Describes a writing assignment to help students develop the capacity to anticipate and deal with the counter arguments of a skeptical reading audience, in which classmates offer rebuttals to student position papers. A sample peer review form is included. (HTH)

Discusses the theoretical considerations of readers' response to literature. Explores procedures for monitoring and evaluating children's responses to literature. (HTH)

This book is intended for teachers who want to integrate high-quality children's literature into the language arts curriculum. The illustrated book provides a host of small-group workshops for children in kindergarten through second grade, planned around storybooks they love. Each workshop suggested in the book is geared to specific High/Scope…

An instrument was developed and used with grade 11 students and university teacher education students (intending English teachers) in British Columbia to explore their beliefs about appropriate ways to interpret segments of Shakespeare's "Macbeth." This is the second is a series of instruments designed to explore students' and teachers'…

This lesson plan for teaching students about the epic poem of India, the "Ramayana," encompasses literary, artistic, and moral themes. The lesson plan states that: (1) students are told the story; (2) students illustrate a part of the story; and (3) students write the moral lessons to be derived from the "Ramayana." The lesson…

Taking off from the perception that the current critical climate blurs most meaningful distinctions between fiction and nonfiction, this book examines what happens when writers and readers encounter texts presented as nonfiction--texts that make some truth claim on outside experience, texts whose characters and events have at least some tangible…

This book is a collection of classroom-tested ideas for helping students explore how literature and "the canon" are made, what the term "American" means, and how the phrase "American literature" obscures the presence of multiple "literatures" that are both individually compelling and mutually enriching. Each…

This booklet of academic standards spells out what students should be able to do in Grade 9 English/Language Arts. The booklet gives examples to help students understand what is required to meet the standards and comes accompanied with a list of 10 things parents can do to help their child get a good education. It outlines the following seven…

This study guide covers the new television version of one of Mark Twain's most popular stories, "The Prince and the Pauper," the classic tale of two boys whose curiosity about each other's lives leads them to switch places and, in the process, learn valuable lessons about outward appearances and true compassion. The guide summarizes the…

After reading self-selected books, students respond to reading in a journal and talk about their books daily in small, heterogeneous groups. The teacher guides and assesses students work by rotating among the groups, offering suggested response prompts and writing with them in their dialogue journals. During five 30-40 minute sessions, students…

This book is intended as a resource for preservice and practicing teachers who want to build, extend, or enliven a program in which students explore the expanding world of children's literature. The book's author draws on her 30 years as an elementary school teacher and student of literary/literacy learning to present a theoretically grounded and…

This supplement is designed as a resource for helping students read and respond to literature and other forms of print. It notes that kindergarten through third graders are expected to: develop an ability to read with increasing fluency and understanding by using writing and a variety of other reading strategies; and read, interpret, and respond…

More than a list of activities or descriptions of strategies for teaching reading in the primary grades, this book is organized around a series of interconnected interactions with the learner: assessment; demonstration; practice; and response. After describing the role of the teacher and setting up the classroom environment, the book shows how…

Offering an alternative to traditional language arts methods textbooks, this collection of 20 essays by master teachers is grouped into 4 main sections. Following an introduction, essays in the book are: (1) "Walter" (Vivian Gussin Paley); (2) "Children Become Writers: A Conversation with Two Teachers" (Cyndy Hoffman and Carol…

Argues that the teaching method instructors use to present poetry--direct/indirect, analytic/subjective, or reader focused/text focused--is influenced by the kind of relationship they wish to establish with the students. (MM)