Teaching Literature in High School: Principles into Purposeful Practice

Review\nThe ideas and activities articulated in this volume by McCann and Knapp provide alternatives to the routine readings and assessments teachers usually assign. Teachers need resources and options to engage and motivate students to read critically and reflect on simple and/or complex texts. Students in turn need practice to become skilled, reflective, responsive, and avid readers. The strategies considered often reflect the discourse of content area literacy, with a focus on critical, constructive thinking. Each chapter includes a review of the relevant information and perspectives and presents questions for readers’ response. The final chapter's argument for inquiry units is compelling, and readers will appreciate the steps and sample sequence based on the theme of justice. Recommended. Advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and professionals.
― Choice Reviews\nIn Teaching Literature in High School: Principles into Purposeful Practice, McCann and Knapp provide new and experienced teachers a practical and engaging alternative to the assign and assess method of instruction that can limit a teacher’s practice and diminish a student’s love of reading. The ready-to-use activities with scaffolded skill sequences and examples of student work offer teachers a template to design coherent and relevant curriculum that will motivate students to grow as readers. This book offers a guaranteed and viable way to empower students to discover, refine, and employ the strategies that experts use to make meaning of literature. Above all, teachers will value the authors’ principled approach to instruction which will make the experience of English class a delight.
-- Dawn Forde, English Teacher, Adlai E. Stevenson High School, Lincolnshire, Illinois\nWith their Teaching Literature in High School, McCann and Knapp astutely observe that students need preparation for frequent encounters with challenging texts in order to develop higher-level thinking skills and to experience works of literature with confidence. Many elements of the book, and Chapter Four in particular, will benefit college faculty who assign complex texts and recognize the need to prepare students to unpack dense works of literature. As the authors argue, practice with noticing key text features and reflecting on their implications prompts metacognition, promoting inquiry into how a narrative structure, for example, shapes a reader’s own understanding of the text. I judge the book to be an indispensable resource for high school and college faculty who are reconsidering their pedagogical approach to make learning more enjoyable and meaningful. -- Melina Martin, Associate Professor of English, College of DuPage, Illinois\nEqually valuable to preservice teachers and practicing teachers, Teaching Literature in High School: Principles into Purposeful Practice answers why so many students hate to read and often don’t seem to understand what they read. Arguing that success in an English classroom depends on the rich interaction between teacher, students, and text, McCann and Knapp propose that students benefit from the discovery and explicit acknowledgement of the rules of reading employed by mature readers and teachers. If students are given the chance to generate and practice procedures about how-to-read, they can successfully understand and respond in deeper ways to texts drawn from popular culture, young adult literature, and the classics. Suggested specific activities grounded in a practiced theoretical frame centered on genuine inquiry and authentic discussion makes this book essential reading.
-- Dianne Chambers, Professor of English, Elmhurst University, Elmhurst, Illinois\nIn looking for an approach to teaching literature in high school, teachers largely fall back on the methods that they had experienced as students. These practices often involve a teacher assigning a complex work of literature and then assessing students’ reading through in-class rec