Recommended Texts on Reading Literary Texts
Response and Analysis
Bob Probst leads you to methods that build lifelong lovers of reading by opening the literature classroom to the power of student-driven interpretation and analysis. The strategies will help you plan and build a curriculum that initiates interpretative and critical conversations with and among students at the same time that they are exposed to a variety of genres. Probst, Robert (2004). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
The Literature Workshop: Teaching Texts and Their Readers
 Sheridan Blau introduces the literature workshop as the most effective approach to solving the instructional problems that perplex teachers of literature. Through re-creations of actual workshops that he conducts for students and teachers, Blau invites his readers to help students read more difficult texts than they think they can read, consider how to deal with competing and contradictory interpretations, and to develop valuable and engaging writing assignments. Blau, Sheridan (2003). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
When Kids Can’t Read, What Teachers Can Do
 Kylene Beers shares what she has learned in over twenty years of helping middle and high schoolers, including how to help struggling readers with issues of comprehension, vocabulary, fluency, word recognition, and motivation. The book, includes student transcripts, detailed strategies, reproducible material, and extensive booklists, this guide to teaching reading both instructs and inspires. Beers, Kylene (2003). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Action Strategies for Deepening Comprehension
Jeff Wilhelm offers strategies to energize students before, during, and after reading, deepening reading strategies such as inferring, prior knowledge, visualizing, making connections, and more. Wilhelm, Jeffrey (2002). New York: Scholastic.
Inquiry and the Literary Text: Constructing Discussions in the English Classroom
 This collection compiled by Holden and Schmit (Eds.) can help you make the most of student discussion and inquiry in classrooms from middle school to high school to college. The contributors offer theory-grounded, classroom-tested approaches for literature study in which students engage in democratic dialogue and practice authentic, collaborative inquiry. Holden, James and John S. Schmit (2002). Urbana, IL: NCTE.
Critical Encounters in High School English: Teaching Literary Theory to Adolescents
Deborah Appleman challenges current paradigms of literature instruction by making a case for teaching critical theory in high school literature classrooms. She argues for the importance of multiple critical perspectives and urges teachers to expand their theoretical repertoires. Teachers will find lessons and strategies for teaching a variety of contemporary literary theories including reader response, feminism, Marxism, and deconstruction. Appleman, Deborah (2000). New York: Teachers College Press.
With Rigor For All: Teaching the Classics to Contemporary Students
 Carol Jago provides a wealth of teaching ideas that engage students and make the classics and kids come alive, including suggestions for overcoming the problems that teachers face when teaching the classics: challenging vocabulary, complex syntax, alien times and settings, and student disaffection. She also addresses issues such as assessment and censorship and offers many lists of suggested titles and a rich sampling of student writings in response to the classics. Jago, Carol (2000). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Envisioning Literature: Literary Understanding and Literature Instruction
Studying elementary, middle, and high schools urban and suburban communities, Judith Langer focuses her theory of literature instruction on the creation of a literate classroom community and the development of a reader-based pedagogy for all students. Langer, Judith A. (1995). New York: Teachers College Press.
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