A River Runs Through It

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A River Runs Through It: Rio de Vida
Ragina C. Moyers

Academic Setting

This curriculum is specifically designed for sixth grade students in the gifted program at Benjamin Harrison Middle School. The student population comes from both urban and rural environments. The ethnic makeup of the student body is predominantly Hispanic (approximately 95%), and there is a high incidence of single or no parent families (grandparents or guardians as parents). Harrison has had one of the lowest literacy rates in the district.

Students in the gifted program at Harrison receive their enrichment through their language arts and literature classes. Typically, these students have reading scores that indicate that they are two to three grade levels ahead in their reading ability. They have two periods (back to back), or blocks, for gifted classes.

These students living in the South Valley are familiar with some of the benefits of having a major river running through their part of the world. However, I don’t know if there is a deep appreciation for the same or a sense of responsibility towards it. Hopefully, this curriculum will address those needs while meeting the following New Mexico content standards (CS) and benchmarks (dot):

C.S. 2: Students will understand and use Language Arts as a learning tool

Students will use language to understand various sources of information, local traditions, and culture as resources for learning
Apply critical thinking skills in listening, speaking, reading, and writing

C.S. 3: Students will listen and read for a variety of purposes.

           Increase and use vocabulary through listening, reading, observing, and interacting with others

C.S. 4: Students will use a variety of listening and reading strategies appropriately.

Use active listening skills to acquire information
Apply knowledge of culture and context to aid comprehension
Use the social skills of audience behavior in a variety of settings

C.S. 5: Express facts, ideas, and opinions in a variety of settings in oral and written forms

C.S. 8: Explain and appreciate elements of literature from diverse cultures

C.S. 9: Use language and literature to gain insight into their own and others’ lives, and to build understanding of the moral and aesthetic dimensions of human experience
(NM Standards and Benchmarks)

Narrative

Water is an essential main character within the great circle of life. Aside from meeting the physical needs required by every living creature, water can be a lifesaver in an esthetic sense.

What person hasn’t gasped in awe at the Niagara Falls and been carried away from a world of care into a world of wonderment by the majesty and power of it all? There are a myriad of rippling pictures that can transport us from a world of cares: the sun setting on the Hawaiian Pacific, the glistening mountain lakes jumping with trout, and rills spilling down rocky mountain hillsides.

As a desert rat, to me, it is mystifying how peaceful and soothing it is to listen to the steady rhythm of the homecoming oceanic surf, or being rather hydrophobic, desiring to waft out on the outgoing waves, leaving all behind.

These are just a few reasons why water, in one form or another, has been the "main" character of countless works of literature with varying applications of character: friend/ foe, life sustaining/ life taking, savior/ challenger, etc. Also, these are reasons why so many share a common homage to this part of nature.

Rationale

After completing this curriculum, students should arrive at judgments, which culminate in a personal sense of stewardship, respect, and love for our most valuable natural resource. Water is the umbilical cord to all the children of the world, plants and animals. However, only humans enjoy the double blessings of the physical and esthetic from our springs, creeks, rivers, waterfalls, lakes, seas, and rains. We, nature and humans, have a mutual dependency on each other. As people, we strive for the purity and preservation of our waterways and are preserved in turn.

In order to cultivate a deeper appreciation and sense of responsibility towards this major portion of the natural world, gifted students will read and examine the following: Mark Twain’s novel Huckleberry Finn and passages from three books of the Bible, namely Genesis, Psalms 23 and Revelation. Students need to discern why water is an eminent character in nature and their relationship(s) to it.

