Book Description

Presenting findings from a wide-ranging study, this book considers the present state of literature teaching in American middle and secondary schools. Probing both context and the instructional approaches, the book shows a discipline staffed by teachers better educated than their predecessors but carrying heavy class loads and isolated from current thinking in literary criticism and pedagogy. The book is based on a series of four interrelated studies: (1) a series of case studies of English programs with local reputations for excellence; (2) a study of book-length works that are required reading for high school students as well as the book-length texts required in public schools, grades 7-12, and in Catholic and independent schools, grades 9-12; (3) a survey of content and approaches in nationally representative samples of English programs in public, Catholic, and independent schools, plus schools whose students consistently win National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Achievement Awards in Writing; and (4) analyses of the selections and teaching suggestions offered in widely used anthologies. Chapters of the book are: Introduction; Studying the Teaching of Literature; Conditions for the Teaching of Literature; The Curriculum as a Whole; Selections Chosen for Study; Selections Available in Literature Anthologies; Classroom Literature Instruction; Instructional Materials in Literature Anthologies; Writing and Literature; The School Library and Students' Reading; and Conclusion. A description of methods and procedures for the four studies, and a list of the most frequently anthologized selections by genre are attached. (Contains 87 references and 90 tables/figures.) (RS).