An ethnographic study examined the nature of social and cultural contexts as they shaped literary practices in a combined fifth/sixth-grade classroom. Research questions focused on the meanings given to the reading and discussion of literature within the embedded contexts of classroom and community. The five focal students for the study differed…

A study examined evidence that first graders are able to analyze and respond to picture books. The study resulted from the collaboration of an eighth-grade class and a first-grade class. The eighth graders were given the task of writing, illustrating, and reading a picture book for the first graders. The first-grade class was randomly divided into…

A study examined the effects of a reader response approach to literature in which literature is viewed as a medium for exploration and the effects of such an approach on a group of young women. Subjects of the study were four female middle school students, with the adult female researcher as participant observer. Books chosen for…

A study explored how small groups of student readers interacted in a classroom over time to interpret short stories assigned by a teacher who functioned as participant/observer. The study focused on multiple readers in actual classroom situations to consider the relationship between the social and academic elements observable during day-to-day…

This book takes up the question of what shape high school English studies should take in the coming years. It describes an English program that blends philosophical depth with classroom practicality. Drawing examples from commonly taught texts such as "Macbeth,""To Kill a Mockingbird," and "Lord of the Flies," the…

A project reviewed 54 commercially available multimedia products with literature as the subject matter, to determine what pedagogical approaches steered the design of literature software, and whether these were aligned with response-based views of literature teaching/learning. Findings indicated that the design of commercial products advocates an…

This study assessed whether girls and boys write differently in their reader response journals for the classes of one sixth-grade teacher over 2 years. A literature-based reading program was used, and the students kept reader response journals. Journals from 9 girls and 11 boys from the first year and 8 girls and 8 boys from the second year were…

An Israeli study determined what happens when persons with low-literacy levels read news accounts that presuppose general knowledge that the writer expects them to have, but that they may not necessarily possess. The study sample consisted of about 600 students, mostly women, in 30 literacy centers throughout the country. In each class, adult…

This second edition focuses on helping the preservice teacher become an "Influential Reading Teacher," one whom students remember years later as a special teacher and person. The ideas and teaching strategies in the book actively involve preservice teachers in understanding and thinking about children's reading and writing development. New to this…

These four issues of the English Leadership Quarterly represent those published during 1993. Articles in number 1 deal with parent involvement and participation, and include: "Opening the Doors to Open House" (Jolene A. Borgese); "Parent/Teacher Conferences: Avoiding the Collision Course" (Robert Perrin); "Expanding Human…

This collection represents the record of a summer institute held in 1989 at the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth (Minnesota) in which 40 elementary school teachers and 4 college instructors read and discussed American fiction centering on the theme of initiation/challenge/change. After a beginning section which presents background information,…

Originally developed as part of a project for the Department of Defense Schools (DoDDS) system, this learning package on making writing public is designed for teachers who wish to upgrade or expand their teaching skills on their own. The package includes an overview of the project; a comprehensive search of the ERIC database; a lecture giving an…

Student writing can be used in literature classes as a motivational and learning tool. Through careful planning, writing activities can (1) demonstrate that student ideas on literature will be considered seriously, (2) integrate students' literary opinions with those of the instructor and established critics, (3) improve student writing skills,…

Noting the improvement that has occurred in the teaching of writing since the introduction of the process approach to instruction, this book offers suggestions for still more improvement and for solving the problems that arise in the teaching of writing. The first section of the book stresses the importance of letting children write and of…

As a commentary aimed toward revision of "Beliefs About Technology and the Preparation of English Teachers: Beginning the Conversation" (Swenson, Rozema, Young, McGrail, & Whitin, 2005), this paper encourages the authors to focus on the multiliteracies that technologies enable as a guiding theme rather than on technologies…