Critical Encounters in High School English: Teaching Literary Theory to Adolescents

by Deborah Appleman

Offers strategies to guide students' review of literature; discusses the pros and cons of feminist, Marxist, deconstruction, and postmodern theories; and includes examples from a variety of literature types.

Genres: Education, Teaching, Nonfiction, Professional Development, Grad School, Literary Criticism, Theory

200 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2000

About the author

Deborah Appleman is the Hollis L. Caswell professor of educational studies and director of the Summer Writing Program at Carleton College. Professor Appleman’s recent research has focused on teaching college-level language and literature courses at the Minnesota Correctional Facility-Stillwater for inmates who are interested in pursuing post-secondary education.

Deborah recently edited an anthology of her students’ work titled From the Inside Out: Letters to Young Men and Other Writings Poetry and Prose from Prison.

Professor Appleman taught high school English for nine years before receiving her doctorate from the University of Minnesota. She was also a visiting professor at Syracuse University and at the University of California, Berkeley. She is the author of Reading for Themselves: How to Transform Adolescents into Lifelong Readers Through Out-of-Class Book Clubs, Teaching Literature to Adolescents, Critical Encounters in High School English: Teaching Literary Theory to Adolescents, Braided Lives: An Anthology of Multicultural American Writing, Adolescent Literacy and the Teaching of Reading, and most recently, co-authored with Michael Graves, Reading Better, Reading Smarter: Designing Literature lessons for Adolescents.

Reviews

[Peaches · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'll give props to anyone willing to challenge high schoolers with literary theory. Appleman is encouraging and accessible in this text. She provides many examples of ways teachers could use activities in her classroom and tells them they should adapt them for their own purposes. My only qualm is that she seems to hold her students' hands quite a bit with how she structures and I wonder how it would go if there was more student choice.

[Stephanie Anne Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Critical Encounters is a great resource for high school English teachers. Deborah Appleman provides an excellent defense for why literary theory should be taught as well as concise pedagogical instruction for its implementation. One hiccup with the book is Appleman's choice to rename the Marxist and Feminist lenses as Social Class and Gender for controversial reasons. I also disagree that Deconstructionism is too difficult for the secondary classroom. For me, these points were inconsistent with her argument as a whole and were distracting. But overall, she states the importance of multiple perspectives in the classroom, and I agree. Students should be able to recognize their ideologies, how they are socially constructed and oppressive if ignorantly unnamed or appropriately challenged. In doing so, they will become more empathetic, culturally aware, and global citizens.

Literary theory takes pressure off teachers when they present controversial texts in class and gives a focus for meaningful discussion. It also accounts for student diversity and helps students understand themselves in context to texts and the world. I applaud this book as three stars because I think Appleman's multiple approaches, instruction, and classroom activities will prove very useful with the shift toward literary theory in schools.

[Courtney]

This book is an excellent resource for teachers who want to use Critical Lenses in the classroom. It is missing Critical Race Theory, so I had to seek another source for that. It’s is also heavy on non-fiction in the version I read, which is a response to Common Core. Lastly, it’s heavy on “classics” which I get, but I would love to see a new version with contemporary YA.

[margo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Engaging

I had to read this for class...but I really enjoyed it! I used some of the quotes in the classroom when students ask the question, "Why are we learning this? What's the point?". Great resource!

[Brandey Gillenwater · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found it very helpful. I like the included activities and the different perspectives the author has on lessons.

[Corey Wozniak · Rating 3 out of 5]

Skim-speed-read. Will use this to teach a literary criticism unit to 10th graders. The appendix is really what makes this book useful.

[Sarah Remsing · Rating 5 out of 5]

Appleman argues very well for the importance of literary theory, and does an excellent job explaining the different lenses that teachers and students use, as well how to introduce these lenses and the topic as a whole to students in a digestible and useful way. She provides lots of great examples of activities teachers have actually done with students and the results. Appleman doesn't shy away from showing the challenges that come with teaching literary theory, and shows the resistance students sometimes have to the lenses, and also ways to address this. I found the book to be very helpful, and I will definitely some of these methods in my own classroom when I have one.

[Dawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

A key resource for getting students to think more deeply about any given text, as well as other world perspectives.

[Ginnie Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid lesson plans recommendations and conversation about applying topics to different types of class situations.

[Dr. Garcia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not only did this explain the literary theories, but why it is relevant to today’s teenagers. It gave great ideas for activities to use in the classroom. I’m glad I found this book.

[Ricki · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this text, Appleman shows how teachers should use literary theory as critical lenses to help students understand the ideologies inherent in texts (p. 3) and use skills of reading and writing to come learn about the world (p. 2). When students read, there are multiple contexts at play, and she provides theoretical grounding and examples of various lenses for teachers: reader response, privilege and social class, gender, post colonialism, and deconstruction. Students bring their own contexts to their reading of a text, so this allows them to view the literature through a different lens. Reading, interpretation and criticism are all important skills, and too often, teachers “relegate only the reading to students” (p. 6), and through Appleman’s suggestions, we give students authority and power. She provides excellently scaffolded lessons and activities for teachers.

One lens that she highlights is that of privilege and social class. Applying this literary theory allows students to develop a more complex way of thinking where we “acknowledge our need to read across and between cultures” (9). With reader response, we are not transmitters of knowledge, and we must challenge the hegemony of the “cultural literacy” that Hirsch proposes, and no matter how uncomfortable it feels, question the notion of a single truth and show the multiplicities that exist in reading. “Meanings are constructed; we create meanings that are influenced by who we are and what we are culturally; historically; psychologically; and, in the case of the Baker version of Miss Muffet, vocationally” (p. 20). Reading allows students to gain perspective of other lenses and theories, but also of their own lives, where the text acts as an equal partner with the reader (p. 31).

As teachers consider culturally diverse texts, they will have to consider “the political content of the text, the author, and the historical and sociocultural context of the work” (p. 53). This will require them to consider their students relation to the text, personally, culturally, and politically. The instruction of multicultural texts may cause teachers to feel discomfort or insecurity if they are unfamiliar with the author, issues, or structure of a text (p. 53). But this is an important time where adolescents follow “a developmental imperative to construct an identity” (p. 110), and they must learn about other cultures to learn to “challenge hegemonic believes as well as the status quo” (p. 112) while increasing “intellectual flexibility” (p. 113).

[Daizi's Bookish Odyssey · Rating 5 out of 5]

To anyone in education, whether a teacher to a graduate student, or a researcher, this is a must-read book!

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found the book useful in that it provided a lot of specific information about HOW to use critical lenses in the classroom, including the texts that lend themselves to particular lenses and the types of questions one would ask. I do already uses critical lenses in how I interpret texts with students, but I now see some of the advantages of doing so more explicitly. Since I was already familiar with all the lenses the book treated in depth (reader-response, Marxist/social-class, feminist/gender, postcolonial, and deconstructionist), I was a little disappointed that the book didn't get into the ones I know less about (structuralist, archetypal, formalist, and psychological).
I was very interested in Appleman's contention that critical lenses are particularly appealing to students from minority backgrounds who are already likely to read the "literary canon" from a more subversive or political slant. I'm interested in seeing how this will pan out in the classroom.

[Molly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hands down one of the best teaching books I own. This book strikes a perfect balance between offering the theory behind, well, teaching theory and practical lessons that are easy to use straight out of the book or adapt. There are 34 classroom activities/handouts included in the appendix as well as extensive discussion about how real teachers have used these lessons in their classroom contexts. It is impeccably organized. If you're a secondary humanities teacher who wants to get your students thinking about critical theory (gender, social class, postcolonialism, deconstruction, etc.), I can't recommend this book highly enough. It's so good I own two copies -- I first read it right before the second edition came out and found the contents so valuable as to be worth paying again just for the new chapters.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gloriously useful. Complete with ready-to-use lessons and handouts to get kids thinking critically about literature — literally. Includes chapters devoted to Marxist, feminist, reader-response (aptly titled "The Promise and Peril of Reader Response), and decontructionist criticism, each with vignettes about how these approaches worked in actual classrooms.

