Reading is a multileveled, interactive, and hypothesis-generating process in which readers construct a meaningful representation of text by using their knowledge of the world and of language. If reading involves grasping the significance of an input depending on the reader's mental cognitive-perceptual situation, then there is a form of background…

This collection reflects the stance that a truly balanced approach to reading instruction will focus not only on reading but on literacy; integrate language and literacy across disciplines; attend to reading, writing, and other skills and strategies in context; and reflect a coherent integration of as broad a research base as possible. Following a…

This position paper aims to clarify the International Reading Association's stance on methods for teaching beginning reading (i.e., reading methods). The paper first defines a reading method as a set of teaching and learning materials and/or activities often given a label, such as a phonics method, literature-based method, or language experience…

Suggests that the ability to actualize the potential of hypertext is limited by the lack of an adequate theory of hypertext reading which accounts for ethical and political issues of identity or subjectivity. Identifies examples of this problem and speculates on some responses; considers what sort of reader and/or reading practices hypertext…

Suggests that the powerful role of the single character in the establishment of a memory network for reading skills be an inherent part of nonnative Chinese Mandarin reading programs. Through this technique, students come to understand lexical relationships between characters in words and will develop their powers of memorability. (nine…

This interview with Dr. Michael Pressley discusses the hurdles that struggling readers confront when comprehending text, teaching methods that can be used for improving reading comprehension, the role of special educators and reading specialists in the education of struggling readers, and the need for teachers to teach reading comprehension…

Describes an activity called warming-up for reading (WFR), which had been used in teaching reading to students at Simon Bolivar University in Venezuela. Special attention is focused on the role of the teacher and the students, and on how using WFR tackles skills, strategies, and other relevant aspects that are central to reading. (Author/VWL)

In a basic-level writing course at the University of Minnesota, students were asked to read and engage in intelligent conservation about Keith Gilyard's "Voices of the Self." The book is about education but alternates autobiographical material with scholarly analysis. Literacy researchers expect students to read a text, understand what…

Although reading has been studied extensively over the past few decades, its measurement and amelioration continues to be problematic. This paper explores the reasons for this within a psycho-educational perspective and offers several new alternative theoretical positions from which to view prose processing and enhancement. Implications for…

Good teachers of reading should ask questions which link the research knowledge base in reading, effective teaching, and learning with proficient decision-making skills. These questions should focus on the content to be taught, the behaviors of the student, and the behaviors of the teacher. Content questions address central concepts, prior…

This paper summarizes research on learning styles, then examines the cognitive style of Native American primary school students. Five theories of cognitive style (Dunn and Dunn, Gregorc, Kagan, Witkin, and Cohen) are examined along with the test instruments these theories have fostered. A sixth concept of cognitive style, brain hemispheric…

To help students organize and integrate new information with past knowledge, college reading teachers can offer students cognitive schemata that sort information into general and specific concepts. Without this ability, students will be unable to comprehend, analyze, synthesize, interpret, or transfer information. In addition, they will be unable…

According to Wolfgang Iser's "The Act of Reading: A Theory of Aesthetic Response," the meaning of a literary text is created by each individual reader in response to gaps, or indeterminacies, in the text. With the application of this theory to the two-year college classroom, teachers can show inexperienced readers how to discover the meaning of…

Argues that remedial reading programs should be included in the core curriculum where it can support and expand subject area learning. (NKA)

Draws from the work of J. Kinneavy to identify text superstructures that are considered organizational patterns within larger structures: literary, expository, persuasive, and expressive writing. (HOD)