Critical Encounters in Secondary English: Teaching Literary Theory to Adolescents

Grounded in solid theory with new field-tested classroom activities, the fourth edition of Critical Encounters in Secondary English continues to help teachers integrate the lenses of contemporary literary theory into practices that have always defined good pedagogy.

The most significant change for this edition is the addition of a full chapter on critical race theory (CRT) as an analytical lens. CRT offers teachers fresh opportunities for interdisciplinary planning and teaching, as it lends itself to lessons that encompass a variety of disciplines such as history, sociology, psychology, and science. As with the previous edition, each chapter concludes with a list of suggested nonfiction pieces that work well for the particular lens under discussion.

This popular text provides a comprehensive approach to incorporating nonfiction and informational texts into the literature classroom with new and revised classroom activities appropriate for today’s students.

Book Features:

• Helps both pre- and inservice ELA teachers introduce contemporary literary theory into their classrooms.
• Offers lucid and accessible explications of contemporary literary theory.
• Provides dozens of innovative and field-tested classroom activities.
• Tackles the thorny issue of Critical Race Theory in helpful and practical ways.

Deborah Appleman is the Hollis L. Caswell Professor of educational studies at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota.