Argues that "text rendering"--responding to oral readings by saying back remembered words or phrases--forces students to prolong their initial responses to texts and opens initial response to the influence of other readers. Argues that silence following oral readings allows words to sink into students' minds, creating individual images and…

Describes 13 nonfiction works and the reactions of students to those works. Argues that nonfiction can entice readers into narratives of lives and events as intriguing as any work of fiction. (RS)

Notes that recent research on peer response suggests that with training and practice, peer respondents learn to read, talk, and think about writing with greater maturity and sophistication. Argues that students have a great deal to learn from giving as well as receiving response. (RS)

Shows how to help students fill in textual "gaps" to interact more fully with contemporary texts, classics, and myths. Presents examples of this approach for studying (1) Shakespeare's "Hamlet" with Tom Stoppard's "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead"; and (2) George Bernard Shaw's "Pygmalion" with the films "Educating Rita" and "My Fair Lady."…

Argues that educators must acknowledge that television has the power to elicit student empathy and that students want to understand television's power to move them. Describes three kinds of television analysis: individual detailed logs of text; group dialogue about television programing; and researched essays documenting and interpreting details…

Describes a three-week unit, "Television Communication and Critical Thinking," designed to make junior high students more forceful writers and discriminating viewers. Argues that by analyzing television advertising, news, and programming, students learn to think more critically about communication techniques and to use those techniques responsibly…

Describes a unit involving the novel, screenplay, and film of "Sounder" in which students experienced literature as something to be lived through rather than directed by the teachers. Notes that teachers and students abandoned their typical classroom roles in favor of becoming co-explorers and co-creators of texts. (RS)

Describes the experiences of a junior high English class as they read Larry McMurty's novel "Lonesome Dove" and watched the television miniseries based on the novel. Discovers that the relationship between the reader and the written word is similar to that between the viewer and the film. (RS)

Describes a three-week unit in which students read a biography of famous person, prepare a first-person narrative, make an appropriate costume, and record the video biography. Notes that students integrate reading, research, and speaking skills on their way to starring in their own one-person show. (RS)

Describes a class activity in which a student portrays the main character of a book and is interviewed, press conference style, by the class. Argues that responses to literature can be more fun with this unusual approach. (RS)

Discusses a pair of books (Annie Dillard's "An American Childhood" and Maxine Hong Kingston's "The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood among Ghosts") that are well-written, discussion-worthy, and sufficiently alike in content that they can be taught in tandem for comparative purposes as part of a contemporary-literature unit. (RS)

Describes how BreadNet (a national computer network of English teachers) has come to dominate the routine of a high school class. Notes that BreadNet gives students new motivation to write, inquire, and learn. Describes classroom electronic writing exchanges and an electronic writers' workshop which posted essays on BreadNet. (RS)

Discusses how English teachers can work with other departments to promote interdisciplinary approaches to teaching. Describes sharing writing labs; producing television news reports; engaging in a school-wide theme week; an "academic" Olympic Games; vocabulary exercises in the social studies classes; mock trials; and a team-taught social…

Describes how urban folk legends can prepare students for studying "Beowulf," the Arthurian legends, or other oral narratives that exist in many versions. Notes that exposure to recent oral history intrigues students and helps them appreciate how stories can vary while retaining their basic plot. (RS)

Describes a conversationally oriented, student-centered English class which recognizes the different learning styles among groups of students in the classroom. Notes that this teaching style opens a space for social engagement in intellectual work and conversation which enables reflective thought. (RS)