This study documents the steps involved in the implementation of a response-based literature program in a year six classroom within an independent boys' school. A response- based literature program encourages personal transactions with literary works before any objective analysis of such texts. The results of this study are intended to form the theoretical basis of the literature curriculum within the school. As part of the study, a review of the commercially- produced literature based reading scheme currently used in the school was conducted. The review showed that the teaching strategies and response activities suggested in the accompanying teacher's manual concentrated on the objective analysis of literary works rather than personal interpretations of those works. This seemed to be inconsistent with recent research findings which advocate that the teaching of literature should focus on the transaction which occurs between the reader and the text and the subsequent personal response evoked from that transaction before any analysis of the text is required. Based on this premise, the study investigated teaching methods which would provide opportunities for personal responses to be evoked. In particular Rosenblatt's notion of aesthetic teaching was used. This notion suggests that the reader's attention should be focused on the personal, lived-through experience of the text before any objective examination occurs. Building on the research of other theorists, such as Cox and Many; Short; Langer; and Wiseman and Many, aesthetic teaching strategies were identified and implemented into a twelve month literature program. The aesthetic strategies used were: a supportive literary environment; open-ended prompts; literary discussions; reading journals; and recreative responses. Data collected from the primary source of students' oral and written personal responses to texts and the secondary source of interviews with the classroom teacher were analysed within a framework of features derived from issues identified in the literature. These findings supported the contention that an aesthetic teaching approach encourages students to develop personal interpretations of texts. From these findings, conclusions were formed which provided the theoretical framework for a revised literature program at Braybrook College.