Suggests that viewing aesthetic reading as a process whereby readers and writers attempt to "make contact" and collaborate in making meaning forces one to adopt research strategies that go beyond measuring reading comprehension, and offers two studies to illustrate these ideas. (JC)

Summarizes results of a survey on an ethical dilemma about whether a teacher should meet the needs of a working mother or those of her four-year-old son in terms of naptime. Educator Lilian Katz and philosopher Kenneth Kipnis comment on the dilemma. (BB)

Describes the fundamentals of reader response theory, focuses on the aspects most relevant to reading instruction, and presents a method of teaching using reader response as a vehicle for improving student ability to learn from text. (NKA)

Concludes that young people are reading less and are less influenced by reading than their counterparts of almost a decade ago. (EL)

Shows the unexpected consequences of being a part-time guidance counselor and a part-time English teacher at the same time. Shares two experiences, in literature and in composition, that show a greater understanding of students' reactions. (EL)

Argues, in a discussion of the benefits of collaborative writing, that teaching writing as a solitary activity belies actual experience and research pointing to it as a collaborative effort. Shows how to use peer response groups to introduce students to collaborative writing. (EL)

Presents lists of exercises to be done in conjunction with students' independent reading that emphasize the affective domain. Includes activities that were developed for high school literature and college poetry classes. (MM)

Examines students' difficulties in reading literature and suggests methods for helping them to develop and improve skills necessary for the mature reading of literature. (MM)

Uses response journals to explore the ways fourth-grade students respond to literature. Finds factors necessary to mesh text and a reader's personal experiences: a classroom atmosphere that encourages risk-taking; daily opportunities to read and respond; a wide variety of choices in reading materials; modeling of good reading strategies; and…

Shares how one teacher and her class of seventh graders learned to share and discuss literature through the notions of stances and instructional scaffolding. (MG)

Responds to two opening articles by Parham ("Cycles of Psychological Nigrescence") and Helms ("Considering Some Methodological Issues in Racial Identity Counseling Research"). Argues that Black or African identity is not a developmental reaction to social oppression, but is a core personality trait, essential to healthy…

This paper reviews graphophonic factors underlying the development of reading competence and their relationship to functional aspects of reading. The paper suggests that attention be paid to aspects of visual form, such as the use of typographic and linguistic cues, to improve the operational effectiveness and motivational appeal of materials for…

This article reviews literature supporting the relationship of emotional factors and success in reading and writing activities, outlines physical and language behaviors that indicate emotional involvement with success or lack of success in comprehension, and presents strategies that help children understand what they need to do to read and write…

Examines responses of fourth, sixth, and eighth grade students to realistic and fantasy novels. Finds that students responded to fantasy with more categoric evaluations and to realism with more analytic evaluation. Finds also that evaluative responses moved from mainly categoric in grade four to more analytic in the upper grades. (KEH)

Examines four fifth-grade students' stances and their responses to a narrative text in three classroom activities--a peer-led discussion group, a story map activity, and written responses. Investigates issues regarding the accessibility of shifts in stance for the students. Calls into question L. Rosenblatt's construct of the aesthetic-efferent…