We teach English literature in South Africa, to third- or fourth-language English speakers. Increasingly dissatisfied with the effectiveness of our pedagogy under conditions of massification, we seek to agitate propositions about our students' reading and what these propositions means for our pedagogy. Drawing on narrative theory we analyse our…

Trade books can be used in all phases of the learning cycle to support effective teaching and learning. Romance and Vitale (1992) found that texts and other nonfiction science books can be effective tools for teaching reading, as the science activities give learners a purpose for their reading. In this article, the authors share ways to…

Intended to help the secondary school classroom teacher make use of some of the current research related to reading instruction, this book contains reviews of the literature on the various aspects of secondary school reading. Each of the 12 chapters begins with an introduction to set the stage and ends with a conclusion to put the ideas into…

Intended for teachers of black students at all levels, this book presents teaching approaches and methods that are known to be appropriate for blacks and that are based on both research and practice in the areas of language, reading, writing, and literature. Among the topics discussed in the 43 essays are the following: (1) language and the…

Discusses four books that can help teachers offer students opportunities to engage in purposeful oral language activities. (PRA)

Research on reading comprehension and its teaching is reviewed. A theoretical basis is presented for conceptualizing the reading comprehension curriculum as a set of five strategies. Research on teaching facilitates a new view of instruction, focusing on the negotiation of meaning among students and teachers through teachers' instructional…

A description of the fourth-grade reading program includes discussion of preparing the class to read an artistic work; organizing the reading of an artistic text; discussion, various types of retelling, and reading with commentary; and the summary review or text exercise. (ND)

Describes a teaching unit that involves students in reading and analyzing elements of humor in young people's literature. Focuses on what makes quality humorous books funny as well as literary. (FL)

Offers an eight-stage activity which promotes critical thinking. Notes that the activity starts with analysis of literary characters and culminates with presentations based on interviews of respected adults. (PRA)

While reading and writing are both language processes and a natural relationship between the two could be assumed, they have generally been studied and taught separately--one as a production process and the other as a reception process. There has recently been increased interest in the relationship in the education community. The source of this…

Shares insights into how literature study circles helped group members make connections between their lives and themes in books and influenced students' perceptions of themselves as readers in a culturally diverse world. (MG)

This in-depth review of the literature synthesizes articles and abstracts identified as education-oriented microcomputer research studies published since 1979. A brief, historic overview of educational computing is followed by a review of the Becker (1983) survey, which concerned the distribution of microcomputers in education in the United…

Based on the premise that research findings about children's language acquisition might support theories about the learning of reading, this paper reviews research that has addressed the development of language production and the relationship between language ability and reading achievement. The first section of the literature review deals with…

The inconclusive results of research comparing beginning reading methodologies in the 1960s led many schools to change their approaches to beginning reading instruction. In the 1970s the focus has shifted from the belief in a single method as superior for all children to the attempt to match methodology to the needs of individual children. A…