Reading literacy is a multidimensional construct in terms of text and reading processes. Much research has examined the divisibility of the processes underlying reading, but they have treated the rest of the construct as unitary. This study extends the examination of dimensionality to a neglected area in literacy studies. It tests reading models…

Recent scholarship in multiliteracies-oriented pedagogies has advocated for greater attention to fostering 'textual thinking', understood as forms of literacy that consider the complexities of semiotic choices made by authors, and their underlying meanings, rhetorical purposes, and cultural contexts. This kind of engagement with texts calls upon…

In this study, the authors examined how parents, preservice teachers, and teens responded to their reading of one controversial young adult novel. Analyzing the discourse of participants through the lens of positioning theory, the authors found that student readers approached the book as a story, examining its various literary elements. Youths…

This article uses the findings from an empirical study on Hong Kong students' reading practices as collected through face-to-face interviews on major university campuses in Hong Kong to argue for the importance of "affective" and "imaginative" engagement with literary texts if students are to develop an interest in reading.…

Students face challenging texts in higher education, whether they are discipline-specific journal articles or great works of literature. Building on research in content area reading and disciplinary literacy, this case study explores the various stances undergraduate honors students take when coping with challenging texts while enrolled in a…

In a sample of 135 Norwegian education undergraduates, we examined the effects of topic-specific epistemic beliefs concerning the simplicity and source of knowledge on deep-level understanding of multiple expository texts about the same topic--climate change. The results showed that students holding sophisticated simplicity beliefs, viewing…

Why do adolescents happily read some texts but fiercely resist reading others? Why do some teens read widely while others almost never read? This book shows how to find answer these questions--and more--by observing adolescents complex relationships with reading and letting them explain why they resist or engage with text. Author Anne Reeves…

Indicates that college student subjects infer public opinion by relying on their own subjective assessments of media content coupled with their own presumptions about effects of such content on others. Supports this persuasive press inference, even when content included base-rate information contrary to "story slant." Indicates projection of…

Examines processes used when high school students were presented with documents about the Tonkin Gulf Incident. Finds that mental models created by students were more internally consistent after reading at least two documents, but did not become more consistent after that. Notes that students tended to ignore information in the texts when giving…

Asserts that students engage--successfully or unsuccessfully--in dialogues with the curriculum as well as with their texts. Discusses the nature of that dialogue, and the relationship between a reader and the written text. Concludes that the reading dialogue is a vital aspect in the child-curriculum encounter. (MM)

Students say that teachers can "suck" for several reasons. Teachers suck when they are repetitive, boring, assume the worst about their students or refuse to listen to students' explanations for their apparent misbehavior, have too many rules, assign a task that seems impossible, talk too much, or when they separate students from a friend or a…

Suggests that viewing aesthetic reading as a process whereby readers and writers attempt to "make contact" and collaborate in making meaning forces one to adopt research strategies that go beyond measuring reading comprehension, and offers two studies to illustrate these ideas. (JC)

Examines the strategies first grade students use when reading two types of materials--basal and student-authored. Finds that children used more efficient strategies and had better comprehension when reading student-authored stories. (MM)