A dialectical heuristic that can be used to guide students through the stages of writing about a literary experience is discussed in this paper. The first section of the paper provides a working definition of literature as an area of discourse and divides the process of reading and writing about literature into three general phases: progressive,…

The effectiveness of different frequencies of summarization during studying and processing prose passages was compared. The 48 college students in the study were equally divided into a control group (normal study techniques), a frequent summarization group that created four noncumulative summaries at equally spaced intervals throughout the passage…

The operative principle behind the use of essays as models for composition is that if students study and imitate the wide variety of rhetorical forms in an essay collection they will write well-organized and fluent papers. Unfortunately, when students are asked to copy forms the result is a clearly organized paper that says very little and has…

Students who enroll in the introductory course in literature in a foreign language usually come to it with a distaste for literature and somewhat limited linguistic preparation. A course, such as the one described here, would be one in which the following questions and issues are dealt with: (1) the nature of a literary work of art, (2) the…

When 60 reading specialists were asked to evaluate the reading programs for the gifted in their schools, most of the 20 people who responded indicated that their school districts had programs for the gifted, but that these programs were just beginning. The respondents, most of whom taught remedial reading rather than reading for the gifted,…

The intent of the described teacher inservice education program is to provide secondary school teachers with a set of concepts for understanding their students' responses to literature. The scope and sequencing of topics in the program is outlined, and activities and resources involved are described. Ordering information for materials is included…

The lack of existing research on the cognitive processes in reading is discussed. The definition of cognitive processes, appropriate measuring instruments, concensus concerning the activity to be measured, and problems inherent in the materials and the reader are cited as limitations that are responsible for a shortage of research. Implications…

The methods of reading instruction used and the emphasis given reading within the total elementary school program depend on the attitudes of the school administrators and the teaching personnel. While reading is commonly defined as a decoding process, it is actually a complex process of word recognition, comprehension, critical or evaluative…

Hal Borland's "When the Legends Die" is especially appropriate for high school seniors because its central problem--a Ute Indian boy's search for his identity and expected role in society--is exactly that faced by these students. The novel is divided into four sections, each concerned with a specific stage in the development of the…

In order to help students in oral interpretation or English classes comprehend the literature they read, this document outlines a question-answer-rehearse procedure which resolves the paradox of understanding before they perform a text. The twenty questions, formulated to provide a solid foundation for later explication and deeper study, are…

These resource papers encourage the student to discover for himself the contributions to a problem made through original literature. Since some of the papers are controversial or contradict others, the student will need to evaluate these papers to determine his correct approach or position. It is hoped that these papers will also foster an…

This comprehension model defines and describes nine categories of comprehension, including word meanings, location/recall, translation, interpretation, prediction, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. Each of the categories includes the following sections: highlights, containing a definition and questions; instructional objectives for…

To examine the effects of inductive and programmed instruction in the close reading of poetry, four control classes of urban 11th graders receiving inductive instruction in poetry were compared with four equivalent experimental classes using programmed textbooks. Both groups were given free response tests on two poems: one poem, included in…

This study examined children's preferences for three qualitative levels of thinking--abstract, functional, and concrete--in vocabulary. It was hypothesized that whereas older, more mature readers would choose abstract meaning, younger readers would choose concrete meaning regardless of the nature of the material, and also that a dominant cognitive…

The relationship between a person's behavior and the interaction with his immediate environment is discussed as a shaping process. The behavior that is shaped is always that which is directly and crucially involved in the choice he makes, the response he makes, and the way that response affects him in the given situation. The abstraction process…