Describes one teacher's method for teaching symbolism and provides several examples of student work resulting from this approach. (TO)

Asseverates the morality of "The Catcher in the Rye," emphasizing that teachers need not defend the book on purely literary terms. (JL)

Proposes that students can be taught to respond critically to literature through appropriate textual analysis. (RL)

Outlines the five stages of a poetry lesson, illustrating their use with the poem "Spring and Fall," by Gerard Manley Hopkins. (RL)

Recommends teaching Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress" by using a grammatical approach to the reading. (TJ)

Describes a test to determine students' understanding of poetry that avoids the difficulties of objective tests and involves the students with poetry on the test. (TJ)

Describes a one-semester elective English course for seniors. (DD)

Emphasizes the advantages of offering a variety of oral interpretations to students. (DD)

Presents annotations of eight new young adult books (published in 2002) that have each received at least three "best book" citations. Offers a brief synopsis as well as a thoughtful critique of each book. (SG)

Discusses ways in which Mikhail Bakhtin's two key ideas--multivocality and carnival--are played out in John Knowles' novel "A Separate Peace." Suggests that the novel will remain vital, alive, and accessible to students as long as they hear, respond to, and participate in the dialogues in the novel. (RS)

Analyzes the notion of woman as hero along with the basic quest imagery used by Robin McKinley in her novel "The Hero and the Crown." Compares this story with other quest stories involving women searching for selfhood. (HB)

Questions the reasons for continuing to teach the same texts by canonical writers, instead of works of greater depth and meaning by the same authors. Describes other, less canonical works that are suitable for the secondary English classroom. (HB)

Discusses common threads in the coming-of-age novels by Chicano(a) writers Rudolfo Anaya and Sandra Cisneros. Asserts that these novels are every bit as strong and as literary as the bildungsromans that are traditionally read in literature classes. (PRA)

Suggests language arts instructors use film adaptations as well as novels to teach literature. (PRA)