Literary Learning: Teaching the English Major

Literary Learning explores the nature of literary knowledge and offers guidance for effective teaching of literature at the college level. What do English majors need to learn? How can we help them develop the skills and knowledge they need? By identifying the habits of mind that literary scholars use in their own research and writing, Sherry Lee Linkon articulates the strategic knowledge that lies at the heart of the discipline, offering important insights and models for beginning and experienced teachers.

"Provides a model for thoughtful, reflexive, and well-designed teaching in any field, at any level, and at any institution." --Mariolina Salvatori, University of Pittsburgh Indiana University Press Indiana University Press Indiana University Press

"Literary Learning offers valuable resources for the literature instructor. It is easily manageable as a theoretical tool when developing a literature class, and it has a number of classroom-ready resources. As an introduction to some of the most elemental ideas behind the teaching of literature, Literary Learning is commendable for referring to actual classroom practices as illustrations of these ideas. Certainly this book will benefit graduate students and faculty interested in examining their own teaching practices.... It is an engaging and accessible read that presents SoTL as an approachable and useful vein of inquiry that can change departmental dynamics, professional goals, and, ultimately, our literature students." --Teacher-Scholar

"Linkon's book is an easy read and full of helpful and practical advice. It is a valuable resource for experienced as well as inexperienced teachers of literature and the English major in the tertiary sector. It has the potential to help readers think 'I could try that,' and to scaffold them through their own investigations into their teaching." --Teachers College Record

Sherry Lee Linkon is Professor of English and American Studies and Co-director of the Center for Working-Class Studies at Youngstown State University. Her books include Teaching Working Class; Steeltown USA: Work and Memory in Youngstown (with John Russo); and New Working-Class Studies (edited with John Russo).

Preface

One: The Literary Mind

Two: Making Literary Thinking Visible

Three: Course Design for Literary Learning

Four: Analyzing Students' Learning

Bibliography

Index