This bestseller was the first text to specifically address the challenges of teaching critical theory in high school literature classrooms. Since its original publication, the author has worked with hundreds of teachers and students to update and refine the lessons she presents. This completely revised Second Edition now features: A new introductory chapter that focuses on ideology and literary theory. A new chapter on using literary theory with diverse learners. An expanded discussion of gender, including new activities. A reframing of Marxist literary theory. A new postcolonial lens that will help students read such classics as Things Fall Apart. An amplified focus on cultural texts, with new material on helping students think critically about music videos, websites, advertisements, films, and television shows, and two new activities for analyzing a contemporary movie.

Many new additions to the appendix of activities, a selection of which are available for download at www.tcpress.com. Praise for the First Edition! "All the undergraduate students cited (Appleman's book) as their favorite piece of work for the semester, and the one that was most successful during student teaching." -- English Journal "This book provides powerful ways to get young people thinking about literature and about how it relates to their lives." -- Rethinking Schools "Compelling." -- Teacher Magazine "Interesting and provocative" -- Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy "Many teachers have difficulty engaging students in critical analyses of literature because teachers themselves do no know how to use strategies to ease their students into this higher order thinking process. Appleman's text helps teachers understand how and why, 'now perhaps more than ever before, students need critical tools to read the increasingly bewildering and text-filled world that surrounds them, ' and provides detailed strategies to guide students' review of literature.

" -- Voice of Youth Advocate.