Describes how an interdisciplinary course at Bryn Mawr College explores the various biases that are woven into human lives and seen in texts. Students express how they learn to recognize and follow biases from which people write, and in the process, they comprehend a wide range of experience. (EV)

Eye fixation patterns were used to identify reading strategies of adults as they read multiple-topic expository texts. A clustering technique distinguished four strategies that differed with respect to the ways in which readers processed text. Findings indicated that qualitatively distinct reading strategies are observable among competent, adult…

Presents an overview of critical theory to show how the method of Reader Response evolved. Discusses theories of reading and the reader; variations within reader response; and implementing reader response in literacy programs. Includes a brief response by Robert E. Probst. (RS)

Notes that the author was struck by the "self-centered" readers she encountered in her classroom and at professional conferences--readers who respond to reading by thinking of their own life and experiences. Argues that reading is so much more than a trip into the self. Presents two brief responses, by Lauren L. Wohl and Daniel Hade. (RS)

Concludes that the author's study of the once-popular but now largely forgotten periodical "The Youth's Companion" shows how children's literature can call forth in readers a powerful response--a personal, literary, critical and active response that is shaped by a text's purpose, promise, positioning of readers, and the enduring passion it…

Ponders whether there exists a knowledge base for teaching others how to teach reading. Discusses the distinction between "social constructionism" and "social constructivism." Notes that literacy teacher educators who conceive of literacy as critical social practice do not deny the cognitive or behavioral aspects of reading, writing, and speaking,…

Considers how lift-the-flap books attract very little critical attention. Attempts to redress this imbalance by suggesting that lift-the-flap books provide useful lessons in reading both literature and pictures for the young reader, that a grammar of lift-the-flap books can be postulated to facilitate their description and discussion, and that the…

Investigates two types of texts (a reading scheme book and a children's literature text) to see how the reader is constructed by the text, and what kind of reading support is offered. Finds that the literary text offers more reading support than the supposedly carefully constructed reading scheme book, which constructs a passive reader to whom…

Corrigan remembers well the angst and conflict of adolescence, as well as how important the right book at the right time could be in helping kids understand themselves and others. That ability to identify closely with teens permeates her story in verse, "Splintering," several verses of which are included here.

A fourth grader's reading and retelling is studied to demonstrate how he learns about the complexity of the text while he reads. The importance of understanding what a reader learns through transaction with a well-written complex text is also discussed.

English teachers can use drama as a performance tool in the English language arts classroom in order to help students build their knowledge of the context of a piece of literature and expand their thinking about text, bridging the learning from self to text to world. Authentic drama assignments capture the students' ability to understand complex…

Kathleen Cecil helps the urban students to see the connections between texts on a topic and create a harmonious whole. For the final project the students chose a visual and two kinds of writings that presented the most compelling information.

Thoreau's "Walden" is a text that has been misinterpreted in various ways, one consequence of which is a failure to appreciate its significance as a perfectionist and visionary text for education. This paper explores aspects of what might be called its teaching, especially via the kind of teaching that is offered by Stanley Cavell's commentary,…

In 1988, the author taught remedial Senior English reading at a rural high school. None of the students intended to go to college. Instead, they all planned to be homemakers, farmers, or watermen. On the second day of class, he assigned a short story from the cumbersome literature book. The classroom was quiet for a moment, and then one of the…

"Following the Curve of the Sentence: Notes From a Reader's Diary" is comprised of excerpts from the author's Reader's Diary, using experimental writing practices that can be modeled and used by English teachers in classrooms. The Reader's Diary is a subgenre of autobiography, memoir and poetic prose essay, a flexible, hybrid form of inquiry. The…