Considers how the readers' view of the text can be changed after understanding the circumstances under which the author wrote the text. Describes her personal experience with this using Susan Vreeland's work and life as an example. Discusses Vreeland's experience as a teacher of English, creative writing, and art for over a 25 years. (SC)

Describes an assignment in which students read a travelogue excerpt and then must determine specified aspects of the writer's character based on evidence from the text. Notes how this exercise shapes students' awareness of how character influences writing, and how biases and assumptions influence reading. (SR)

Argues that historical understanding requires historical thinking--taking a critical stance toward what is read and assuming a questioning attitude. Identifies numerous trade books that deal with sources (showing how evidence is acquired and evaluated), conflicting interpretations, and powerful concepts and generalizations. Describes how to help…

Using a content analysis approach, this investigation systematically studies messages about HIV/AIDS contained in young adult novels and considers the effects of these messages as an information source for the reader. Young adults and young adult fiction are defined, and coding sheets and bibliographies are appended. (Author/LRW)

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…

Reading is an act of identity making. Because readers must complete the act of meaning making, the context and conditions of reading alter the shape of the storytelling event and the trajectory of meaning. This paper explains reading identity and pedagogy, providing techniques one professor used when teaching two novels (marking, tracing,…

Compares two methods of pretesting--the plus-minus method and the think-aloud method--with respect to their suitability for evaluating sites on the World Wide Web. Suggests that the plus-minus method is a more appropriate method for testing Web sites than the think-aloud method, but makes three qualifications to this conclusion. (SG)

Looks at a sample of instructional documents using Restricted and Elaborated Code and metadiscourse analysis to determine how easily users can read and understand the material. Suggests that the documents do not send a clear message to authors and editors and can be stylistically hard to understand and consequently, the approved standards…

Considers how Frank O'Connor's "My Oedipus Complex" provides a good introduction to the subtleties of narrative voice and control. Concludes by considering the notion of control and its relation to the narrative point of view in O'Connor's story and how it bears directly upon the value of reading literature and the reader's role. (SG)

Looks at the role of paragraphing on the identification of and memory for main ideas as compared to elaborative information in expository passages. Finds that paragraph manipulation had a greater effect on the differentiation of main ideas and elaborations when passage content was less familiar. (RS)

Investigates effects of issue-related emotional involvement on reading comprehension. Notes that three groups of eighth graders read silently about a basketball game that ended in a fight--two groups were highly emotionally involved with the teams while the third group was emotionally uninvolved with the teams. Finds that emotional involvement can…

Explores what it means to think visually and spatially in hypertexts and how users react and maneuver in real and virtual three-dimensional spaces. Offers four principles of visual thinking that can be applied when developing hypertexts. Applies these principles to actual hypertexts, demonstrating how selectivity, fixation, depth discernment, and…

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…

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…