There is a need to integrate into classroom learning the out-of-school technologies that students interact with every day. We know that reader response approaches to the study of literature engage learners, and we also know that both students and teachers have mixed attitudes about the study of poetry. In this article, a response activity with…

This article expands upon Jeffrey Wilhelm's and Brian Edmiston's (1998) concept of a doubling of viewpoints by encouraging middle level students to use dramatization to take on multiple perspectives, to pose interpretive questions, and to enhance critical inquiry from inside and outside of texts. The doubling moment is both the activation of…

In this article, the author describes how she and her eighth-grade class moved away from formalism into a more personal, more connected, more authentic response to literature. She also explains the importance of a transactional approach in teaching literature and creating a democratic classroom. She honors Louise Rosenblatt, who introduced…

In this article, the author redefines "text" and "poem" so that attention will be focused on the reader. The text, she argues, lies inert on the page until the reader comes along and brings it to life in the act of reading, reacting, and reflecting. A poem, then, must be thought of as an event in time. It is not an object or an ideal entity. It is…

In this essay, "Viewpoints: Transaction versus Interaction--A Terminological Rescue Operation," originally published in 1985 ("Research in the Teaching of English," 19, 96-107), Rosenblatt points out that no text can guarantee that the experience it provides will be "literary." A poem might be read for the emotional and intellectual experience it…

Notes how adolescents through young adult literature begin to discover the meaning behind the words and to explore their own emotions. Describes the use of small groups and an introduction of the concept of a literacy community. Discusses a whole-class reading and response to S.E. Hinton's novel "The Outsiders." (SC)

No one seems to think it necessary to explain what is meant by "literature," or the "aesthetic." If one analyzes the use of these terms in their contexts, a variety of tacit assumptions seems to operate. Sometimes, all that is required is that a text already has been designated as "literature." Sometimes, the presence of story, of a narrative, is…

Discusses how connecting students to reading requires more than just an energetic approach. Presents a framework for reading experiences: engagement, exploration, collaboration, and individual celebration. Describes a program that gives students varied opportunities to become engaged in literature, choice in what they read, time to actually read,…

In this article, the author answers specific questions: Just how do I foster an aesthetic stance? What types of activities encourage an efferent stance? She carefully explains her position--that the aesthetic stance in reading is missing in schools--and outlines what teachers must do to balance efferent reading with aesthetic. She also discusses…

Notes that as an alternative to written responses to young adult literature (YAL) in the author's Adolescent Literature course, the preservice and inservice teachers must present at least one visual response to the class. Presents guidelines for the visual response. Gives some examples of outstanding visual responses in recent years. Encourages…

Describes how a discussion of "The Diary of Anne Frank" moved a class to intense discussion. Discusses how the books, and stories, and poems are invitations to a passionate engagement with human experience. Considers literature as the invitation to a dialogue, to intellectual inquiry, to tell one's own story, to participate in a society and the…

Contends that the value of writing as a powerful tool for teaching reading is often underestimated. Explains that when students write and revise their writing, they are reading to make sure what they have written is clearly understood by themselves and their audience. Notes that for many students, reading what someone else thinks stimulates their…

Explains a shift in reading instruction theories, from defining reading as a set of discrete skills to understanding the role prior knowledge plays in comprehension. Presents annotations of 11 web sites that give teachers ideas about how to help students construct meaning and how to transact with text in powerful ways. Notes that these strategies…

Describes how students in an undergraduate children's literature class constructed and created interpretations of the books they were reading. Notes that the students each designed a three-foot paper strip reflecting his or her personal response to the book. Finds fresh thinking, fewer repeated ideas, and more understanding of symbol, metaphor,…

Explains that a Middle School Literacy Teacher Expert supports and guides teachers with innovative strategies to help students master basic literacy skills to become lifelong learners. Explains the A.C.T.I.V.E. strategy to encourage students to ask, comment, track down, infer, visualize, and Eureka! (synthesize). (PM)