Discusses the novel "Web of Dreams" by Virginia Andrews, a favorite among many secondary students. Considers the book as subject for secondary English study. Claims that the novel defies most teacherly prejudices about formula writing. Provides detailed criticism of the novel. (HB)

Considers the literary achievement of William Shakespeare and specifically why he continues to hold such an honored and sanctified position in the literary canon. Proposes a theoretically informed, politically aware pedagogy by which Shakespeare might be more usefully taught. (HB)

Considers the current debates regarding the teaching of reading. Outlines the general failure to understand the nature of literacy, the complexity of educational issues, and the lack of public language for discussing such issues. Provides an accessible explanation of current reading methods for parents. (HB)

Discusses the issue of the use of nonfiction reading in the primary classroom. Describes the demands that nonfiction books make on children. Examines how the genre can be made more accessible to children. (HB)

Discusses the issue of the use of nonfiction reading in the primary classroom. Looks at the way a group of children progress from asking questions, to knowing the facts, to becoming reasoning beings. Outlines the experiences of one teacher's attempt to help children take steps to discover information on pigs. (HB)

Explores how Laura Ingalls Wilder in her "Little House on the Prairie" book series idealizes the life of settlers in the western American states and intersperses this version with reality. Shows how the cozy family circle provides security in the face of historical and autobiographical opposition. (HB)

Outlines a method of using Charles Dickens' novel "Great Expectations" as a part of a history unit covering Victorian England. Shows how history instructors might use the book and the film version to broaden student views of reading. (HB)

Considers teachers' research into adult/pupil dialog. Questions the way teachers converse with students. Asks how teachers listen to what children say and how teachers reciprocate. Studies language facility as an age-related phenomenon and considers whether conversation is led and developed in linguistic context by the adult. (HB)

Analyzes the nature of the complexity of student writers of narrative in secondary schools. Focuses on the affective development and the narrative structure of student writing. Provides a framework based on structuralist theory resulting in a detailed insight into the achievements of student writers of narrative. (HB)

Summarizes recent debates concerning the use of popular culture and media within the English curriculum. Presents an approach to using media in fostering understanding the way meaning and taste are socially constructed. Describes research aimed at developing an account of reading as social process. (HB)

Describes reading recovery programs aimed at helping students rediscover the pleasure of reading. Presents findings of a study designed to determine parents' attitudes toward such programs. Gives evidence of parental satisfaction, including numerous excerpts from interviews with parents. (HB)

Develops strategies for encouraging students to read a variety of genres and authors. Shows how a program was organized with this end in mind. Discusses what students chose to read and their attitudes and perceptions of their reading and themselves as readers. (HB)

Considers the difficulties inherent in developing a system of assessment through examination of student learning in Great Britain's A-level English literature instruction. Outlines the process of developing such a system as undertaken by the two appointed cochief examiners in 1986. (HB)

Reports on ways in which an undergraduate English course can be structured to invite wide-ranging forms of response. Describes how this was done through an expository reading and writing course based on rhetorical modes and noncanonical texts. Claims that student satisfaction and achievement were excellent. (HB)

Considers the proper definition and function of essays as topic of English instruction and as preferred mode in which students are assigned writing tasks. Tries to "denaturalize" the essay by thinking about how it has come to occupy such an esteemed position and the meaning of such esteem. (HB)