Considers that how educators see themselves as teachers of English depends on many things: culture, gender, and experiences. Notes that the metaphors constructed to describe their teaching lives arise from the teachers they have known, from their knowledge of pedagogy, and from their relationships to literature, language, and writing. (SG)

Suggests that (1) readers store a substantial amount of text-sequencing information; (2) memory for text-sequencing information is strongly related to comprehension; (3) memory for place on the page is very weak; and (4) memory for place-on-the-page and text-sequencing information appear to be distinct. Indicates that text-sequence information is…

Examines intertextual relationships in "The Wedding Ghost," a children's book written by Leon Garfield and illustrated by Charles Keeping. Concludes that, as a top-down component in reading, intertextuality has significant implications for how texts are approached and can be seen as an element which promotes the development of high-level…

Asks why students read essays as if their meanings are simple, univocal, and transparent. Suggests that students grow up practicing "essayist literacy," a view of the text as a self-sufficient communication vehicle. Argues that a rhetoric of deproduction conceals the social process of writing behind the apparent artlessness of the plain…

Describes a model of visual communication which provides a framework for teaching students to analyze and design technical documents as visual systems. Notes that by integrating the writing and design processes, students can adapt visual language to the rhetorical variables of each communication task. (MM)

Presents a series of lessons for a U.S. history class on Christopher Columbus's "discovery" of America. Notes that this approach teaches students to evaluate critically the historical information presented in their textbooks. (MM)

Examines the impact on proofreading accuracy of setting text in monospaced typewriter faces and proportionally spaced typefaces. Finds no significant differences. Notes that proofreading suffered when an irregularly spaced typeface was used. Suggests that text may be checked more thoroughly if its format suggests provisionality. (RS)

This article explains the relationship between the number and type of questions that readers with deafness have and their comprehension of the reading material. It describes intervention strategies that can be used to improve comprehension, with the goal of developing readers' abilities to read in a way to answer their own questions. (Author/JDD)

Noted author and editor of children's books shares views on the quality of children's literature. Stresses the importance of the text and illustrations not mirroring or imitating one another, but adding new dimensions. Discusses the art of shaping a book. (ET)

Investigates how 10 proficient Taiwanese English-as-a-foreign-language college readers employ intertextuality as a constructive strategy to comprehend and interpret literary texts. Finds four intertextual patterns: storying, integrating, evaluating, and associating. Argues that the more students can link their previous literacy experiences, the…

Describes the work of the Clothesline Project, which both commemorates and bears witness to victims and survivors of violence against women. Explores the social implications of the notion that curriculum must enable students in schools to explore the themes and most difficult problems of their lives. (SR)

Compared the responses of four Pacific-islander readers and four non-Pacific-islander readers of Alan Duff's 1990 novel "Once Were Warriors," about the lives of indigenous Maori people in New Zealand. Non-Pacific-islanders saw parallels in the novel between the Maori and other downtrodden peoples, such as South African blacks, while…

Offers a means for writers to analyze their own texts through the construction and use of a tool--called a reader's outline--that students build from their rough drafts. Notes that the reader's outline facilitates more effective detection and diagnosis of problems and helps point the way to solutions. (SR)

Describes the folk tale "Iron John" and the attraction it held for the author as a boy. Discusses the author's own reforming of the tale in a picture book version. (SR)

Reviews the literature on the effect of prior knowledge and text familiarity on document comprehension and usability. Discusses current methods for assessing subjects' topic familiarity. Presents an empirically based method for effectively assessing topic familiarity. Explains that the method includes use of two subject groups and reliance on…