The prevalence of the acronym tl;dr ("too long; didn't read") suggests that people intentionally disengage their attention from long sections of text. We studied this real-world phenomenon in an educational context by measuring rates of intentional and unintentional mind-wandering while undergraduate student participants (n = 80) read…

The present study focused on examining how individuals make adaptations while reading non-linear graphic text by examining the role of executive functioning, as well as identifying and describing the reading processes individuals use while reading. Sixty-seven students in Grades 9 through 12 engaged in verbal reporting while reading graphic text,…

A pilot case study addressed how a reader engages aesthetically with text. The main thrust theoretically is from the notion that "there are possible worlds other than the one we inhabit." Four subjects were chosen out of a total of 63 subjects in grades four through six in an elementary school in Western Canada. Out of the four subjects,…

Discusses three facets of reading-writing relationships: (1) the processes underlying reading and writing; (2) the communicative contexts influencing reading and writing; and (3) the learning outcomes derived from reading and writing, including the influence of reading upon writing and writing upon reading. (MM)

Examined three factors that influence rereading transfer in children: story relatedness, reading ability, text difficulty. In four experiments, elementary school students read pairs of texts related by word overlap, content overlap, both kinds of overlap, or no overlap at all. Extent to which children benefited from word or content overlap…

Asserts that students engage--successfully or unsuccessfully--in dialogues with the curriculum as well as with their texts. Discusses the nature of that dialogue, and the relationship between a reader and the written text. Concludes that the reading dialogue is a vital aspect in the child-curriculum encounter. (MM)

The relationship between reading comprehension and the number and complexity of idea units in a text was examined. The results showed that readers using text-entailed recall strategies gained the most insight into the meaning of text and that recall ability is an important encoding strategy for gaining meaning. (JAZ)

Examines tasks provided for students in most literature textbooks used in the United States, noting that these tasks typically control students' responses to literature. Relates these tasks to current theory and research on the reading process. Describes activities from literature texts used in Canada that facilitate literary response. (MM)

Provides a background of response theory, two Canadian perspectives on response theory, a description of transactional response theory and response-centered curriculum, a discussion of the concepts of participant and spectator roles in literature and of the idea of narration and storying as literature, and a discussion of analysis and criticism.…

Considers literature as something different from the texts themselves (specifically, a way of reading that includes the writer, the text, and the reader) so that the purposes of teachers and readers may be considered, and a flexible approach to selection, organization, and pedagogy be permitted. (SRT)