Provides a rationale for literature study as part of the general education curriculum, considering its primary benefits to be the development of a fundamental understanding of metaphoric thinking, abstraction, conceptualization, and of students' ability to read and appreciate literature independently. Addresses issues of appropriate content and…

Describes an inservice technique that models for teachers how they can use the Directed Reading Thinking Activity to develop students' predictive strategies. (FL)

Points to the need to teach children the reading skills they require in their present lives. Lists information-finding skills and critical reading skills children need, based on an informal survey of children's reading, and suggests ways of teaching the skills. (GT)

Proposes the application of Norman Holland's views on transactional literary analysis to the teaching of basic writing, raising student awareness of reader and writer roles through frequent writing activities and reader feedback. (RL)

Describes a multiple-choice story-writing technique that students use to create a character and that provides insight into an author's problem of character development. (MKM)

Uses a case study to describe how to help students discover the subjective nature of language habits and patterns of thought. (MKM)

Describes reportedly successful treatment of deaf-mutes in China by acupuncture, and suggests that the disorders might have been more psychological than physical. The author comments that interpretation of poorly documented reports from unfamiliar cultures is extremely difficult. (AV)

Studies revision skills of grades 5-6 students asked to improve expository text written by other students by giving explicit evaluations, diagnoses, and suggestions. Supplements quantitative data with qualitative analysis of revision activities. Specifies in the model important cognitive steps in revision: compare, diagnose, and operate. Concludes…

Argues that hedging in scientific research writing cannot be fully understood in isolation from social and institutional contexts and suggests a pragmatic framework which reflects this interpretive environment. Hedging is emphasized as a significant communicative resource for academics that confirms the writer's professional persona and assists in…

Discusses Australian approaches to critical literacy. The editorial notes that conditions in Australia for curriculum development and implementation are in transition, with different approaches and priorities advanced in the second half of the 90s. Suggests that to teach critical literacy is to help students identify how the ways of focusing on…

Discusses the problems of teaching critical reading and the lack of progress toward the solutions to the problems. Suggests a definition of critical reading and methodologies for its teaching. Presents a classroom observation checklist to evaluate students' critical reading processes. (MG)

Presents a unit designed to develop critical reading skills. Establishes goals and lists topics for consideration, such as understanding cause and effect relationships, distinguishing fact from opinion, identifying propaganda techniques, distinguishing relevant from irrelevant information, and recognizing bias giving examples of each. (NL)

Describes author-reader-text interactions which play roles in both revision in writing and critical reading. Examines the processes of revision in writing and critical reading as thought processes mirroring one another. Presents two examples of group classroom activities which nurture revision in both writing and critical reading. (MM)

Suggests activities for fostering critical reading skills in social studies. Activities include assigning reporting roles to students; asking students to create a cartoon or a slogan; requiring students to review a favorite television program; and helping students identify exaggeration. (KO)

An approach to teaching and testing advanced French reading comprehension of expository social science texts is presented within a "communicative-cognitive" framework. Learners receive instructions that encourage them to perceive and use the writer's overall rhetorical scheme as a conceptual-functional framework for integrating the components.…