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,…

A study examined the retelling performance of the novice compared with that of the expert and the effect of retelling practice on comprehension for both proficient and less proficient readers. Thirty-six fourth graders (20 proficient and 16 less proficient readers) were randomly assigned to one of four story sessions. Across the four sessions all…

Efferent teaching asks the student to read for a predetermined answer, focusing on another person's ideas of the text's meaning. Aesthetic teaching allows for literature to be read and experienced as art through the reader's personal transaction with the text which focuses on one's own interest to create and understand the meaning. This paper…

Examines two readers' images of literary characters as a basis for studying text meaning construction. Finds greater variation than commonality between the text and readers, as well as between the readers. Suggests using dialogue and rereadings in instruction to aid in developing and monitoring text understanding. (SR)

Explores reader and text effects on the production of mental imagery during and after reading a poem, a story, and two expository texts. Finds that imagery occurs spontaneously during and after reading all texts and that the production of imagery is affected by both reader and text. (RS)

Explores the expectations of the National Literacy Framework and highlights some problem areas in the context of the National Curriculum for English. Notes one such area relates to the assessment criteria which were selected from the framework to address children's understanding of organizational features of texts in reading and writing. Concludes…

Two theoretical perspectives are woven together to frame an approach to classroom reading instruction. Viewing reading instruction from a literary perspective and a psychological perspective has the potential to help students understand the distinctions between different text types and the various purposes for reading--information, enjoyment, and…

Paints a portrait of a students' varied experiences with literature, and explains how the teacher brings the reading process to a conscious level with students and parents to help them appreciate readers' strengths. Intertwines several case studies of students and their awareness (or lack of awareness) of their own reading strategies. (RS)

A study compared remedial readers to more proficient readers in their meaning-making processes during the reading of literary text. Subjects, six children attending a university-based literacy center, read aloud two stories and verbalized their thoughts during reading. Judith Langer's four categories (or "stances") were used to compare…

To investigate how Mexican-American students constructed meaning from English texts when engaged in reading and writing activities, a study examined 12 fifth grade Mexican-American students who lived in a "barrio" with literacy in both Spanish and English. The aim was to tap the envisionments (text interpretations or understandings, and…

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)

Explores the effects of the use of aesthetic and efferent stances in response to literature with 43 fourth graders, 47 sixth graders, and 40 eighth graders. Finds use of an aesthetic stance is associated with higher levels of personal understanding and the level of understanding increases with grade level. (MG)

A study analyzed think-aloud protocols to investigate and describe what readers who are developing proficiency do as they read. Subjects, three sixth-grade middle-school boys (with grade point averages of 3.0-3.5 on a 4-point scale) from a small West Virginia suburb, read aloud 16 text sections (from one to four sentences in length), thought aloud…

Uses a cognitive processing perspective to revise fifth grade social studies texts, to describe those revisions, and to demonstrate their effects empirically. Finds that students reading the revised text recalled more material and answered more questions correctly than did those reading the original text. Concludes that a text-processing approach…

Prompted by the growing interest in the role of reader-related and text-related variables in reading comprehension, a study compared 30 sixth grade students in regular classrooms to 30 language impaired students. The purpose was to assess the relationship of (1) text structure manipulations for simple and complex sentence structure, (2) discourse…