american literature

british literature

multicultural/world literature

poetry

drama/speech

shakespeare

young adult literature

mythology/fantasy/sci-fi

nonfiction

critical approaches

literary criticism

story response/writing

assessment

censorship

professional development

media/technology

How to use this site

CHAPTERS

1

What does it mean to teach literature?

2

Who are our kids?

3

Now that I know what I know, how do I get them to go with the flow?

4

How do I help kids read?

5

How do I get them to talk about literature?

6

How do I get them to write about literature?

7

What’s the (use of) story?

8

How does the shape of a text change the shape of my teaching?

9

Do I have to teach Shakespeare? Okay, how do I survive it?

10

Other ways of seeing (critical lenses)

11

How do I stay in control and out of trouble: Ethical and professional issues

12

What else is a text and how do I teach it?

13

How do I know what they’ve learned?

14

How can I keep developing, evolving, and having fun as a teacher?

home

Critical Approaches

• Psychoanalytic criticism

• Guide to teaching different literary theories
  HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for background on critical lenses

• SCRAP: Students Challenging Racism and White Privilege
  useful one-page handouts on topics of racism and white privilege

• using a reader-response journal

• Postmodernism/Deconstructivism chat board

• Rethinking Schools
  publisher of Reading, Writing, and Rising Up by Linda Christensen

• Critical Pedagody Theory/Approaches

• Cultural Studies Approach

• Reader Response: Various Positions

• People Like Us: PBS program on class
  HIGHLY RECOMMENDED activities for teaching about class differences related to texts like The Great Gatsby

• reader response: using literature circles for discussion
  on-line book; HIGHLY RECOMMENDED resource for creating small-group discussions

• reader response: leading classroom discussions
  HIGHLY RECOMMENDED: stages of entering into the text, envisioning, stepping out of, and reflecting on responses

• reader response: eliciting responses

• Colonial/Postcolonial Dialogues: postcolonial criticism

• Russell Hunt: point-driven reader stance
  research on readers’ point-driven vs. story-driven stances

• Voice of the Shuttle: lots of theory links
  excellent, extensive links to hundreds of literary critical/theory topics

• post-Marxist criticism

• postcolonial literary criticism

• Hypertheory/hypertext literary theory

• feminism and women’s literature

• feminist literary criticism

• Voices from the Gap: women writers of color
  Excellent site: biographical/critical discussions of women writers of color; site housed at the University of Minnesota

• historical development of literary theories

• Johns Hopkins Guide to Literacy Criticism
  extensive catalogue of literary critical terms

• introduction to different critical lenses

• literacy criticism by author, title, period

• critical theorists: identity / discourses / gender / Foucault / hooks / queer theory

• thematic study of literature at the middle school level