Reviews a sixth grader's book report on Paul Fox's "The Slave Dancer" and draws critical inferences about the student's lack of real engagement with literature. (TB)

Critically examines methodology used by Vincenzi (1987) in study reporting association between childhood depression and reading ability. Asserts that methodology does not support such a conclusion. Extends examination to the general literature on depression and cognitive impairment and argues that a clear association has yet to be demonstrated.…

Explores sixth graders' perspectives on the contexts of reading and responding to books in school. Finds children respond to books in patterns specific to school contexts; classroom contexts are socially constructed through children's interactions; and children constructed a community of readers by interacting with one another to respond to books…

This study examined the effects of background classical music on silent reading in a sixth grade class, in order to determine the amount and type of influence it would have on the reader's written response to what was read. Thirty-four suburban sixth graders from two history classes were selected for this study. The data was obtained over a period…

Efferent teaching asks the student to read for a predetermined answer, focusing on another person's ideas of the text's meaning. Aesthetic teaching allows for literature to be read and experienced as art through the reader's personal transaction with the text which focuses on one's own interest to create and understand the meaning. This paper…

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)

Examines the performance and construction of subjectivities of four early adolescent, sixth-grade girls as they read and discussed a novel about two adolescent Mexican children seeking a new life in America. Suggests they engaged in ongoing construction of their subjectivities as they interacted with the text and each other. Notes the girls…

Illuminates patterns in responses to literature by analyzing one sixth grader's entries written in her literature response journal. Finds that the student's responses reveal her as an active reader and writer with unique thoughts, feelings. and opinions generated by quality children's literature. (MG)

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 imaginative ways to teach "A Wizard of Earthsea," a fantasy novel by Ursula LeGuin, with teaching time limited to one hour a week for six weeks. (HOD)

An ethnographic study explored how small groups of student readers interacted in a classroom over time to interpret short stories assigned by a teacher. For five weeks, eight sixth-grade volunteers met on consecutive Fridays in two separate face-to-face discussion groups to read, discuss, rewrite, and perform a short story as a play. Primary data…

A study examined what children write when responding to literature they have read in school. The study investigated whether girls' writing differed from that of boys in the same classroom, as well as whether a classroom teacher responded differently to her children's journal writing based on gender or reading proficiency. One sixth grade class,…

Describes a sixth grade reading workshop in which every class begins with a five-minute minilesson focusing on reading strategies and in which students choose their own books from a variety of sources. Discusses the required assignments in which students write at least one letter per week in a reading dialogue journal. (KEH)

Numerous studies have focused on attitudes toward reading and how to measure such attitudes. The present study examined the effects of both the survey format and the reading abilities of 82 sixth graders at a middle school in McDuffie County, Georgia. Since all of the students had taken the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills, the language arts composite…

Reports the impact of metadiscourse on sixth grade students' learning and attitudes. Finds that low-comfort students learn more when informational metadiscourse is presented in interpersonal voice and high-comfort students learn less. Finds that students' attitudes are more tolerant of opinions if they read just one type of metadiscourse. (KEH)