This paper explores some alternative ways to think about critical thinking in the study of literature in the elementary grades. In a review of the research, the paper examines several factors that have shaped, or influenced, the trends in the literature curriculum over the years to determine if and how these factors influenced the teaching of…

Designed to improve the teaching and learning of critical aesthetic response to literature, a 2-year collaborative study involved 20 teachers, 2 university-based researchers, and approximately 300 elementary school students in the Lansing, Michigan, area. The study examined aspects of the teachers' understanding of the theory and their practices…

This paper analyzes the curriculum materials of the California Literature Program, a distinctive literature curriculum for grades K-6, in terms of how it addresses the critical/aesthetic approach. The paper notes that although a sequence of concepts, skills, and attitudes about literature in parts of the program can be identified, the organizing…

Presents comments by authors of children's and adolescent literature about qualities of good writers, which include being a good reader, caring about language, being well educated, being an alert observer, being a good story teller, and being a compulsive writer. (EL)

A descriptive/observational study examined one teacher's approach to teaching literature in a heterogeneous, self-contained fifth-grade classroom in a growing suburban community in southeastern Michigan during one school year. The teacher (with 21 years experience) was selected by the Murray Hill School administrators and was observed once a week…

There are two disconcerting aspects of the research studies selected and discussed in the publication "Becoming a Nation of Readers: The Report of the Commission on Reading" (1985). One is the kinds of reading materials that were designated as sources for meeting the various functions of reading; the other is the omission of the role of…