Argues that reading specialists' lack of success in persuading content area teachers to help their students read and study texts in social studies, science, and mathematics is a result of reading specialists' lack of careful thought about text structures. Discusses the text structures of textbooks in these content areas. (RS)

Describes how creative mapping (a pictorial version of semantic mapping) helps students organize or recognize organization in expository texts. (SR)

Classifies the various forms that exist in a type of poetry dubbed "burstnorm" poetry, a form of lyrical poetry. Differentiates burstnorm from two other types, "plaintext" and "songmode poetry." Describes three types of burstnorm poetry: surrealistic, pluraesthetic, and language poetry. Discusses further subtypes of…

Describes a method of generating a flow chart which indicates the multiple cause and effect relationships in literature and content area texts. Argues that this teaching strategy aids in the comprehension of difficult text. (RS)

Discusses a variety of software programs which will assist middle school through college teachers in teaching text structure to their students. Notes that these programs represent a departure from traditional programing style--they allow the person who uses information technology to combine the roles of producer and consumer. (RS)

Tests a new model of the child's meaning-making process in response to literary text. Finds that the model is not disproved and serves as a valid means for adults to share information and ideas about young peoples' transactions with literary texts. (MG)

Describes a methodology for teaching the complex prose structures common to nineteenth- and twentieth-century literature. Identifies modifying structures, conditional structures, and periodic sentences as stumbling blocks for students. Argues that students should be taught the effect of these structures on the meaning of both the sentence and the…

Shows how to help students fill in textual "gaps" to interact more fully with contemporary texts, classics, and myths. Presents examples of this approach for studying (1) Shakespeare's "Hamlet" with Tom Stoppard's "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead"; and (2) George Bernard Shaw's "Pygmalion" with the…

Verbal-retelling abilities for social-studies lectures were examined in 20 adolescent boys with language-learning disabilities and 29 with normal language abilities. Lectures had either a comparison expository discourse structure or a causation discourse structure. Results indicated that the comparison discourse structure facilitated more…

This discussion examines the reading and writing processes of persons with hearing impairments, particularly those leaving school and in transition from school to work. The reading/writing act is viewed from three perspectives: (1) cognitive science or information processing; (2) text organization and its functions; and (3) the processes whereby…

Presents the results of two studies where children were taught to identify textual cues, syntactic and semantic, in order to locate main ideas. The children also built graphic representations of these structures and were taught relevant questions to ask regarding comprehension. Results showed significant improvement, especially with older…

Describes a long-term project where middle school students were taught to visually represent key text ideas through idea-mapping techniques. Instruction was inserted in the content area curriculum along with regular textbooks and supplementary material. Positive effects were found in recall, comprehension, and learning. (MJP)