Exploring the Bible

Using the Bible as a literature text has been endorsed by 81 percent of high school English teachers and 55 percent of college English instructors (for secondary English majors). As far as western culture is concerned, the Bible has been the single most influential piece of literature. It is valued for the archetypes and allusions that permeate Western literature (Wachlin 31). According to Northrop Frye, professor and author of literary theory and criticism:

Here is a book that has had a continuously fertilizing influence on English literature from Anglo-Saxon writers to poets younger than I….the student of English literature who does not know the Bible does not understand a good deal of what is going on in what he reads: the most conscientious student will be continually misconstruing the implications, even the meaning….The Bible is clearly a major element in our own imaginative tradition, whatever we may think we believe about it (Frye xii-xix).

Another endorsement comes from E. D. Hirsch, author of Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, "No one in the English-speaking world can be considered literate without a basic knowledge of the Bible" (Hirsch, Kett, and Trefill 1). In Albuquerque, a full-year Bible literature course has been offered at Manzano High School, and two sections of the course were offered at Albuquerque High School. The Bible lends itself to life discussions and cross-cultural studies, which this unit will focus on within the realm of literature and the environment and more specifically on the motif of water.

Students will find that water is a significant motif in the Bible. Water, generally speaking, is referenced in the Bible at least fifty-five times, and more specifically as dew, springs, rivers, lakes, and seas, at least fifty-three times. There are several Bible waterway themes that parallel the themes associated with the Mississippi River in Huckleberry Finn. Probably one of the strongest parallels is that of the flight of the Hebrews from Egypt to freedom on the other side of the Red Sea. Huck Finn was also "enslaved" in a society that seemingly oppressed him and from which he continually retreated to the freedom waters of the Mississippi.

Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain

Don’t be shy about utilizing what has been touted, on one hand, as "The Great American Novel" and on the other hand has been, by some, banned and criticized for its contribution to the delinquency of children. The literary quality far outweighs any such criticisms. It is in the company of other excellent works that have been banned or censored, such as Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, and the Bible.

There are a myriad of lessons in living that can be taught from the many themes present in Huckleberry Finn, such as the conflict between civilization and "natural life"; honor (pert’ near a lost notion); hypocrisy, especially religious; superstition (another form of empty religion); slavery; racial prejudice; and the theme of disparity between the rich and the poor.

A lot of what is gained from using Huckleberry Finn, as with any text, comes from the manner in which the teacher leads students to interact with it. As the facts about slavery, racial prejudice, and hypocrisy are encountered through reading, the teacher can, objectively, facilitate critical thinking of these controversial issues. From personal experience, I’ve witnessed the development of a keen revulsion to racial prejudice within the students. While reading Huckleberry Finn, a great many students wouldn’t use the racial slur, "nigger," as it occurred in the passage; rather, they would make up a substitution.

It seems that the most controversial books are the ones that cause students to really think. It is the teacher’s role to present various ways of considering issues, so that students can learn how to form their own opinions. Mid-schoolers are at a perfect age to understand the themes and issues presented in Huckleberry Finn. This novel takes approximately twelve hours to read, and it is most appropriate for higher-level readers at mid-schools or to be read by the teacher (guest reader) to the class. Practice reading of the various dialects and defining some of the colloquial language would be beneficial before reading such passages.

Huckleberry Finn’s author was Mark Twain or as we all probably know, Samuel Langhorne Clemens, his real name. He adopted his pen name, Mark Twain (two fathoms deep), comes from a riverboat term that measured the depth of the river. Mark Twain had a great love for the Mighty Mississip, around which he had grown up. He had spent some time on the river as a riverboat captain. Of the many themes found in Huckleberry Finn, the theme of the conflict between civilization and "natural life" is prevalent.

Huck represents natural life through his freedom of spirit, his uncivilized ways, and his desire to escape from civilization. He was brought up without any rules and has a strong resistance to anything that might "sivilize" him (ClassicNote 1).

The one place that Huck retreats to time and again is the Mississippi River. Here he is free and can’t be forced to conform to the constraints of society. This idea of an uncivilized way of life being the better life is based on Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s idea of man being the "noble savage" when in the "state of nature," uncontaminated by society. Twain quite unmistakably points to the ills of civilization and society.

