The purpose of this book is to provide teachers of literature with a sampling of a wide range of theoretical backgrounds and possible pedagogical applications for reading, writing, and interpreting literature in school classrooms, elementary through college. The book contains the following essays listed with their authors: (1) "Henny Penny to King Lear: Skills, Concepts, Connections in Literature" (Charles R. Chew); (2) "The Media Writes Way to Various Literacies, Both Visual and Cultural" (Rose Reissman); (3) "The Role of Creative Writing in Changing Students from Antagonists to Appreciators of Literature" (Patricia Spencer Soper); (4) "Symbols: A Symbol '4' the Teacher" (Lenore Sandel); (5) "Journeying between Experience and Symbol: Some Possible Paths in Reading and Writing" (Christine San Jose); (6) "Writing before Reading: Helping Students Enter Poe's House of Usher" (Carol F. Reynolds); (7) "Using Students' Pre-Reading and Post-Reading Writing to Investigate Reader Response Theory" (Sharon Kane); (8) "Reading and Writing about Poetry and the Reconstruction of Reality: How College English Majors Read a Poem" (Robert W. Blake); (9) "Reading, Writing and Impenetrability" (Patrick L. Courts); (10) "Meat and Poetry" (Bruce E. Miller); (11) "Theoretical Assumptions of Reading in the New Criticism: The Nature of the Reader/Text Relationship" (William J. Spurlin); (12) Enhancing Aesthetic Reading and Response to Poetry" (Philip M. Anderson); (13) "Kenneth Burke and the Teaching of Drama" (John P. Harrington); (14) "The Literary Kaleidoscope" (Sabina Lask-Spinac); (15) "What Is the Gap, and How Do We Bridge It?" (Brigraj Singh); (16) "Understanding the Reading Process: How Does the Child Construct Meaning with Literature?" (Susan Lehr); and (17) "A Study of Diverse Responses to an Allegorical Text" (Claudia Gentile and Sharon Kane). (MS)