Provides information on how teachers can contribute additional encouragement, direction, and guidance for exploring and expanding intermediate-grade students' personal response to literature. Describes eight response options and offers guidelines. (PRA)

Describes an approach, called "Questioning the Author," that is targeted toward getting young readers to engage with their textbooks--to really consider ideas deeply. Notes that the approach attempts to actualize the presence of an author, understand the author as a fallible transmitter of ideas, and transform author's ideas into readers' ideas.…

Reconceptualizes the idea of curriculum integration to include "cultural imagination." Uses the example of a fifth-grade child's responses to literature to demonstrate the types of connections that can be made. (SR)

Describes Body Parts Writing, an activity which focuses on the reader's own text-based and self-based interpretations of literature. Notes that the purpose of this activity is to invite and support readers' personal responses and give them a forum to discuss their individual interpretations. Concludes that it provides readers with another way to…

Analyzes the conversations and writings of 2 ethnically diverse populations of fifth-grade children (ages 10 and 11) in response to the powerful and difficult themes contained in two award-winning children's books. Discusses the child's voice; the teacher's role as cultural mediator; responses at the literal level; reading between the lines;…

Provides a rationale for organizing history instruction around children's trade books. Presents a sample unit on the American Revolution that has been used successfully with intermediate-grade students. Describes an approach that is unique in its dual focus on students' affective responses to literature and their learning of content. (MG)