The writers discuss their approach to the teaching of American literature in secondary schools, which highlights issues of power, marginalization, representation, popular culture, canon formation, and democracy rather than the usual issues of personal response and aesthetics. This approach provides an opportunity for students to investigate and actively engage with the traditions and texts they are often merely required to “study” and “appreciate.” Students are asked to to explore the history, value, and functions of texts so they begin to see themselves not just as passive consumers of a tradition but as active, critical thinkers developing the skills, dispositions, and habits of mind to question those traditions they are so often meant to take at face value. The writers describe two units of study that illustrate how they implement this approach—one on American literature and culture of the 1950s and the other on literary and cultural representations of the Native Americans.