Discusses at-risk students' attitudes toward reading and their varying levels of response to literature. Finds that students' attitudes toward reading improved after one semester of discussion groups. Presents excerpts from classroom discussions. Discusses elements to encourage response. (RS)

Examines patterns in the responses of eight second- and third-grade students as they constructed meaning from fiction and nonfiction when asked to respond in writing to different instructional tasks. Suggests that both the task and the text influence children's responses. Demonstrates that young children are capable of providing rich written…

Provides examples of arts infused literary studies, with each example using art experiences (expressive writing, creative movement, visual arts, exploratory music, and informal drama) to relate to the literature text. Notes that the learning outcome is to involve readers in exploring the meaning of the story as it relates to their own life…

Describes reading response journals and discusses how and when they can be used to help students foster their ability to connect literature with their own lives and increase comprehension. (MG)

Explores journal writing exchanges through the observations of a classroom teacher and a college professor as their students connected with one another in an authentic literary experience. Offers four suggestions for helping a journal exchange to proceed smoothly. (MG)

Analyzes, from a reader-response perspective, children's free responses to story characters in nontraditional roles. Investigates the relationship of gender for these responses. Finds that only 20-30 percent of the responses expressed opinions regarding appropriateness of nontraditional gender roles and that the most common response type was…

Describes a project conducted by a classroom teacher to examine the effects of children's literature on students' existing attitudes and beliefs toward environmental issues. Outlines instructional procedures used in a unit for sixth grade science students who reexamined their beliefs about endangered species. Describes assessment procedures and…

Examines the tasks of authors, of readers, and of teachers in assisting readers to make use of prior information as they read. (FL)

Applies an aesthetic instrument to first-grade students' pictorial/oral and written responses to determine if significant aesthetic growth was demonstrated in responses collected over a three-month period. Compares students' written growth to growth demonstrated in pictorial/oral responses. Finds that pictorial and oral responses can serve as…

Examines literary discourse that occurred in a sixth-grade language arts classroom within a departmentalized, multidisciplinary, and then an interdisciplinary, context. Identifies discourse elements. Organizes elements into the following broad themes: (1) the text and the story world; (2) the reader and the story world; and (3) discipline…

Describes three instructional guides designed to raise students' thinking about short stories beyond factual recall to interpretation, application, synthesis, and evaluation of material, and to foster positive affective responses as concomitant reading behaviors. (RS)

Compares traditional instruction in poetry with collaborative learning in poetry with grade-three students. Finds that the collaborative learning strategy led students to more mature responses to poetry than the teacher-directed strategy. (RS)

Examines preservice teachers' developing conceptions of reader response theory, specifically focusing on the importance of aesthetic response to students' engagement with and motivation for reading. Finds that the aesthetic reader stance predominated in students' written responses and discussions; and that written response did not influence the…

Advocates using literature logs and literature discussion groups as an effective way to develop a community of readers. Looks at the different kinds of comments and questions that a class of fifth graders wrote in their literature logs. (SR)

Analyzes the effect of grade level on stances students take when responding to literature. Finds that a two-way analysis of variance for grade and text on the variable of stance reveals no significant main effects for grade. (PRA)