This study examined how graduate students in humanities disciplines guide students' reading during their work as teaching assistants (TAs) in first-year (FYC) composition courses. Situated within an independent writing program, the "genre studies" approach to this FYC course is informed by the threshold concepts of the composition…

Attempts to represent the complexity of the web of literary relationships and their transformational space using fragmentary texts that circle around the novel "The English Patient": self as relationship and the dialogic engagement with a book by the patient himself; and the relationship and engagement with this book and with each other of a group…

Suggests the double-entry journal as an effective method of encouraging the creation and discovery of new information in literature classes. Describes the three processes involved (and the theoretical underpinnings of each), including: (1) activating prior knowledge and present feelings; (2) learning collaboratively; and (3) integrating reading,…

Examines patterns in the responses of eight second- and third-grade students as they constructed meaning from fiction and nonfiction when asked to respond in writing to different instructional tasks. Suggests that both the task and the text influence children's responses. Demonstrates that young children are capable of providing rich written…

Drawing on works of literary theory and postmodern fiction, discusses the relationship between reader, writer, and text. Examines the boundaries and frontiers that writers patrol and readers inhabit as they live out their personal lives with texts. (DMM)

Reviews and equates theories of reader-response and rhetorical theories on audience response (the pathos principle). Concludes that the fundamental synonymity between them represents a significant bridge between analysis of literary texts and the dynamics of formal and social discourse and provides a theoretical foundation for teaching reading and…

Describes a framework that helps seventh- and eight-grade readers write about what they notice, question, feel, and relate to (about the book they are reading) in reader response journals. Shows how, as a result, they deepen their involvement with and understanding and enjoyment of literature. (SR)

A study conducted by the copy editor of a small daily newspaper in Porter County, Indiana examines readers' motivations for writing letters to the editor. Analysis was based on letters that appeared in "The Vidette Messenger" September 16-30, 1992. Of 75 letters, 32 were responses to information published in the paper during the last 2…

In developing an interactive model of composing, this paper discusses three groups of reader-oriented theories, each of which provides composing theorists with some research and theory to use in developing such a model. First the paper discusses the main principle of the literary reader-response theorists--that the meaning and value of texts do…

In this article, the author explains why he considers "Animal Dreams" by Barbara Kingsolver, "Ceremony" by Leslie Marmon Silko, and "The Joy Luck Club" by Amy Tan as the most desirable books for students. He cites that several questions guide him in selecting these books. These questions include the following: (1) Why recommend certain texts to…

Describes how the author uses reading response journals in her composition classes. Shows how it actively engages students in the reading/writing process, and how students learn careful, active reading and develop confidence generating ideas and formulating opinions via the structure, freedom, enhanced comprehension, critical thinking, and…

This paper reconsiders the nature of literature as a school subject. Musing on three anomalies that occur when language arts teachers consider their professions about school literature and what occurs in literature classrooms: (1) the anomaly of the text and the textbook; (2) the anomaly of the idolatry of naive readers whose heads have been…

Extends constructive theories of reading to argue for an advanced composition course that has two implications: (1) writing is a value-free technology; thus, (2) learning to write is learning to manage a technology, not training to be a moral person. (MS)

Interviews elementary children about their fiction writing to gain a glimpse into how writing teachers might improve their teaching. Found the following three features in students' growing knowledge of characters: characters can elicit readers' empathy, can change the attitude of the readers, and can have a mind of their own. (MG)

Explores the interrelationship of learning, language and literature. Suggests assignments that allow students to respond like readers rather than like apprentice critics. Asserts that writing is not merely recording, and reading is not merely decoding. States that confusions about meaning and syntax disappear when writers read their own work…