Addresses that distinctive contribution of English to the development of students' literate capabilities as they progress through the years of schooling. Develops a framework for thinking about the nature of knowledges and the repertoires of literate practice made available to students of the English classroom. Explains different understandings…

Examines the "levels effect" (the theory that more important text elements are more likely to be remembered than less important elements) in children and adults when reading expository text. Finds differences between adults and children in the extent to which they engaged in the type of processing that resulted in levels effects. (MG)

Argues that as reading is taught increasingly as a tool, the delight that comes from personal literacy is becoming obscured. Argues that bringing personal values and experiences to poetry is an important way for students to discover the meaning of a poem. Describes how students can "map" their reading journey. (RS)

Tests a new model of the child's meaning-making process in response to literary text. Finds that the model is not disproved and serves as a valid means for adults to share information and ideas about young peoples' transactions with literary texts. (MG)

Drawing from personal experiences of catharsis in the reading of literary works, presents a new and broader theory of reader response. Considers the classical distinctions that have been made about the nature of response, arguing that the disturbing trends in contemporary world events must set the context of current readings. (DMM)

Describes author-reader-text interactions which play roles in both revision in writing and critical reading. Examines the processes of revision in writing and critical reading as thought processes mirroring one another. Presents two examples of group classroom activities which nurture revision in both writing and critical reading. (MM)

A widely used technique for teaching reading, Directed Reading Activity (DRA), contributes to the development of passive readers rather than thinking readers. This article describes an alternative approach, Directed Reading-Thinking Activity (DRTA), contrasts DRTA with DRA, gives an example of DRTA in action, and provides tips for switching to…

Argues that real books attract, intrigue, and illuminate their young readers, making them laugh, touching their feelings, and clarifying situations. Argues that real books provide many lessons about reading, about print, about text, and about life. (RS)

Investigates the effects of reader perspective and cognitive style on encoding, storage, and retrieval processes. Finds that structural characteristics of the text itself may affect storage and retrieval processes but not encoding processes, and that reader perspective shows no effect on a delayed recognition test. (RS)

Describes a class novel writing assignment and points out its obvious benefits to the students' understanding of the novel genre. (RAE)

Reports on the Senior English Educators Conference, called in response to widespread feelings that English education needs to be reexamined in relation to current developments in education and society. Focuses on graduate studies and research, teacher education, and the nature of English as an academic discipline. (RS)

The predictions that 48 students with deafness in grades 4-8 made while reading narrative text were analyzed to explore the influence of the children's expectations for text structure and content on reading comprehension. Findings indicated that interacting at a deep level with narrative text was more related to reader characteristics than to…

Reports on six case studies of interactions between less proficient readers and their teachers during oral reading and rereading. Finds that accuracy was a critical factor in achieving meaning-focused teacher-student interactions. Finds further that the nature of text material and teachers' instructional goals influenced the nature of…

Examines differences in language ability between normally achieving students and learning-disabled students with reading comprehension problems. Poor comprehending students differed from normal achievers for all language measures and in the manner that reader- and text-related variables predicted comprehension. Results supported the positive role…

Uses reading responses of a ninth grade class and a teachers' study group to examine the social memberships and constituencies that reading and discussion disclose through the response process. Maintains that teachers should base reading lists on an understanding of their own and students' memberships rather than on some abstract notion of…