Argues that instructors involved in academic assistance must become familiar with the academic demands their students face in different content courses. Discusses four methods to gather such information, and shows how to identify relevant strategies for students to practice with actual course texts. (SR)

Reports on the Multilingual Resources for Children Project at Reading University, United Kingdom, which examines the problems of relating and controlling dual language texts so that the reader perceives the two texts as equally important. States that the project encompassed five languages: Chinese, Gujarati, Bengali, Urdu, and Panjabi--the most…

Notes the ability to imagine is considered the gift of authors and illustrators whose books inspire readers. Highlights 38 works of children's literature that show how imagination can inform and excite both readers and characters. Concludes that through creative envisioning, poets, authors, and llustrators propel readers to relate the familiar to…

Outlines the author's experience of teaching David Mamet's play "Oleanna" in an introductory college drama class. Proposes that "Oleanna" in the classroom becomes a powerfully reflexive text, framing the student-teacher relationship. Concludes this work confronts teachers and students with the relationships of power and…

Examines the ways in which the interpretation of a literary text is constructed through social interaction in a multi-ethnic urban secondary school English classroom. Suggests that despite the exhaustive regulation of literacy and school English, some English teachers, while still curriculum and examination focused, have connections between texts…

Demonstrates the wide variability among children learning to read and explores the consequences of this variability for reading instruction. Shares some examples to demonstrate that variability. Demonstrates what happens when very different children read identical text. Describes a way to organize classrooms that will better accommodate the…

Describes how the author incorporated a shared book reading using the multicultural book "Too Many Tamales" (by G. Soto and E. Martinez) with her urban third graders. Notes how the story provides an opportunity to consider what variables impact readers' interpretations and comprehension of text. (SG)

Provides a theoretical framework for thinking about how students read literature through the notions of envisionment-building and stories. Discusses possibilities for instruction. (MG)

Reviews "How Porcupines Make Love II," the sequel on teaching a response-centered literature curriculum. Finds it to be a lively, engaging, provocative text, one that includes workable hints for classroom practice. (MG)

Examines the role of readers' subjectivity or personal responses in story interpretation, specifically in the formation of thematic generalizations. (MG)

Reviews research on the effects of world knowledge and text structure variables on reading comprehension. Concludes that text structure variables exert influence only when the subject matter is moderately unfamiliar and are redundant in reading familiar or very difficult material. Suggests knowledge and structure variables should be manipulated…

Discusses a textbook annotation strategy. Examines the effectiveness and efficiency of the strategy. Finds that training students to annotate text enables them to perform effectively over time. Presents practical teaching suggestions for working with different types of students. (RS)

Suggests that each type of literature presented to young readers serves two important functions: to develop a schema for that literary genre; and to encourage the application of thinking skills in a variety of literary engagements. Presents four related resources from the ERIC database. (MG)

Focuses on diagrams giving overviews of complex technical information as facilitators for adult subjects using computers to learn about the business activities of a fictitious family. Finds that features of the author's control over the reader's encounter with the diagram influences whether readers will interrupt their reading to study the…

Uses an error detection paradigm to examine the ability of college students of different reading proficiency levels to evaluate their understanding of texts. Finds that good readers were more likely than poor readers to detect inconsistent sentences. Finds that students rated passage understanding high regardless of whether they detected…