The author compared preschool teachers' and students' responses to informational texts (nonfiction) as they read together in small groups. Drawing from reader response theory, similarities and differences were found in teachers' and students' reading behaviors. Teachers took a predominantly efferent stance toward the texts because the teachers'…

New nature writing has been gaining popularity in the English-speaking world. Using participant observation of a book group, this article finds that reading such ecological writing can facilitate reader shifts in perceptions and the valuing of non-human organisms and the more-than-human world. Shifts are enabled when readers experience reading as…

Fifth graders interpreted the book "Doll Bones" by Holly Black through visual representations from the beginning to the end of the book. Each visual representation was analyzed to determine how students responded. Most frequently, they moved to inferential ways of understanding. Students often visually interpreted emotional plot elements…

Picturebooks are defined by the interaction of words and pictures to convey narrative (Bader, 1976; Kiefer, 1995; Sipe, 2011), referred to in this study as the word-picture relationship. This dissertation study extends on the work of others who investigated young children's responses to picturebooks (e.g., Arizpe & Styles, 2016; Sipe, 2008a;…

Students in a college literature class have been formed by conflicting approaches to literary pedagogy. The Common Core Standards deemphasize formative reading in favor of close reading, post-reading analysis of literary elements. A counter-movement, with its own network of publications and workshops, emphasizes formative reading, emotional…

I examine the ways in which reading in the classroom is a social practice and how that social practice can produce nuanced student texts that reflect a rich understanding of what has been read. In doing so, I also consider how the reading environment allows us to manipulate and embody texts in ways that allow for a more detailed understanding than…

In this article, the authors demonstrate how the reading of a novel along with culturally sustaining and responsive instruction can enhance students' sense of agency and advocacy along with their literacy development. The characters in the young adult (YA) novel "All American Boys" grapple with police brutality, as the novel's authors…

Reading aloud to children is a ubiquitous practice in early childhood settings. While there are many recommendations for how educators should conduct these experiences, little research in the past decade has examined how read-alouds are actually accomplished. Using anthropological and sociological theories of learning, literacy and research, our…

In "Uses of Literature" (2008), Rita Felski outlines four ways in which our affective responses to literature can serve as a starting point for a new form of literary criticism drawing on reader response and ethical criticism. This article situates Felski's approach in the context of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) on…

Picture books, as both sophisticated aesthetic objects and literary texts, provide the ideal site for critically examining how values and ideology are transmitted to children. How the child reader might be affected by the process of reading a picture book--that is, how he or she might be moved emotionally and potentially gain new insights about…

Reading through the articles in this issue of "Communication Education" took incoming editor, Deanna Dannels, back in time to reflect on a camping trip in North Carolina where she and her daughter went gem mining. She reflects on the the one piece of advice from the employee who taught them how to gem mine: "If you want to find…

Looking back now on the contribution of Annette Patterson, to whom this issue of "English in Australia" is dedicated, Brian Moon states that, "he is reminded not only of her intelligence and her capacity for independent thought and inquiry, but also of her courage in questioning some powerful orthodoxies in English education."…

We address Christo, D'Incau, and Ponzuric's response to our original contribution to this journal "When theory trumps science: A critique of the PSW model for SLD identification." Christo and colleagues stated that there is an empirical support for pattern of strengths and weaknesses (PSW) procedures as a component in the identification…

LGBTQ+ identities complicate the ways in which #OwnVoices can be deployed in literary analysis and author studies. Recognizing LGBTQ+ identities in literature is about more than just the text; it is about the visibility and success of LGBTQ+ authors as well. Through a discussion of reader response theory and politics of recognition, the author…

Since the late 20th century, scholars have called for a need to broaden the aims of teaching English Literature away from its Eurocentric focus. Much effort has also been invested in making the subject more relevant through diversifying the texts studied and connecting texts to current social and global issues. It is pertinent now to ask what the…