To explore how readers create textual meanings or interpretations from written materials, a study that investigated reading from a semiotic perspective was conducted. The study's design was based on the principle of prior ethnography and employed data collection techniques common to field studies: participant/intervention and interviewing. Fieldwork was conducted over a seven-month period in one fourth grade classroom. The primary heuristic was an instructional strategy lesson, introduced after a three-month period of prior ethnography, that called on readers to sketch their interpretations of materials read. The lessons and interviews were audio and video taped, detailed field notes were kept, and all sketches were collected. Data analysis was focused on three dimensions: the interrelationship of fieldworker and respondents, the contextual constraints and resources in operation during the lessons, and the drawings that were created. Findings suggested that the children's interpretations were influenced by their embedded theories of the social situation, their skills as artists, and the nature of the activity of sketching. Within-class friendships and interest also played major roles in the process of constructing meaning. Overall, results suggested that from the theoretical and methodological perspective of semiotics it is more efficacious to view reading as more than mere representation, that models of direct instruction be reconsidered, and that the potential that transmediation across sign systems holds for curriculum development be explored. (Author/CRH)