English Education - Volume 50, Issue 1, 2017

Louise Rosenblatt’s transactional theory of reader response has been widely accepted as a means of resisting the hegemony of New Criticism. This article argues that Rosenblatt and the New Critics were pioneers of parallel, rather than opposing, pedagogical traditions, shaped by the shared influence of I. A. Richards and John Dewey. The article situates a close reading of Rosenblatt and the New Critics in the context of the historical conditions that influenced the reception of the two supposedly disparate methods of teaching literature. At a time when misinformed caricatures of both Reader Response and New Criticism figure prominently in professional and political discourse about the teaching of literature, a careful reimagining of Rosenblatt’s relationship with the New Critics may allow for more nuanced conversation about the place of close reading in the teaching and learning of literature.

While arts-based has received increased attention in recent years as a research methodology rooted in an aesthetic framework, less attention has been paid to conceptualizing what arts-based means in the context of particular disciplines of K–12 teaching and learning. This qualitative study recognizes a need to examine sustained and ongoing approaches to the teaching of English through art in an effort to better understand and articulate what art can do for literacy learning. I explore art as story as one way of conceptualizing a central role for art in English class where art serves as a tool for engagement and as the material for ongoing inquiry.

Place-based pedagogy, the incorporation of local dynamics into the classroom as a step toward bridging the school-community gap, is becoming increasingly popular as educating for sustainability gains traction in schools. However, little attention has been paid to the role Appalachia has played in creating our modern sense of place-based pedagogy in education writ large and English education in particular. This article explores this role to argue for greater respect for Appalachian literacies throughout the field and a greater incorporation of place-based pedagogy within Appalachian English classrooms today.

It is not unusual for issues of sexuality to surface sometimes in high school English classes. However,explicitly teaching such topics can concurrently enhance students’ sexual and English literacy experiences, as the author discovered in her ninth-grade English class in Western Canada when she used poetry as a vehicle for learning about topics such as healthy relationships, consent, sexual assault, and safe sex practices. This provocation closes with a narrative poem the author composed in an effort to capture the experience of one particularly revealing lesson from this unit.