ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how teachers can call on their understanding of both literature and young adults in order to help their students become skilled and willing readers of literature. The chapter begins with a discussion of how literary appreciation typically develops. That is followed by three criteria that teachers can use for choosing and recommending literature for young adults: artistic significance, social significance, and developmental significance. Next, three broad literary theories are introduced: New Criticism, Reader Response, and Critical Literacy. Each theory is applied to specific ways of guiding students’ interactions with literature through the use of various classroom “literacy routines.” Finally, issues of censorship are addressed, and teachers are provided with some specific techniques for acquainting their students with good literature.