The Mississippi River may be perceived as a backdrop for Huckleberry Finn, but throughout the story, it is cast as a predominant figure of freedom. By escaping and rafting down the Mississippi River, Huckleberry Finn is engaged in a fight for independence from a world, society, that is more foreign to him than the wilds of the river. As Jim accompanies him, his struggle for freedom is for both of them.

The next twenty chapters detail adventures on the river or beside the river, in a pattern of withdrawal and return, as Huck and Jim float with their raft toward what they hope will be freedom for both (Unger 203).

Huckleberry Finn speaks out against stupid conformity and for the freedom and independence of the individual (Meltzer 89).

The Mississippi was the mother that Huck never knew, nurturing him as he travels down the "rio de vida," stopping in at the various ports of call — ports of call that include romance, adventure, and danger. Just like any fledgling out in the world in need of comfort and peace, Huck returns to his mother, Mother Nature.

The Mississippi River represents freedom in a variety of ways and shares this mutual theme with waterways of the Bible. For example: Huck fleeing from the constraints of society/ Hebrews shedding Egyptian culture; Huck’s flight and salvation from his Pap/Hebrews fleeing Pharaoh; Jim’s escape from slavery/ Hebrews escaping slavery.

Concerning slavery, a major transformation in Huck’s thinking occurs while he is on the Mississippi, free to be himself. He has accepted the idea of slavery as a natural part of life, as Peter Salwen points out, "Because of his upbringing, the boy starts out believing that slavery is part of the natural order"(Salwen1). However, it is on the river that Huck has to come to terms with what he knows is right and what society dictates as being right:

Jim said it made him all over trembly and feverish to be so close to freedom. Well, I can tell you it made me all over trembly and feverish, too, to hear him, because I begun to get it through my head that he was most free—and who was to blame for it? Why, me. I couldn’t get that out of my conscience, now nor no way….I tried to make out to myself that I warn’t to blame, because I didn’t run Jim off from his rightful owner; but it warn’t no use, conscience up and says, every time, "But you knowed he was running for his freedom, an you could a paddled ashore and told somebody"…That was where it pinched. Conscience says to me, …I got to feeling so mean and so miserable I most wished I was dead. (Twain 117-118).

Huck’s spontaneous self wins out over his acquired conscience, and he doesn’t turn Jim in. He reasons it out this way:

Then I thought a minute, and says to myself, hold on; s’pose you’d a done right and give Jim up, would you felt better than what you do now? No, says I, I’d feel bad—I’d feel just the same way I do now. Well, then, says I, what’s the use you learning to do right when it’s troublesome to do right and ain’t no trouble to do wrong, and the wages is just the same? (Twain 122)

Another example of the freedom that the rivers of the Bible and the Mississippi represent would be that of Moses, on the Nile, compared to Huck’s escape from his Pap on the Mississippi. The rivers were both a means of escaping death; both children were on makeshift vessels; and the rivers carried them to safety.

Implementation

The overall strategies used to examine the "sense of place" both in the Bible and Huckleberry Finn are reading, discussing, and writing. The purposes to be accomplished are: to create active listeners that acquire information; to apply knowledge of culture and context to aid comprehension; to increase and use vocabulary; to apply critical thinking skills; to explain and appreciate elements of literature from diverse cultures.

Each lesson concerning the Bible can be completed within a two-hour period. The language/literature classes at BHMS are two-hour blocks, back-to-back.

Huckleberry Finn takes approximately 12 hours to read straight through. It has 43 chapters and the Southern dialects can be very difficult to understand at first. As a general rule of thumb, reading a chapter a day, including discussions, should take an hour. Time frames for the other activities are purely dependent on the characteristics of each class.

