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This essay presents various perspectives about honors work among first- and second-year students as they proposed and completed independent, open-ended projects in BritishLiterature— I and British Literature— II.

The essay discusses a thematic approach to teaching the first half of the American literature survey, focusing on race, whiteness, and class.

By rewriting a sales letter about a short story into a literary analysis, first-year composition students not only learn rhetorical principles that are sometimes lost in a literature-based composition course but also discover the metagenres linking disciplines.

Reviews of 6 books: An Omnibus Review of Six Introductory Fiction Ahthologies 40 Short Stories: A Portable Anthology, 2nd ed., ed. Beverly Lawn; Fiction: A Pocket Anthology, 4th ed., ed. R. S. Gwynn; Fiction 100: An Anthology of Short Fiction, 10th ed., ed. James H. Pickering; Exploring Fiction: Writing and Thinking about Fiction, ed. Frank Madden; Understanding Fiction, ed. Judith Roof; The Longman Anthology of Short Fiction: Stories and Authors in Context, ed. Dana Gioia and R. S. Gwynn.

Suggests that it is easier to invigorate class discussion and stimulate critical thinking if students discover the constructed nature of the canon by first seeing that their notions about a “typical” Poe story have been shaped by an often invisible process of selection and exclusion.

Notes that students can begin to learn that literature is not a dead art with no relevance to them by studying works that provide a wider context that will allow readers a new sense of the cultural milieu in which texts are written and read in conjunction with the ones in their course anthologies.

Considers how teaching John Updike’s short story “A&P” to treat issues of class and gender provides practice in reading for multiple meanings. Discusses students’ responses to the character “Sammy” and considers issues from personal response to reading the text. Notes multiple perspectives and ways of teaching “A&P.”

Argues that introducing students to literary criticism while introducing them to literature boosts their confidence and abilities to analyze literature, and increases their interest in discussing it. Describes how the author, in her college-level introductory literature course, used Shel Silverstein’s “The Giving Tree” (a children’s book) to introduce literary criticism, increase enthusiasm for literature, and build confidence in making meaning.

Describes how a teacher of a college introductory-literature course used role-playing, a talk-show format, and reader-audience participation to help students make collaborative meaning for, and to promote students’ active engagement with a Flannery O’Connor short story.

Discusses the experience of the author (a college teacher) as a student in another teacher’s Native-American literature course. Looks at the classroom from both sides of the desk, assessing the course, evaluating her own learning experience, and gaining new perspectives on today’s two-year college students.

Describes a vocabulary activity the author uses in first-year composition classes which is effective, interesting, and fun for students who write an ongoing serialized short story with required vocabulary words chosen weekly from assigned student readings.

Presents a second discography (of compact disks only) which lists American literature (primarily poetry) set to music. Notes two publications that may be of use to those well–versed in literature but less knowledgeable about music.

Presents six short descriptions of activities for the first day of class, involving thinking critically from day one; reading and responding to each other’s work; getting to know each other to develop class cohesion; promoting class participation; posing problems in an American literature survey course; and integrating a syllabus review with a writing activity.

Ponders F. Scott Fitzgerald’s essays about his "crack-up" and relates them to the many complex aspects of the struggles of a teacher using post-structural literary theory and teaching two-year college students.

Describes how one professor uses a classroom trial (based on Hemingway’s short story "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber") to prepare students for writing analytical essays about the story by teaching them to interrogate the text and by helping to cure the weaknesses of text-reticence and dubious deduction.

Discusses Margaret Atwood’s "provocative and funny" short story "Rape Fantasies," and describes how, when teaching this story the author encourages students to sympathize with Estelle (the narrator) before they judge her (instead of rushing to achieve closure and begin interpretation).

Recounts a veteran instructor’s experiences with teaching new subjects, American literature and poetry writing, after many years away from graduate school. Muses about the reality of teaching undergraduates. Considers teaching as a rhetorical act and finds that learning is more likely to occur when teachers approach teaching as a rhetorical act rather than an enactment of theory.

Reviews of 4 professional books: The Language of Interpretation: Patterns of Discourse in Discussions of Literature by James D. Marshall, Peter Smagorinsky, and Michael W. Smith reviewed by Mary C. Daane; Pedagogy in the Age of Politics: Writing and Reading (in) the Academy ed. by Donna J. Qualley and Patricia A. Sullivan reviewed by Alison Tracy; Philosophy, Rhetoric, Literary Criticism: Inter(views), ed. by Gary Olson reviewed by William Dolphin; Teachers Thinking, Teachers Knowing: Reflections on Literacy and Language Education ed. by Timothy Shanahan reviewed by Rodney D. Keller.