Abstract
Abstract
While teaching English, two questions have repeatedly arisen: 1. How does one teach grammar that aligns with students’ linguistic intuitions? 2. How does one teach poetic meter in a way that is consistent, accessible, and instructive? The answer to the first question has been a guide to the second one. This chapter will focus on the latter question by pointing out the limitations of conventional textbook definitions of meter, discussing the ways in which scientific method in linguistics lends itself to helping students understand the difficult task of scanning meter, and describing the ways in which scientific thinking with linguistic theory can be blended in a series of lessons for high school students in an Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition class.