Exploring the Bible

From each biblical selection, students will note the significance of water as it is portrayed, and develop a response to it. Students will express their ideas through summaries and reviews (both orally and written); students will detect and explain the use of water as a metaphor, a simile, an analogy, a symbol, and the personification of the same. Using what they’ve learned from the writing techniques, students will have the liberty to create their own poems, short stories, and presentations. They just might enjoy the Old English vocabulary, too.

Lesson Plans and Activities

Lesson Plan #1: Bible Background

Content Standard #4: Students will use a variety of listening and reading strategies appropriately.

Benchmark: Students will use active listening skills to acquire information.

Benchmark: Students will apply knowledge of culture and context to aid comprehension.

Benchmark: Students will use the social skills of audience behavior in a variety of settings.

Introduction: The teacher should explain that there are literal and figurative biblical citations for water that are relevant to our contemporary relationships with water. The students will need copies of Genesis, Chapter 1 (KJV and NIV translations). Tell the students that in the first book of the Bible, Genesis (or the book of origins) relates the creation of the world, beginning with the theme of "water as a womb" or mother nature. Have the students follow along as the following passages, which are taken from The Open Bible, King James Version, are read aloud:

And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters (Gen. 1:2).

And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven (v.20); and God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good (Gen. 1:20, 21).

Instruction:

Students should be asked to note how, according to the Bible, water as a medium has been from the beginning (and continues to be), literally, a life giving and sustaining force. Also, let them know that it is a recurring theme throughout the Bible. The students should be asked to document the waterways in their region with which they are familiar and to explain of what importance they are to us.

Evaluation: Students will briefly give a statement about their personal feelings towards our waterways.

Materials: Copies of Genesis, Chapter 1 in the King James and New International Versions

Lesson Plan #2: The Bible’s Figurative Language

Content Standard #3: Students will listen and read for a variety of purposes.

Benchmark: Students will increase and use vocabulary through listening, reading, observing, and interacting with others

Introduction: The teacher can discuss figurative language as the use of metaphors and similes, giving examples. The students should be advised that the Bible is rich in figurative language, and that they will look at verses that use water metaphorically.

Instruction: Students will read and discuss Revelations 22:17 and John 4:10-14, from both the KJV and NIV. Students should understand that this is figurative language used to depict salvation/ eternal life. They need to draw inferences as to why water, as the metaphor, was used.

Evaluation: Students will receive points for participation, and they will employ the use of figurative language in short poems.

Materials: Copies of Revelation 22:17 and John 4:10-14 in the KJV and NIV; computers, printers, decorative paper.

Lesson Plan #3: The Bible Setting

Content Standard #9: Students will use language and literature to gain insight into their own and others’ lives, and to build understanding of the moral and aesthetic dimensions of human experience

Introduction: The teacher will present information that will show how the "lands of the Bible," the Middle East, were and are arid, desert lands not so unlike our own and how water figured predominantly within their cultures.

Instruction: Students will be asked to compare/contrast the two cultures’ relationships concerning water. They will conduct research utilizing the internet and library to produce a profile of the middle east and its inhabitants. Also, using an encyclopedic index, students will locate biblical passages that pertain to their research.

Evaluation: Students will produce a short "then and now" presentation of the Bible lands, including visuals (maps, photos, videos, etc).

Resources: computer, printer, Internet, library

Lesson Plan #4: In the Beginning: Genesis 1

Content Standard #2 : Students will understand and use language arts as a learning tool.

Benchmark: Students will use language to understand various sources of information, local traditions, and culture as resources for learning.

Benchmark: Students will apply critical thinking skills in listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

Introduction: To a background of softly playing Middle Eastern music, the teacher will give a background of where the Bible was written, by whom, why, and how it came to be translated into the King James Version (Options: lecture, videos, guest speaker). Also, a synopsis of Genesis will be given.

