Basically, in addition to the interplay of the reader-response and feminist critical approaches, she sees herself as an 18th century scholar, and that, she says, has shaped her as much as anything. With these elements serving as a theoretical framework, Conger begins to plan a course. After answering these questions, she sets up her goals. She notes that in the twenty-five years she has taught, she has had to progressively make fewer assumptions about what her students know as they enter her class. In the past few years, she has had to provide more information about features of the novel, point of view, character, and even how to read.
Conger tends to favor the imitations because they get students to listen carefully to the author.
I wrote about an accountant. With a continued concern to make her classrooms sites of knowledge production, Conger seeks feedback through individuals and through seminars she attends, such as the Chautauqua Seminar she attended two summers ago. It was here that she was challenged to rethink some of her classroom strategies. She reacted to the challenge but was not sure this was the way to do it. She assigned eight novels and nine papers for the course.