Offers a four-step procedure that can be used to help upper elementary school students learn to write a well-structured expository paragraph. Suggests that the writing experience is a bridge to understanding more difficult text structure. (FL)

Describes a study that investigated whether the structure of the materials children encounter and the abilities and experiences they bring to the act of reading affect the ease with which they comprehend the text. (FL)

Examines the effects of specific task-related information on undergraduates' studying behaviors and question-answering performance and indicates that specific postreading response criteria significantly improved the question-answering performance of readers.(DF)

Taking off from the perception that the current critical climate blurs most meaningful distinctions between fiction and nonfiction, this book examines what happens when writers and readers encounter texts presented as nonfiction--texts that make some truth claim on outside experience, texts whose characters and events have at least some tangible…

This essay suggests a foreign language (FL) pedagogy for teaching literature to beginning students that creates strong readers equipped with strategies to undertake independent interpretations of literary works. It endorses a top-down processing that teaches students to attend to patterns of textual messages. Students use an "r+1" approach (the…

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the status of literature in contemporary English K-12 curriculum in a national agenda that values skills, outcomes and benchmarking. This paper is divided into two parts. The first part argues that the role of literature in the primary classroom should not be underestimated, and that educators should…

Finds that journalistic story frames (such as human interest, conflict, or personal consequences) significantly affected the topical focus and evaluative implications of thoughts generated by readers. Shows that evaluations and opinions offered by participants indicated that news frames also subtly could affect audience decision making about…

Discusses (1) knowledge teachers are trying to teach when they ask children to read stories about incidences of pain and horror; (2) how preservice elementary teachers experience the dangers and the possibilities involved in using such literature; (3) principles literary practitioners call upon to assist readers in working through the psychic…

Describes seven different written response formats (which all use reading response strategies) used with seventh graders. Discusses how the formats improve the quality of thinking put forth in students' responses to their self-selected adolescent novels. Discusses which response formats illicit more higher-level thinking. (SR)

Analyzes read-alouds of information books in a first-grade classroom. Finds that children's responses to the books and the connections they made among texts and between texts and other aspects of their lives shows that children's backgrounds are important factors in their literacy development. Notes the strength that diversity in children's…

Compares the information content in descriptions made by sixth grade students based on messages of text and picture, written and verbal, or written language alone. The semantic framework analyzes the importance of words and ideas in text and relationships between them. Found the written language to be more open to interpretation than verbal and…

Argues for the importance of distinct discourse communities, and the importance of a theory and pedagogy that recognizes common practices, common goals, and common values among discourse communities. Analyzes professional samples of scholarship and sample student papers. Suggests that the transaction between writer and reader lies at the heart of…

Suggests an approach to the analysis of mathematical texts that makes use of linguistic theory to provide insights into how the language of a text may influence the ways in which readers make sense of it. Focuses on the ways in which teacher-readers may make sense of texts produced by students. Contains 33 references. (DDR)

Examines the skills and abilities needed to interact with text on the Internet. Proposes that the Internet provides opportunities for interacting with new text formats, reader elements, and activities. Notes that it also expands and influences the sociocultural context in which a student learns to read. Considers the implications of a broader…

Determines if students' aesthetic involvement would be influenced by the ethnicity of the student or the culture portrayed in short stories. Finds that the level of aesthetic involvement was not significantly influenced by the ethnicity of the student or culture portrayed in the story. Supports the integration of multicultural literature into the…