This article offers a way of thinking about literacy instruction that critiques current reasoning, but also provides a space to dynamically think outside of prevalent practices. It presents a framework for both planning and studying literacy pedagogy that combines a practical everyday model of the reading process with Michel Foucault's (1988c)…

Ken Goodman and Frank Smith met for the first time in 1970, though they had each been studying and writing, separately, about the reading process for several years prior to that. They commemorated the occasion by collaborating on an article, On the Psycholinguistic Method of Teaching Reading which appeared soon after in The Elementary School…

Ability to recognize and understand figurative language is crucial to successful reading. (Author)

Applies recent linguistic theory to the reading process and classroom practice. (DD)

Encounters with written language through reading can be exciting if they serve a function within the child's own framework of interest. (DD)

Discusses potential dangers in the current move toward literature-based instruction across the curriculum. Calls for educators to help students understand that there are different stances one can take in reading a text and not to mislead them by treating literary works as if they were intended to be read "efferently." (MG)

Provides a theoretical framework for thinking about how students read literature through the notions of envisionment-building and stories. Discusses possibilities for instruction. (MG)

Describes an informal classroom study in which students tape recorded their thoughts as they read, wrote, and "conferenced" with classmates, and how they discovered the organizational benefits of using the recorder. Also describes the writing conferences and workshops that took place in the classroom. (HTH)

The psycholinguistic method of teaching reading stresses the use of the child's oral language ability and syntactic and semantic information. (JH)

Describes an approach to teaching the elementary school curriculum using heuristics, which develops children's critical thinking skills. (SRT)

Describes the interrelationship of reading and writing and proposes a full-school program for reading and writing development that builds on the full range of personal use of written language. (JL)

Explores several concepts relevant to instructional materials that emerged from seminars sponsored by the National Council of Teachers of English and the International Reading Association. Describes how basal readers--so prevalent in instruction--fall short of these concepts, and what can be done to improve instruction. (HTH)

Examines computer modeling of the reading process and the instructional technology of basals, the two pillars of Marilyn Adams text, "Beginning to Read: Thinking and Learning about Print." Explains why the author believes Adams is fundamentally wrong in her theoretical approach to reading instruction. (MG)

Illustrates how social interaction with high quality literature can foster the literacy process of responding to literature with the student's own voice. Demonstrates ways that particular instructional processes can foster critical literacy processes as students share their interpretations of quality literature. (MG)