provides teachers with the history and background needed to stay current with what adolescents are reading and how such literature can be taught. The book is organized much as a literature course is taught: first, an introduction to young adults and…

New approaches to the teaching of the classics are explored in this collection of articles written by high school, junior college, college, and university literature instructors. The seven articles in the first section of the book discuss linking the classics. Specific topics covered in the articles include using the works of William Golding as a…

Describes a reading program for teaching study strategies in depth that integrates reading development with content area teaching. Recommends that course content teachers be responsible for reading development and that these teachers be offered instruction in teaching the strategies appropriate for study reading. (SRT)

Case study research of adult lifelong readers' key experiences reveals that some of the crucial events resulting in love of reading took place prior to formal literature instruction. Results of interviews with about 60 adult readers of all ages--some of whom choose to read fiction, some of whom do not--indicate reasons readers give for their…

Serving as a resource for students, teachers, librarians, and parents, this seventh edition of the National Council of Teachers of English's bestselling booklist for adolescent readers contains over 300 concise annotations. A group of teachers looking specifically for high interest books chose the titles from hundreds published in 1993 and 1994.…

To investigate adolescent reading habits and interests, a reading interest survey was administered to 103 male and 133 female sophomore English students from two high schools with similar socioeconomic backgrounds but different individualized reading programs. In the first school, students read and made book reports on three novels of their own…