Examines the freedom to teach and learn from the author's point of view as a Mexican-American educator and writer. Asserts that teachers must take charge and implement into the curriculum the many literatures of the United States. (PRA)

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)

Discusses studies that examine literature instruction in U.S. secondary schools. Examines studies of required book-length works, titles recently taught, the importance of book-length texts, sources of literary materials, and selections included in popular anthologies. Concludes that the curriculum as a whole remains relatively traditional in its…

Analyzes literature curricula and the canon represented in literature anthologies. Discusses the embedded power structure, the role of genre, women fiction writers, the role of "people of color" in the textbook canon, and the absence of dissenting voices. Concludes that the textbook canon does not affirm differences of opinion and of lifestyle.…

Describes a U.S. literature course and a comparative literature course that focuses on Asian, African, Canadian, Caribbean, and Latin American literature. Asserts that students need to be aware of the European impact on the U.S. identity, even where it is unpleasant. Discusses the magical realism in the distinct artistic vision of Latin America.…

Describes a course that integrates U.S. literature and history around key social issues to sensitize students to the need for a more just society and a higher quality of life for all citizens. Discusses the poetry unit that focused on contemporary U.S. poets of color, the teaching methods, and examples of the students' poetry. (PRA)

Relates the experiences of a teacher who consciously reconceived his teaching as a part of a process--to think of instructional goals as provisional rather than set. Outlines his six goals dealing with teaching and experiencing literature. Discusses teaching techniques such as test rendering, response history, and portfolios. (PRA)

Relates how student-made questions inspired at-risk students to get involved with an assigned text. States that the students became engaged in literature and no longer needed the teacher to pose questions or set agendas. (PRA)

Relates a teacher's experiences in a research project that tried to uncover what a teacher needs to do to get students to think deeply about literature. Discusses the theory, building a classroom community, preparing for and scaffolding discussion, and a few class activities. (PRA)

Describes how Mark Twain's essay "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses" helped students to get interested in writing and inspired them to write a similar essay critiquing the movie "Batman." Provides excerpts from students' essays. (PRA)

Describes how an English teacher incorporates the native languages of her internationally born students into her English lessons. Relates how these activities helped foreign students feel accepted into the class and their new environment. (PRA)

Demonstrates how sixth graders became engaged with the daily journal of an eleventh grader and how this motivated them to write journals themselves. Discusses the varying topics they read and wrote about and how they learned from this experience. (PRA)

Describes how a survivor of the Holocaust helped a sixth grade class understand the experiences of the Holocaust and how the class helped the survivor to reach into his own repressed pain. (PRA)

Describes how English teachers can help students to "read" their world and become responsible and responsive citizens through community service projects which structure opportunities for students to engage in literacy struggles in the real world. (PRA)

Relates the author's frustration with the idea that writers of young adult literature should avoid profanity and make the books unobjectionable. Discusses the need for truth in telling the stories of his characters, and asserts that making his books unobjectionable would be to lie about what it is to be human. (PRA)