This project, “Telescopes and Spyglasses: Using Literary Theories in High School Classrooms,” is a pedagogy book that provides information about literary theories in a way that can be applied directly to a classroom. Each chapter includes background information on the theory, instructions on how to read following the theory’s guidelines, how to teach and introduce the theory to students, and how to begin writing an analysis of a work using the theory as a guiding framework.
This project is important because students are being demanded more and more to be able to analyze texts for deeper understanding of the work, both by the Common Core and by the PARCC exams. Critical literary theory provides a framework as well as the tools for students to defend their interpretations of works as well as to begin interpreting and analyzing them; it also allows students to bring their own understanding to the texts they read and their interpretations, giving them a more active role in their own analyses.
Integrated Language Arts Education
Dr. Tim Murnen
First Advisor Department
Dr. Kim Coates
Second Advisor Department
Rains, Danielle M., "Telescopes and Spyglasses: Using Literary Theories in High School Classrooms" (2015). Honors Projects. 186.