[Slides] presented at the American Educational Research Association (AERA) in 2009. This study investigated the presence of a general rise in high school grades without a corresponding rise in SAT scores, as well as different grading criteria between schools, as shown by differential relationships between AP course grades and exam scores. These…

The author began his experience with survey design in 1998 when, having been awarded a post-doctoral teaching fellowship, he was assigned to teach a variety of literature surveys, including the standard British literature survey from Chaucer to Milton, the poetry survey from Donne to the twentieth century, major British novels, early English…

Service-learning, an increasingly popular pedagogical strategy in higher education, has been largely ignored in the scholarship of literature teaching. Because political and social activities are inextricably linked with aesthetic and intellectual activities, literary texts and community service can work in complementary ways to inform students'…

Article provided a brief portrayal of the rhetoric of a specific but now defunct ideology together with an analysis of its focusing, integrating and controlling functions as an instrument of moral instruction. (Author/RK)

A wide-ranging discussion of more than 30 British novelists and their works. (PF)

Shakespeare's treatment of the themes of racial, religious, and economic prejudice is discussed. (SP)

An analysis of Congreve's use of the traditional comic image of disguise in the subtle and revealing forms of artifice in this play." (Author)

The author discusses and demonstrates how the study of various metaphors in literature can aid the student's ability to write in a unified and coherent style. (RR)

Describes how a high school English teacher uses a Groucho Marx scene to help his students learn to read the subtext in Shakespeare plays of social context, characters' goals and desires, and obstacles standing in their way. Offers examples of skits students perform which make these subtexts explicit. Notes these skits spark debate and close…

In this article, the author describes the work of Louise Rosenblatt as a scholar, an educator, and an advocate of a democratic approach towards teaching English literature. Rosenblatt started her teaching career in 1927 at Barnard College and concluded it in 2004 at the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) celebration of her 100th…

There appears to be little research on the standard of post-16 students' writing and how it can be improved. In respect of such students, the focus of teaching professionals seems to be on content rather than on the writing process; arguably this leads to weaknesses in written expression. This article examines some current research and follows one…

In this article, the author vitalizes her British literature course by asking seniors to investigate, through an I-Search paper, the concept of heroism. Students research a historic or contemporary individual, drawing on their understanding of heroic literary figures previously studied, and interview family, community members, and others connected…