Critical Encounters In High School English

Because of the emphasis placed on nonfiction and informational texts by the Common Core State Standards, literature teachers all over the country are re-evaluating their curriculum and looking for thoughtful ways to incorporate nonfiction into their courses. They are also rethinking their pedagogy as they consider ways to approach texts that are outside the usual fare of secondary literature classrooms. The Third Edition of Critical Encounters in Secondary English provides an integrated approach to incorporating nonfiction and informational texts into the literature classroom. Grounded in solid theory with new field-tested classroom activities, this new edition shows teachers how to adapt practices that have always defined good pedagogy to the new generation of standards for literature instruction. New for the Third Edition: A new preface and new introduction that discusses the CCSS and their implications for literature instruction. Lists of nonfiction texts at the end of each chapter related to the critical lens described in that chapter. A new chapter on new historicism, a critical lens uniquely suited to interpreting nonfiction and informational sources. New classroom activities created and field-tested specifically for use with nonfiction texts. Additional activities that demonstrate how informational texts can be used in conjunction with traditional literary texts. “What a smart and useful book!” —Mike Rose, University of California, Los Angeles “[This book] has enriched my understanding both of teaching literature and of how I read. I know of no other book quite like it.” —Michael W. Smith, Temple University, College of Education “I have recommended Critical Encounters to every group of preservice and practicing teachers that I have taught or worked with and I will continue to do so.” —Ernest Morrell, director of the Institute for Urban and Minority Education (IUME), Teachers College, Columbia University

This bestseller was the first text to specifically address the challenges of teaching critical theory in high school literature classrooms. Since its original publication, the author has worked with hundreds of teachers and students to update and refine the lessons she presents. This completely revised edition features an expanded discussion of gender, new activities, handouts to use with diverse students, and many other improvements.

Grounded in solid theory with new field-tested classroom activities, the fourth edition of Critical Encounters in Secondary English continues to help teachers integrate the lenses of contemporary literary theory into practices that have always defined good pedagogy. The most significant change for this edition is the addition of Critical Race Theory (CRT) as an analytical lens. CRT offers teachers fresh opportunities for interdisciplinary planning and teaching, as it lends itself to lessons that encompass a variety of disciplines such as history, sociology, psychology, and science. As with the previous edition, each chapter concludes with a list of suggested nonfiction pieces that work well for the particular lens under discussion. This popular text provides a comprehensive approach to incorporating nonfiction and informational texts into the literature classroom with new and revised classroom activities appropriate for today’s students. Book Features: Helps both pre- and inservice ELA teachers introduce contemporary literary theory into their classrooms.Offers lucid and accessible explications of contemporary literary theory.Provides dozens of innovative and field-tested classroom activities.Tackles the thorny issue of Critical Race Theory in helpful and practical ways. Praise for the Third Edition “What a smart and useful book! It provides teachers with a wealth of knowledge and material to help their students develop critical perspective and suppleness of thought.” —Mike Rose, University of California, Los Angeles “This Third Edition proves that Appleman still has her hand on the pulse of the rapidly changing landscape of education.” —Ernest Morrell, Teachers College, Columbia University “This new edition of Deborah Appleman’s now classic book demonstrates even more dramatically than previously how the critical theories she so skillfully teaches serve not only as lenses for the reading of literature, but as tools for discovering, interrogating, and challenging injustice, hypocrisy, and the hidden power relations that students are likely to encounter.” —Sheridan Blau, Teachers College, Columbia University

This book provides classroom-tested methods for engaging struggling middle grade readers--even those who appear to have given up--and fostering their success. The emphasis is on constructing respectful, encouraging learning environments that incorporate students' diverse literacies, cultural interests, and prior knowledge and skills into instruction. Chapters outline effective, innovative strategies for instruction and assessment in comprehension, vocabulary, text-based discussion, critical reading, and other core areas. Realistic classroom examples are included throughout, including applications of nontraditional texts. Other useful features include reflection questions at the end of each chapter. Winner--Literacy Research Association's Edward B. Fry Book Award

Artificial Intelligence, or AI, has seemingly burst into public consciousness with sudden vigor. Previously relinquished to computer science journals, it erupted as the unrelenting topic of public media with most of the furor surrounding chatbots, like ChatGPT. Although many educators began worrying about the implications of AI in student learning and creative activity, this book will demonstrate that AI can be harnessed as a source of inspiration and meaningful instruction. With an emphasis on useful classroom strategies as well as a consideration of the ethics of AI, this book seeks to start a conversation in this nascent area of research and practice. The primary focus is on the use of AI in the secondary English classroom, but educators in other disciplines will find plenty of ideas and information.

This edited collection will turn a critical spotlight on the set of texts that has constituted the high school canon of literature for decades. By employing a set of fresh, vibrant critical lenses—such as youth studies and disabilities studies— that are often unfamiliar to advanced students and scholars of secondary English, this book provides divergent approaches to traditional readings and pedagogical practices surrounding these familiar works. By introducing and applying these interpretive frames to the field of secondary English education, this book demonstrates that there is more to say about these texts, ways to productively problematize them, and to reconfigure how they may be read and used in the classroom.

Critical Theory Today is the essential introduction to contemporary criticial theory. It provides clear, simple explanations and concrete examples of complex concepts, making a wide variety of commonly used critical theories accessible to novices without sacrificing any theoretical rigor or thoroughness. This new edition provides in-depth coverage of the most common approaches to literary analysis today: feminism, psychoanalysis, Marxism, reader-response theory, new criticism, structuralism and semiotics, deconstruction, new historicism, cultural criticism, lesbian/gay/queer theory, African American criticism, and postcolonial criticism. The chapters provide an extended explanation of each theory, using examples from everyday life, popular culture, and literary texts; a list of specific questions critics who use that theory ask about literary texts; an interpretation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby through the lens of each theory; a list of questions for further practice to guide readers in applying each theory to different literary works; and a bibliography of primary and secondary works for further reading.

Incarcerated bodies, liberated minds: a narrative of literacy education behind bars. Words No Bars Can Hold provides a rare glimpse into literacy learning under the most dehumanizing conditions. Deborah Appleman chronicles her work teaching college- level classes at a high- security prison for men, most of whom are serving life sentences. Through narrative, poetry, memoir, and fiction, the students in Appleman’s classes attempt to write themselves back into a society that has erased their lived histories. The students’ work, through which they probe and develop their identities as readers and writers, illuminates the transformative power of literacy. Appleman argues for the importance of educating the incarcerated, and explores ways to interrupt the increasingly common journey from urban schools to our nation’s prisons. From the sobering endpoint of what scholars have called the “school to prison pipeline,” she draws insight from the narratives and experiences of those who have traveled it.