Instruction: Copies of Genesis, chapter one, in the King James and the NIV (New International Version) translations are to be handed out to each student. Orally, students will read chapter one and document the various verses where water is mentioned and discuss the use of writing techniques such as metaphor, symbol, and personification, and consider the key ideas related there. Some key ideas that emerge from chapter one are

The recurring concern of the dividing of the physical elements: land, waters, light, darkness

Humans are distinctly different from the rest of creation

The importance of the fertility of the water and land

The metaphorical use of the term "deep" as the threat of disorder and chaos in the world (optional: research citations of "deep" and its application)

God repeatedly affirms that His creation is good

Evaluation: Students will receive points for participation, note recordings, vocabulary list, and independent extensions of the lesson (extra credit).

Materials: Middle Eastern tape/CD; copies of Genesis, chapter 1, NIV and King James translations

Lesson Plan #5: Psalm 23

Content Standard #8: Students will appreciate and respect their own language, culture, and literature, and will learn about the languages, cultures, and literature of others.

Benchmark: To explain and appreciate elements of literature from diverse cultures

Introduction: The word "psalm" will be defined and added to the vocabulary list, and a brief background of the Book of Psalms and Hebrew poetry will be given (teacher or guest speaker).

Instruction: The teacher/guest speaker will read/recite the 23^rd Psalm for the class (audience). The focus will be on the second verse. Based on the context of the psalm, students will be asked to demonstrate the analogy between people and sheep and what our relationship is to the "green pastures" and "still waters." Also, they will detect what forms of imagery are associated with verse two.

Evaluation: Students will create their own psalms set within the context of their local environment. Students can earn extra credit for visuals.

Materials: Copies of the 23^rd Psalm, computer, printer, decorative paper, pictures of the South Valley (or field trip to the Bosque).

Huckleberry Finn

After discussing the various themes from Huckleberry Finn, students will be asked to compare their perspective of our mighty Rio Grande to that of Huck Finn’s Mississippi River. Can they impute some of the same themes? Why or why not? Also, what themes can they derive from our rivers and lakes, etc. How does their perspective of familiar waterways compare with Huck Finn’s?

Lesson Plan #6:

Content Standard #5: Students will speak clearly and write effectively for a variety of audiences and purposes.

Benchmark: Students will express facts, ideas, and opinions in a variety of settings in oral and written forms.

Introduction: As a class, students will view the video, Mark Twain Tonight (Hal Holbrook).

Instruction: After viewing of the video, the class will discuss various facts and ideas concerning Mark Twain. They will present a biographical skit based on the video Mark Twain Tonight. The skit will be a form of review with one student portraying Mark Twain and the other students acting as interviewers (reporters). All of the questions will be a composite of the facts and ideas gleaned from the prior discussion.

Evaluation: Participation in the skit and hard copies of their discussion notes and questions.

Materials: Video, Mark Twain Tonight

Lesson Plan #7
Content Standard # 2

Benchmark: Apply critical thinking skills in listening, speaking and writing

Instruction: After reading each chapter students will summarize the chapter (orally or written), discuss a major theme, and detect what various writing techniques were employed.

Evaluation: Questions from each chapter will be given as a quiz in preparation for section and a comprehensive test, over the entire novel. The quiz will either be in a written or game format (Jeopardy).

Materials: Copies of Huckleberry Finn, chapter questions, teacher notes on themes and writing techniques, Jeopardy questions.

Lesson Plan #8
Content Standard # 2

Benchmark: Students will use language to understand various sources of information, local traditions, and culture as resources for learning

Instruction: A guest speaker, preferably a local writer or authority on environmental writing, as it applies to New Mexico, will give a presentation along with a question and answer session to the class. Hopefully, the guest can be retained to conduct a writing workshop for the students, implementing their ideas of "a sense of place," focusing on the waterways that they're most familiar with.

Evaluation: Students will publish their own anthology of environmental literature.

