Annotated Table of Contents, Chapters 23 - 26

Chapter 23. Organizing a Discussion of Literature: How can teachers organize literary discussions in which most of the students participate? I encountered the model for good literary
discussions when I took the Great Books training course, a program that changed forever the way I organized discussions. The key was the requirement that the group leaders, in formulating the questions, could ask only questions about which they themselves had some element of doubt as to the answer. The Great Books Foundation calls its discussion technique “Shared Inquiry” because everyone can participate in the search for answers; no one is designated as the expert, not even the leaders.
However, the Great Books program requires discussion leaders, not the students, to formulate the questions and insists that the literary work should not be introduced, that the students should just begin to read without any preparation. I disagreed with both restrictions. Therefore, I have used the Great Books technique with some modifications, and almost everyone becomes involved.

Chapter 24. Censorship: How can English teachers prepare for possible censorship challenges? Dealing with censorship issues involves two fundamental procedures: a questionnaire to be completed by the challenger and a representative committee to consider the challenge and to recommend future use of the challenged material. However, even more valuable in preparing for censorship challenges is writing rationales for teaching potentially controversial literary works, a technique that will help teachers decide on the appropriateness of the literature they teach in class.

Part Six: Language and Vocabulary
Chapter 25. Exploring Language: How can teachers have some fun with language in English class? One of the most enjoyable language activities I ever used was to cut maps of the United States into quarters, giving each student a portion of the map. Students looked at the place names in their section of the map and copied down names of cities and towns that they found to be interesting. Next, in small groups, students tried to classify the origins of the names—people’s names, geographical characteristics, biblical references, language of the American Indian, etc. Finally, students attempted to express generalizations about how Americans named their cities and towns. This activity is just one example of how students can have fun exploring the English language. However, in having fun, they will also learn a great deal about how the
English language works.

Chapter 26. Building Word Knowledge: What should a complete vocabulary program consist of? The problem that most students have had with the Verbal Section of the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) is vocabulary. Even when they were dealing with sentence completions or analogies that were supposed to be “vocabulary free,” I found that with the harder items, the students knew the process for solving the problem but often did not know the words. Vocabulary development is an important part of the English program, not just because of the SAT, but because knowledge of words extends a person’s range of ideas and is related to IQ, is related to the ability to express one’s ideas with precision, and, of course, is related to success in reading. In this chapter, I offer three methods for helping students build their word knowledge.

Thoughts About Teaching students for Whom English Is Their Second Language (ESL): Most techniques that I have discussed in this book as helpful for students whose native language is English will also be helpful for students whose native language is NOT English, for whom English is a second language (ESL), especially directed reading assignment and the ten-minute writings.