Argues that, while children need to learn the syntactic, symantic, and graphonic cuing systems necessary to reading, the ultimate focus of elementary reading instruction should be reading for meaning. Describes an ideal classroom where students constantly interact with reading and writing and developing personal motivations for effective language…

Suggests that writing helps reading comprehension only if the writer is aware of the relationship between reading and writing and if the writing is purposeful. Presents three purposeful writing activities. (ARH)

Uses findings from story grammar research to create guidelines to help students in writing book reports and describes applications of the guidelines as they were used in a second and a fifth grade classroom. (FL)

Edited by three authorities in the field, this "Handbook" presents contributions from experts across the world who report the cutting-edge of international research. It is ground-breaking in its holistic, evidence-informed account that aims to synthesize key messages for policy and practice in English, language and literacy teaching. A…

Several models of the reading and writing processes suggest that the two should be taught together as part of the communication process. The first responsibility of a teacher interested in teaching the connection is the selection of a model that seems to fit perceptions about the connection. Next, the teacher must decide the balance and sequence…

Argues in favor of a specific component in technical writing courses devoted to the explanation, demonstration, and analysis of the reading comprehension process. Includes classroom activities for teaching this information, for working on writing problems relevant to ease of reading, and for analyzing writing problems in light of the reading…

Writing does more than demonstrate the interpretive process active in the mind of a student, it influences and directs the interpretive process in writing. Writing to read allows the expressive dimension to find an overt, secure place in the interpretive framework of a student's learning. By examining a student's theoretical explanation of her…

A cognitive approach to the interrelation of writing and reading assumes that production and comprehension of written text depend upon cognitive and affective schemata used in concert by a writer or reader to produce or encode, store, and retrieve text information. Both comprehending and composing are basic, complex, interactive processes with…

Describes how narrative texts can be represented as networks of causally related statements or events and presents empirical evidence that the networks predict performance on reading comprehension. Compares network theory to other theories of discourse comprehension. Suggests implications of causal representations for reading and composition…

Reflecting current themes that researchers, by their selective attention, have indicated are important in the field of reading/language processing and instruction, this yearbook presents a collection of 51 selected research articles from the National Reading Conference for 1983. Included are the following articles, listed with their authors: (1)…

A theory of textual processing signals--cues to guide the response of any reader to a narrative text--can be evolved from Gerald Prince's theory of reading interludes and William Labov's work on narrative evaluation. An examination of these signals in two personal experience narratives written by students in remedial and freshman writing courses…

The process of interrupting the reading of a text in order to predict what is to come is a well-established reading instructional technique known as Directed Reading/Thinking Activities (DRTA). Predictive intervention, a classroom structure based on this technique, is more frequently productive of creative revision than either teacher advice or…

Argues that composing and comprehending are process-oriented thinking skills that are basically interrelated, and suggests ways that these skills can be taught. (JL)

Reports a study, using sixth graders' introspective self-reports, to determine the context in which students use knowledge about narrative text structure, how they use this knowledge, and why they do not always employ this knowledge. (RAE)

Conference presentations of research on reading comprehension, reading instruction, computer applications in reading instruction, and reading theory are compiled in this yearbook. Titles and authors of some of the articles are as follows: "A Rationale for Teaching Children with Limited English Proficiency" (M. Zintz); "Preliminary Development of a…