Cline, Ruth K. J. Ed.The Best of Notes Plus. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English, 1989.

Summary of major points of interest for you

Evidently a collection of English Journal articles, this book provides especially useful "classic", literature, and writing assignments. With no preface or introduction, the anthology just throws the reader into Sample Activity #1, 2, 3,4. . . . Once format was understood, I found the information to be wonderful.

Nuts and bolts details dominate: specific discussion questions, estimated lengths of activities, and writing assignments(essay and creative). While the formats are not consistent, they are easily organized so that even a knothead could follow the directions.

Implications for your teaching and/or writing

This type of book is always great to have on hand as a manual for times when the creative juices of the teacher reach desert level. When the brains run dry, step-by-step instructions help move the days along. I was particularly taken with the Poetry Filmstrip idea on pages 60-63. In this day of projects, the filmstrip (really slide show) concept employs research, production and presentation in concrete lessons. I had thought last year of the students creating videos a la the William Stafford videos produced by Mike Markee. This idea moves beyond just the imaginative use of visual image and sound with poetry to the inclusion of critical and biographical information also. I can envision groups of two to three working on these projects in ninth or tenth grade classes.

In the Macbeth section, a suggestion is made for the students to keep a log of the major motifs present in the play as they read. Such a simple idea&emdash;I usually have them search for the motifs after they have read the play and itemize them after the fact. Maybe it would work better to track that as we go. It would help them see the building of the themes as the story builds.

How this book might interest others

Some might comment about the emphasis in this text on "dead white guys." One exercise includes Senegalese proverbs&emdash;an indication of awareness of the world beyond, but most to the readings are not multiculturally politically correct. That's fine and the point at this time (1989) may not have been to look at the wide world, but it is an issue which must be attended to.

Another point of interest is the commentary about censorship and being prepared with well-worded rationales for literature to be used in the classroom. I know, early in my career, this was important to me but I have taught books such as Brideshead Revisited, Huckleberry Finn, and The Chocolate War and I have enough general sense of the honor of those books that I don't worry about it as much as I used to. Still last year in Salem another review of Huck Finn was called for because of some students counting some 239 uses of the word "nigger." My early vigilance has abated some but I do look for the buzzwords of defense as novel discussions begin.