The reading of science-related, historical nonfiction alone does not necessarily lead students to make personal connections to science or understand science as a human endeavor interdependent with culture, society, and history. Teachers must structure students' reading to ensure that they consider specific aspects of science while reading and…

It is essential to develop future teachers' views of diversity, as contemporary teachers teach large numbers of students who are not like them linguistically or culturally. Teacher educators are responsible for preparing preservice and inservice literacy teachers to be effective in these increasingly diverse classrooms. They should continue to…

In this paper, a creative narrative is used to illustrate an episode of flaming (defined as the fervent exchange of messages personally attacking or expressing defensiveness on computer-mediated communication networks) in an electronic mail exchange among a small group of communication scholars. The narrative allows for the presentation of an…

Ergonomics, or human factors, is the study of the relationship between people as functioning physical beings and the world in which they exist and this includes the textual material that they read. The presentation of textual material can be considered from two points of view: (1) the qualities of the text as impacted by the author; and (2) the…

The Jewish tradition of text study and commentary may convey important messages to educators because of its probable inherent interest and for possible recommendations for pedagogical practice that might be suggested by it. Beyond seeking guidance in religious and everyday affairs, the last 2000 years of Torah study reveals a passionate commitment…

A recurring theme within the prolific body of research on reader response is that of reader stance. Although several prominent theories of reader response spring from different perspectives, they share one common property: each describes reader response in terms of two opposed domains with particular responses falling somewhere on a continuum…

Drawing on the work of Virginia Woolf, feminist instructors of college composition can help their students to develop their own voices by encouraging innovation and revision of mainstream discourses and ways of expression. If Woolf believed that women cannot escape the language of men, which not only constitutes the symbolic realm of phallocentric…

A study investigated the religious and spiritual values in selected children's books. A second study investigated children's comprehension of the values messages. Thirty realistic fiction books which won, or were honor books for, the John Newbery Medals for 1974-1988 were selected. A modified version of the Values Category Scale was developed and…

The history of the evaluation of non-English written materials through the use of various mathematical formulae is reviewed. This process began in 1939 with Tharp's work in French, and has continued until the present. Formulas have been developed for Spanish, Russian, German, Hebrew, Chinese, and Vietnamese. In Europe, modifications of the Flesch…

In order for students to write for a general audience, they must be able to address unknown readers. Research into how successful writers perceive their audience suggests that they write to an audience who is an idealized version of themselves. Writing for an unknown audience can be a writer's search for common ground, for a set of beliefs and…

A study investigated whether three types of journalistic material--news stories, news articles, and news reports--could be reliably distinguished from one another, and whether these genres had differential appeal to audiences. News reports are defined as succinct reports of facts, while news articles represent a more analytic form of reporting,…

Two experiments investigated some of the cognitive and affective causes of interest and liking. Results did not support the hypothesis that degree of surprise per se causes interest. The hypothesis that interest and liking arise from different causes was supported. (Author/LMO)

Describes the effects (both positive and negative) personal knowledge about students has on student writing conferences. (MM)

Focuses on the role of pictures in books used for reading instruction to determine how they are used, how their content has changed over the years, and how pictures affect reading comprehension. (FL)

Recounts the effective use of unusual teaching methods for poetry: (1) allowing students to read and write about Wordsworth outside on a warm spring day, and (2) asking students to keep a journal while reading the poetry of Hughes. Suggests that these approaches allow students to "bring their own experiences" to the poetry text. (NH)