Celebrate Louise Rosenblatt
Reading theory pioneer Louise Rosenblatt turned 100 on August 23! Frank Madden’s “How Do We Connect Students With Literature?” provides background and concrete suggestions for applying Rosenblatt’s transactional theory in your classroom practices.

Bring transactional theory to your writing classroom with “A New Kind of Research Paper: Bridging the Gap Between Reader Response and Formal Critical Analysis,” from Teaching in the Two-Year College.

To read more, take a look at Literature and Lives: A Response-Based, Cultural Studies Approach to Teaching English.

Extend Your Classes to the Web
Intrigued by the NY Times article on blogging in the classroom? The May 2003 English Journal column “Using Weblogs in the Classroom” outlines ways to make the most of blogging in the English Language Arts classroom.

John Paul Walter’s ReadWriteThink lesson plan Exploring Literature through Letter Writing Groups provides specific resources to support student interaction with blogs and other technologies—including paper!

For even more ideas from kindergarten to college, visit the latest Teacher Resource Collection, which explores Literacy in the Ways of the Web.

Preparing Students for Test Conditions
Doug Hesse reminds us that to succeed writers must adjust their strategies to the dramatic difference between testing conditions and the typical conditions in the classroom. Based on a study of testing in 5 states, George Hillocks’s “Fighting Back: Assessing the Assessments,” from the March 2003 English Journal, explains the challenges of written essay testing.

Teaching in the Two-Year College subscribers can find specific strategies to use in the classroom in “The Silent Scream: Students Negotiating Timed Writing Assessments,” which explains why timed assessment is problematic and provide specific ways to prepare students.

For additional ideas, Language Arts subscribers can check out the January 2002 themed issue, “Teaching ___the Test a)to b)about c)against d) all the above.”