This article explores how literary study engages readers' moral perception and imagination. Although some philosophers discuss reading as a largely solitary activity, this article explores social practices of reading common in English language arts classrooms in secondary schools. The article shows how reading with others can change the quality of…

This article proposes a theoretical framework for understanding the possibility of Talmudic stories (as well as other narratives and scenes of interactions among two or more characters) to nurture the growth of the moral imagination as it is expressed in two related but distinct ways. At the intersection of work by educators, literary critics, and…

Reacting to incoherent English teaching in the 1930s, Percival Gurrey probed the psychological processes involved in literary appreciation. He sought ways of teaching poetry that avoided lifeless tasks such as labelling "poetic devices." Later, in the 1950s, he wrote about the processes involved in learning to write. At a time when…

A paper presented at annual convention of Canadian Council of Teachers of English (2nd, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada, August 1969). (RD)

A study of English literature offers a knowledge of other minds and, more importantly, a process of "extending sympathy" or imaginative identification. (HOD)

Literature should not be used only as a teaching aid or a source of pleasure but as a means of developing and expanding the imagination. (JH)

Written to encourage imaginative approaches to teaching writing, this paper contains ideas for developing writing skills by encouraging creative writing, formal analysis, and criticism despite the traditional lack of literary analysis in the creative writing classroom. In addition to including teaching techniques for practicing literary skills…

Points out the sometimes excessive lengths that authors carry the suspension of reality in children's fiction. Advocates a more disciplined imagination, and rejection of untrue or impossible worlds. (HTH)

This study explores the proposition that literary criticism may be an important part of the elementary school curriculum and that its practice can be informed by the theories of Northrop Frye. The study is in three parts. The first chapter of Part I argues that there is virtually no emphasis in the elementary school on the study of literature as…

Central to this article is the belief that students learn best when permitted to exercise their imagination while studying foreign-language literary works. A teaching technique, demonstrating the author's approach to poetry and vocabulary expansion, emphasizes the active role students play in utilizing new vocabulary. Examples of how students may…

Creative writing assignments are described which prepare students better to apprehend and appreciate Shakespeare's art.

Calls for writing instruction that leads students to realize that meaning depends upon context and perspective. Describes a course in which students "problematize" and write about issues within literary works. Explains that students observe visual artworks which serve as companion pieces to the literary works and to students' own compositions…

Designed to give children a sense of the cultural heritage that fairy tales represent, this instructional unit was originally developed to motivate eighth-grade low-level readers and was later adapted for English as a second language classes and for a variety of elementary and secondary school learning levels. Objectives of the unit are to help…

The encouragement and formulation of a student's imaginative response to and "engagement" with literature and the concerns of the papers and summaries of discussions in this Dartmouth Seminar report. James Britton discusses refining the student's natural response to literature by developing his increased sense of form ("principally…