Also awesome is Appleman's impassioned defense of the act of teaching literary theory to adolescents — especially the closing chapter on the danger of not teaching teenagers to look at their world through different lenses

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

A provokative discussion about how to teach literature. By offering literature throughout the various theoretical lenses, students can begin to see how they interpret messages found within texts - not just literature, but all the texts in their world -- and how others might interpret those messages. For English teachers who aren't reading teachers or literature majors (Comp/Rhet majors perhaps?), Appleman offers a way into teaching literature. The appendix includes the numerous activity plans and questions that she discusses through the text. A good read for secondary English teachers.

[Michele Tota · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a book from my college days, I picked up the other day to get some new ideas for teaching literature to my students. Appleman does an excellent job of analyziing each "lens" or perspective and giving samples of student work. I'm hoping to use some of her ideas while my students read "To Kill a Mockingbird".
For the poiltical and social buffs in all of us, there is an in-depth chapter dedicated to the Marxist theory/approach to literature.

[Mar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Helpful book for teachers especially the Appendix section that accompanies each chapter. Recognise that it is for those who are teaching literary theory, so the audience may be limited; however, if you fall in that category, I highly recommend the book.

The more recent editions have more current examples and the 2o15 edition has non-fiction ideas which is great! I changed my rating from a 3 to a 4 for that reason.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really a fantastic introduction to using literary criticism in secondary English classes. I particularly liked the structure of each chapter; not only was an explanation of each school of thought given, but practical, specific examples of lessons were provided as well. I originally borrowed this through inter-library loan but liked it so much that I bought my own copy.

[BookChampions · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has already impacted my teaching this year. I like her high expectations for students and how solidly grounded this book is in theory and research. While I may not be finding my Literary Theory course very exciting, I am really moved by some of the theorists. Appleman makes it all seem accessible and relevant.

[Kerri · Rating 5 out of 5]

This not only gave you a great breakdown of different literary theories, but also examples of HOW to apply them in the classroom. Also, it is written in a tangible way; it doesn't have the high-brow professor-type jargon that no one understands. It is easy to read and understand, unlike so many education texts.

[Tori · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I don't know that everything in this book was as clear as it should've been, it was a really incredible resource that covered an assortment of the lenses used to read literature through. I really enjoyed the class activities and handouts provided in the appendix and will be sure to use a few of those in my classroom.

[Eric Harrington · Rating 5 out of 5]

I did a re-reading of this text, as I am about to start my career teaching, and I have to say, this book is still the single-most influential pedagogical text that I've read. Appleman's arguments are lucid, meaningful, and she provides ample resources and "case studies" to show how the ideas can be implemented and adapted to a variety of learning situations and students.

[Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reading more education literature this book is an outlier. It gives both a strong understanding of the theoretical background with actual practical ideas that can be altered for teaching. Without this book and Doing Literary Criticism critical theory might not have made a meaningful place in secondary classrooms.

[Diana · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am definitely using this book as a guide for making lesson plans during my first year of teaching. Many insightful and step-by-step instructions on how to implement the lesson ideas into your classroom, logistically.

[Cyndi Lu · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a great way to introduction for teaching literary criticism to high school students. It's main crux is that teaching literary criticism is another way of teaching critical thinking; therefore, it is important for all students. Very interesting strategies given as well.

[Alyssa · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was required reading for a college class. While the pedagogical breakdowns at the end are helpful, this is wordy and honestly, just boring to read. There are more comprehensive ways to learn about critical lenses.

[Travis Jensen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A decent literary theory overview

This book does a decent job of exploring various literary theories and how the mindful teacher can incorporate them in the classroom. The appendix is particularly useful

[Mitchell Clifford · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very useful text that taught me a lot about applying literary theory in the classroom. Also, the text includes lots of helpful resources such as literary lens cards which will help as a reference for review for students during any activity.

[Anne-Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Approaches to teaching middle and high school reading. Encompasses reading strategies and literary criticism.