The authors share findings from a recent study of teens who freely select to read texts typically marginalized by schools (dystopia, vampire, romance, horror, fantasy), revealing the distinct functional and psychological benefits of pleasure reading. The students who participated in the study that the authors report on were eighth graders who…

Provides suggestions for using transactional theory, which stresses the importance of interacting with text, in teaching literature at the secondary level. Lists seven principles for teaching that are inherent in transactional theory. (SKC)

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)

Finds (1) no relationship between stance taken in a free response and types of intertextual or autobiographical connections made by students in grades four, six, and eight; (2) descriptions of meaningfulness of intertextual and autobiographical connections was related to students' grade level; and (3) students made more connections to television…

An initial study (Ram 1) in Denmark in 1970 determined whether methods could be developed to assess the effect of textual passages on readers' experiences of a short story. Subjects, 717 Danish secondary students, were given a questionnaire to check on the effect of specific auctorial techniques and to chart readers' attitudes and the way they…

Describes the development of the Literary Response Questionnaire (LRQ), which provides scales that measure seven different aspects of readers' orientation toward literary texts: Insight, Empathy, Imagery Vividness, Leisure Escape, Concern with Author, Story-Driven Reading, and Rejection of Literary Values. Reviews evidence for the LRQ's…

A study generated a system for describing and analyzing the shifting focus from reader to text in written responses to literature, and explored the stances that readers adopt as they focus on personal, textual, and extra-textual concerns. Ten proficient and 10 less proficient undergraduate readers engaged in open-ended, exploratory written…

In what appear to be grand saccadic leaps, research on reader response has turned first, at the beginning of the century, to the external reality of the text; then to the internal reality of the reader; and finally to the movement of the response process itself. Three metaphors derive from the three successive research orientations: from the…

Finding meaning in an ordinary prose text and following a description or argument is generally considered less difficult than finding the essential message in a literary text. Sometimes, however, the emotional impact makes it easier for some readers with some texts to see and understand the meaning of some literary texts. Research from the…

Examines individual literary-response styles of several first- or second-grade children by analyzing their talk about books. Finds five types of responses (analytical, intertextual, personalizing, transparent, and performative responses). Discusses the discernible differences and unique perspectives in at least some children's individual literary…

Presents results of a study of how readers fill in information "gaps" in a text to make meaning, using adolescents' response to a story by Brecht. Concludes that such gaps bore children uninterested in making meaning, and that those who make meaning from a mechanical stance may be limited in their comprehension unless deeper ways of…

Examines the effects of increasing adolescents' awareness of their own response strategies to reading. Illustrates the importance of ensuring that all students discover for themselves not only what they have learned, but how they have learned it. (SR)

Teaching models, derived from theory and research, are static, and lack responsibility. Models substitute an abstracted notion for teachers. Literature can be viewed as a field of play, where meaning opens, rather than as a body of knowledge. The teacher's challenge consists of posing questions that allow students to formulate their takes on a…

Reviews the evolution of relevant research in both response to literature and in the enactment of response-based practices in classrooms. Examines research on text, readers, and contexts. Examines research exploring how readers construct texts as cultural worlds, construct identities through participation in worlds, and share responses through…

The assumption that readers understand best and respond most positively to writing and illustrations which reflect their own first-hand experience was tested. To elicit response from children, four books by Byrd Baylor were used in three classes of fifth graders, in urban, suburban, and rural schools. After the books were read and the pictures…