Defining myth as a cultural narrative in symbolic form that articulates a world view and offers consensus with that view, this paper uses a brief "New York Times" report on the Soviet shooting down of South Korean airline flight 007 as the basis for comparison of international news and myth. Following a review of the literature on myth…

Reader-writer conferencing was examined as an alternative or complement to the direct assessment of writing. Criteria guiding development of a framework for analysis of reader-writer conferencing were summarized as: (1) achievability; (2) transfer to other domains of writing; (3) importance of the outcomes; (4) inter-scorer agreement; and (5)…

Chinese crime fiction is discussed in the context of political and social change. Chinese fiction bears little resemblance to the model police officer of Communist ideology. Crime fiction has become the main vehicle in China for forming public images of police and may become a channel for social discourse. (SLD)

Summarizes a descriptive naturalistic study of the literary competence of a class of first and second graders as suggested by their responses during read-alouds of picture books. Finds that the children were sophisticated literary critics, and the storybook read-aloud situation was an important site for the development of their literary…

The central role of teachers' interpretive assessments in guiding the growth of young writers is explored. Theories of reader response and literary criticism have been used to design a framework that integrates what is read with what is written. The current context of writing assessment is explored, and some of the other authors' efforts to…

Presents a study of students in Australia, Canada, and England and examines grade nine students' written responses to writing over a two year period and their opinions of the books they read. Suggests that for students of that age, creative written responses to writing are the most imaginative. (JC)

Given critical theory's current focus on the interaction between writers and readers over the surface of a text, it seems appropriate to examine the semantic component concerned with how writers anticipate that interaction--the interpersonal component. The relevance of the interpersonal component is apparent in traditional instruction on point of…

Examines the case of two classes that used online posting of student papers to facilitate peer response critiquing. Reveals how many women may feel that choosing a male pseudonym is necessary for credibility; and sheds light on the readers' responses to particular identities. Considers the significance of gender choices in terms of classroom…

When students are learning to write, one-to-one teacher-student conversations taking place around the students' writing and writing processes are especially important. Two examples illustrate the multiple and connected processes of reading and writing that are associated with composing in a high school English class. The first conversation, in a…

This paper is based on the belief that a prerequisite to literacy education and to all teaching is accepting and caring about the students. Eighteen education students' responses to two children's books, "Chevrolet Saturdays" and "My Name is Maria Isabel," were compiled. From the comments, the following attributes were…

An interview method for assessing reading processes was pilot tested to examine reader-text interaction among native-Spanish-speaking fifth graders. Subjects were active participants in the reading situation but were lacking in aspects related to the text's cultural content. The reading interview method is highly recommended for use in…

A study examined evidence that first graders are able to analyze and respond to picture books. The study resulted from the collaboration of an eighth-grade class and a first-grade class. The eighth graders were given the task of writing, illustrating, and reading a picture book for the first graders. The first-grade class was randomly divided into…

A study examined the effects of a reader response approach to literature in which literature is viewed as a medium for exploration and the effects of such an approach on a group of young women. Subjects of the study were four female middle school students, with the adult female researcher as participant observer. Books chosen for…

A project reviewed 54 commercially available multimedia products with literature as the subject matter, to determine what pedagogical approaches steered the design of literature software, and whether these were aligned with response-based views of literature teaching/learning. Findings indicated that the design of commercial products advocates an…

This paper examines the debate about the English literature canon in schools. It evaluates the importance of the canon in a 21st-century curriculum and considers its relevance to adolescent readers saturated in early 21st-century culture who have disparate identities and diverse backgrounds. The implications for teaching and learning of the…