Materials/Resources: Guest speaker, samples of environmental literature pertaining to New Mexico/Southwest, computer publishing program

Lesson Plan #9
Content Standard #4

Benchmark: Students will apply knowledge and context to aid comprehension

Instruction: After reviewing the idea of the major part that the Mississippi River played in Huckleberry Finn, students will read the article, Water, from Albuquerque’s Environmental Story: Toward a Sustainable Community. As a class, we will discuss the main ideas of the article and our individual ideas or insights that pertain to the same. The big question is how, after studying the Bible passages concerning water and Huckleberry Finn, do we or should we feel about our stewardship to, respect for, and appreciation for our waterways.

Evaluation: After an understanding of speech-giving techniques has been established, students will prepare persuasive speeches (complete with hard copy and notecards) based on our previous discussions about stewardship, respect, and appreciation of our waterways.

Materials: Class copies of the article Water, video camera, video tape

Lesson Plan #10
Content Standard # 9 and Benchmark

Instruction: This lesson should be used last in the curriculum as a culminating activity for bringing all the previous lessons together. As a designated reader recites the Langston Hughes poem The Negro Speaks of Rivers, students will follow along silently. As a class, we will examine the poem for relevance to what we’ve studied in the Bible and Huckleberry Finn and to our previous discussions. Students need to articulate what they’ve derived from the lessons in view of stewardship, respect, and love for our waterways, their "sense of place."

Evaluation: Students will develop individual "ethnic/cultural" poems in the style of Langston Hughes, which expresses their sense of place. Extra credit will be given for visuals: illustrations, pictures, photos, sculpture, etc.

Materials/Resource: Art teacher, art room, art supplies based on individual needs, computer, printers, decorative paper, magazines (for cut-outs), copies of The Negro Speaks of Rivers.

Documentation

Bibliography — Works Cited

Bratcher, Dennis. "Creation 1, God and Boundaries." Genesis Bible Study. 1/4/20. The Christian Resource Institute. 6/26/00.
        <http://www.cresourcei.org./bibsgen3.Html>.

ClassicNote on The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. ClassicNote-Themes. 1999-2000. GradeSaver. 6/27/200.
        <http://www.gradesaver.com/ClassicNotes/Titles/HuckFinn/themes.html>.

Frye, Northrop. The Great Code: The Bible and Literature. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1982.

Hirsch, Eric Donald, Jr., Joseph F. Kett, and James Trefil.. Dictionary of Cultural Literacy. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1993.

Hughes, Langston. "The Negro Speaks of Rivers." 1921. The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes. Arnold Rampersad, ed. NY: Alfred A. Knopf,           1994.

Meltzer, Milton. Mark Twain: A Writer’s Life. New York: Franklin Watts, 1985.

New Mexico. Department of Education-CESDP. New Mexico Standards-Language Arts-Standards and Benchmarks. Santa Fe: Dept. of                Education-CESDP, 2000 <http://www.cesdp.nmhu.edu/standards/content/lang/stan_ben/index.htm>.

The Open Bible Edition, KJV. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc., 1975.

Smith, J.N. "Censorship and Classics." ClassicNotes: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. 6/2000. GradeSaver. 6/27/00.
            <http://www.gradesaver.com/…otes/Titles/HuckFinn/essays/essay2.html>.

Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. NY: Penguin Books, 1959.

Unger, Leonard. American Writers IV. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1974.

Wachlin, Marie G. "The Bible: Why We Need to Teach It; Some Do." English Journal. March 1998: 31-36.

Witherspoon, Jean, and Doug Earp. "Water." Albuquerque’s Environmental Story: Toward a Sustainable Community. Kathleen Norris Park.              Albuquerque: The Albuquerque Conservation Association, 1996. 439-441.

Students’ Annotated Bibliography

Hughes, Langston. "The Negro Speaks of Rivers." 1921. The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes. Arnold Rampersad, ed. NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994.
This is a comprehensive collection of poems by Langston Hughes, an American poet, of African descent, during the early 1900’s. The Negro Speaks of Rivers was written by Langston Hughes as he slowly crossed the Mississippi. Within this collection, there is an ample section of poetry specifically written for children.

Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. NY: Penguin Books, 1959.
Huckleberry Finn is the story of a semi-orphaned, thirteen-year old boy living in pre-Civil War Missouri. He has perpetual conflicts with fitting into society and becoming "sivilized." The Mississippi River plays a major role, in this novel, as Huckleberry’s place of refuge, comfort, and peace. Mark Twain uses satire to present his perceptions of the current practices and beliefs of his day, which are extraordinarily relevant to current times.

Witherspoon, Jean and Doug Earp. "Water." Albuquerque’s Environmental Story: Toward a Sustainable Community. Kathleen Norris Park. Albuquerque: The Albuquerque Conservation Association, 1996. 439-441.
This is a three page, expository article that discusses the hydrologic cycle and Albuquerque’s drinking water. Ecological and economical topics are also addressed.

Teacher’s Bibliography

Abbey, Edward. Desert Solitaire. NY: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1968.

Ackerman, James S. and Thayer S. Warshaw. The Bible as/in Literature. Glenview, IL: Scott Foresman, 1995.

Austin, Mary. The Land of Little Rain. NY: Penguin Group, 1997.

Buell, Lawrence. The Environmental Imagination: Thoreau, Nature Writing, and the Formation of American Culture. Cambridge, MA: The               Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1995.

Cabeza de Baca, Fabiola. We Fed Them Cactus. Albuquerque: UNM Press, 1954.

Cather, Willa. Death Comes for the Archbishop. NY: Vintage Books, 1927.

Chase, Mary Ellen. The Bible and the Common Reader. New York: Macmillan, 1960.

Corn, Alfred, ed. Incarnation: Contemporary Writers on the New Testament. New York: Viking, 1990.

DeVoto, Bernard. "Introduction." The Portable Mark Twain. 1946. Rpt.In Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Vol. 6. Detroit:Gale Research               Co.,1984. 466.

Gardiner, J.H. The Bible as English Literature. London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1906

Griggs, Donald L. "The Bible: From Neglected Book to Primary Test." Religious Education. 85 (Spring 1990): 240-254.

Hackett, Alice Payne and James Henry Burke. 1977. 80 Years of Best Sellers: 1895-1975. New York: R.R. Bowker.

Juhasz, Anne M. and Leslie R. Wilson. 1986. "Should Students Be Well Read or Should They Read Well?" NASSP Bulletin 70.488 (Mar.):78-83.

"Killing a Classic; Censorship: Offensive language can be instructional in a play about racism and segregation. The Sun [Baltimore, Md]. Nov.6, 1999.

Kingsolver, Barbara. High Tide in Tucson. NY: HarperPerennial, 1995.

Lowes, J.L. "The Noblest Monument of English Prose." The English Bible: Essays by Various Writers. V.F. Storr, ed. London: Methuen, 1938.

Lynn, Kenneth. "Welcome Back from the Raft, Huck Honey!" The American Scholar, 1977. Rpt. in Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism 6                   (1984): 484.

"Mark Twain." Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism 6 (1984): 452

"Mark Twain." Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism 19 (1986): 349.

Mott, Frank Luther. Golden Multitudes: The Story of Best Sellers in the United States. New York: Macmillan, 1947.

Rivera, Jos� A. Acequia Cculture: Water, Land, & Community in the Southwest. Albuquerque: UNM Press, 1998.

Rossi, William. Henry D. Thoreau, Walden and Resistance to Civil Government. NY: W.W. Norton & Co., Inc., 1966.

Silko, Leslie Marmon. Ceremony. NY: Penguin Group, 1977.

Simmons, John S. "School Censorship: No Respite in Sight." Forum. Winter (1996/1997): 12-16.

Vaughn, Curtis, ed. Word: The Bible from Twenty-Six Translations. Gulfport, MS: Mathis Publications, 1991.