The ability to infuse language with qualities of the human voice in the act of speaking is what distinguishes autobiography as a genre and makes it most suited to teaching students subtle features inherent in the complex act of writing. When students write from personal experience, they consciously begin to shape their identities in one direction…

The relationship of comprehension monitoring to writing was investigated in a multiple-measure, longitudinal study of writing skill development. Subjects were approximately 100 elementary school students who were followed during the first three grades. At the end of first grade, relationships were found between ambiguity detection, reading, and…

This document is a teacher's guide for using The Sexual Decision-Making Series for Teens, consisting of three interactive fiction books that address the following topics for young people: sexual abstinence ("Too Soon for Sex?"), birth control ("Taking Chances with Sex"), and the prevention of sexually transmitted disease…

This paper, number eight in an ongoing series, is part of an interdisciplinary project on the context of reading and reading research that explores similarities and dissimilarities in the response to literature in readers from different cultures. Presented are the written responses from 129 readers in Denmark, Greenland, Great Britain, India, and…

This paper, number nine in an ongoing series, is part of an interdisciplinary project on the context of reading and reading research that explores similarities and dissimilarities in the response to literature in readers from different cultures. Presented are the written responses from 137 readers in Denmark, Greenland, Great Britain, India, and…

This paper, number 10 in an ongoing series, is part of an interdisciplinary project on the context of reading and reading research that explores similarities and dissimilarities in the response to literature in readers from different cultures. Presented are the written responses from 140 readers in Denmark, Greenland, Great Britain, India, and…

Political cartoons are animated through visual analogies that imply a likeness between the event portrayed in the image and the issue on which the cartoonist is making comment. Although many kinds of analogies can be used, meanings arise as the viewer is able to recognize and interpret them. This becomes difficult, though, when a cartoon's analogy…

Describes and provides examples of how storytelling can help develop children's language ability. Argues that the goal is not to teach children language but to create an environment that will allow language learning to occur naturally. (SRT)

Suggests that Whole Language is not the whole word approach, nor merely teaching skills in context, nor the Language Experience approach, nor a new term for the Open Classroom, but rather a point of view about language, literacy, and content learning. (JC)

Identifies three problem areas in teaching students with limited English proficiency to read: (1) the readers' input (what they bring to the reading process), (2) the author's input, and (3) the reading process itself. Recommends that teachers acquaint themselves with students' prior knowledge and language competence level and strive for a balance…

Examines the experience of reading student writing by holding it against current views of reading from literary theory and composition studies. Describes this experience as a concentrated effort at once to read and not to "read" the student writing. (MS)

Examines the strategies first grade students use when reading two types of materials--basal and student-authored. Finds that children used more efficient strategies and had better comprehension when reading student-authored stories. (MM)

Offers an approach to text analysis that discusses what makes good writing good. Argues that good writing involves the presentation of propositions that are not too dense, in a schema that is familiar or explained carefully, requiring not much inference on the part of the reader, and in a pattern that is coherent from beginning to end. (MS)

Explores opposing theoretical views on the effects of text underlining and reports on a study of 67 college freshmen. Finds that the subjects who generated their own underlining did not perform significantly better than those who were given experimenter-generated marking. (SKC)

Reports on the observation of a group of kindergartners in their classroom library twice a week for eight weeks to learn more about how the nature of the texts--familiarity, predictability, and size--influence the children's use of books. (NH)