Discusses the administrative role and the social role of three listserv student moderators as they mediated discussions about literature with Year 12 students in Australia. Suggests student moderators can facilitate discussion by initiating topics, contributing to existing discussions, and modelling effective discussant behavior. (NH)

Contends that not all books are created equal--"Anna Karenina," for example, is worth more than Nancy Drew mysteries. Relates, in a personal narrative, that when this opinion was manifested in a newspaper column, hundreds of letters took issue with the idea. Reiterates that the literate teacher finds ways to convince students that…

Pairs two books that might stimulate children's literary awareness--Lois Lowry's fantasy novel, "The Giver," and Maurice Sendak's picture book, "We Are All in the Dumps with Jack and Guy." Finds that the pairing and comparisons increased understandings about each work and how complementary they really are. (PA)

Reviews perspectives on how children's literature is used in the classroom, and how literature contributes to a broader conception of literacy. Deals with literature as a tool for the development of various sorts of literate abilities, and literature as the enabler of literary understanding. Offers a concrete example involving first and second…

Clarifies the "efferent" and "aesthetic" stance on Louise Rosenblatt's theoretical continuum by relating her model to the plot, characters, and scenes in Lois Lowry's "The Giver." Shows that Rosenblatt's view applies to the ways readers read texts and to the way characters in the texts read their text-worlds. Presents…

Examines letters to the editor of two Chicago newspapers between 1912 and 1917, to explore the strategies that readers used to make sense of what they read. Discusses cuing and linking, the new journalistic methodology of objectivity, and the mobilization of bias. Argues that reader response was often not idiosyncratic, but rather guided by…

Describes teaching literature to non-English majors (primarily working adults) at Golden Gate University. Discusses how the authors create a classroom environment in which students are given permission to engage in literary works in the context of their own lives as well as to consider texts historically and stylistically. (RS)

Responds to an article in an earlier issue of this journal about using reading response in a college literature classroom. Argues that the use of reader-response theory with two-year college students requires some caution. (SR)

Shows the need for teachers to acknowledge to themselves the extent of self censorship in their reviewing and purchasing decisions. Discusses teachers' and students' responses to the novel "I Hadn't Meant to Tell You This." Offers strategies that encourage and support the use of Social Issues Realism, and strategies that support a…

Problematizes the word "experience" as it is currently being used by researchers and teachers who want to reform literature instruction in schools and colleges. Discusses how a fresh look at Dewey and Rosenblatt can reconstruct the courtroom and marketplace metaphors as sound alternatives to theories that perpetuate dualistic assumptions…

Presents a project where the teacher, rather than teaching the students how to read using a remedial, isolated skills approach, concerned herself with getting them to read by "falling into the literature" and getting involved in the characters' lives. Describes a reader response approach that was designed to motivate the students to engage with…

Attempts to represent the complexity of the web of literary relationships and their transformational space using fragmentary texts that circle around the novel "The English Patient": self as relationship and the dialogic engagement with a book by the patient himself; and the relationship and engagement with this book and with each other of a group…

Presents an overview of critical theory to show how the method of Reader Response evolved. Discusses theories of reading and the reader; variations within reader response; and implementing reader response in literacy programs. Includes a brief response by Robert E. Probst. (RS)

Notes that the author was struck by the "self-centered" readers she encountered in her classroom and at professional conferences--readers who respond to reading by thinking of their own life and experiences. Argues that reading is so much more than a trip into the self. Presents two brief responses, by Lauren L. Wohl and Daniel Hade. (RS)

Concludes that the author's study of the once-popular but now largely forgotten periodical "The Youth's Companion" shows how children's literature can call forth in readers a powerful response--a personal, literary, critical and active response that is shaped by a text's purpose, promise, positioning of readers, and the enduring passion it…