Situations: A Casebook of Virtual Realities for the English Teacher

In this book, Wagner and Larson give teachers a chance to practice strategies through "virtual reality." Each chapter opens with a vivid situation drawn from real-life experience, offering readers the opportunity to think about how they would or do respond to difficult day-to-day dilemmas, such as the student who reveals in her journal that she and a friend are doing drugs or the parent who accuses the teacher of racial bias because of the books she assigns.

The best of current theory and practice comes together here. Although the perspectives represent the leading edge of the profession, they do not ignore the very real constraints teachers face.

Situations will be useful to secondary English teachers who find themselves frustrated by idealistic or theoretical texts that seem out of touch with the problems of today's classroom -- problems wholly unlike those known even a decade ago. Preservice teachers will also enjoy this book because of its down-to-earth presentation.