When the author and her teaching colleague assessed their 7th and 8th grade students' research papers, they realized that although the papers demonstrated proper structure, the students had not gained meaningful understanding of their topics. Although the teachers had carefully prepared students to write, they had not ensured that students had…

Advocates of critical literacy emphasize the empowering role that literacy can and should play in reshaping the environment in which one lives and works. Through mastering the skills of critical literacy, students apply the inquiry process and knowledge gained as a means for political or social action. By gathering appropriate information,…

In this article, the author explores her teaching experiences in order to better understand the nature of the professional knowledge needed to make use of conflict and to manage a particular teaching dilemma. The author's intention is to show that such a personal inquiry can reveal ways in which her story is a telling case that may enable others…

This paper examines visual and affective factors involved in the reading of foreign language texts. It draws on the results of a pilot study among students of post-compulsory school stage studying French in England. Through a detailed analysis of students' reactions to texts, it demonstrates that the use of "authentic" documents under…

This article describes how content area readers/informational books can be used in beginning reading programs to support both literacy development and the learning of national standards-based content. Benefits from using content area readers/informational books with young readers include: (1) Certain children, often boys, are far more excited by…

This paper proposes a design for the electronic book based on discussions with frequent book readers. We adopted a conceptual framework for this project consisting of a spectrum of possible designs, with the conventional bound book at one difference pole, and the laptop computer at the other; the design activity then consisted of appropriately…

This paper describes Project LITERACY-HI, an ongoing 3-year federally funded study of the benefits of electronically enhanced text for mainstreamed students with hearing impairments. Preliminary information documents the ongoing difficulties with reading experienced by most students with hearing impairments. The project is creating electronic…

An undergraduate course in children's literature was developed at De Montfort University in Bedford, England, United Kingdom (UK). In a children's literature course for first year students from a variety of backgrounds, age groups, and future intents, it is important to consider the discourse of children's literature, to trace intertextual…

This paper reviews the literature on the impact of technology on reading instruction, with a specific focus on language development as enhanced by the use of CD-Rom programs. The paper cites a study in which two separate groups, preschool children and third graders, were asked to talk about a story they listened to and saw on CD-Rom, providing…

The purpose of this research study was to explore the effects of children's trade books on the development of science concepts. The two objectives of this exploratory study were to determine whether children's ideas about specific science concepts change when trade books containing information about those concepts are read to them, and…

Reading is construed as operating within the dynamics of the relationship of reader, text, context, and language system. Context is understood as the cultural and situational environment of the text, itself a semantic unit that is an instance of the language system. A related variable for reading is the awareness of the reader of the language…

The ideas, practices, and day-to-day impact of parent education should be critically examined, and Michel Foucault's conception of discourse provides a useful model for doing so. Contemporary discourses about becoming a parent achieve their authority in different ways. In contrast to the child care literature by so-called experts earlier in this…

An outline of a "co-emergent" pedagogical perspective describes the conceptual framework for an advanced university-level English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) course. The course framework, which involves choosing and studying a brief science fiction story, allows for transcultural encounters via a transactional literary approach in which…

Generally speaking English department faculty respond very differently when reading freshman writing than when reading most other kinds of writing. Mina Shaughnessy has pointed out that "ordinary readers" try to understand what they are reading, but the writing teacher, "like a lawyer examining a client's document for all possible ambiguities and…

A study investigated the effects of a prior knowledge activation strategy on students' ability to successfully engage in the ongoing comprehension of extended text. Data were elicited from 79 ninth graders who were enrolled in a required social studies class in an urban high school in the Southeast. Equal numbers of high and low readers were…