Argues that Frederick Douglass's "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave" should be read in its entirety, and that it should be considered a classic text for its continuing impact on the minds of readers from 1845 to the present. Cites incidents in which college students have marveled at Douglass's prose, and how…

Draws attention to the contradictions exposed in debates about literacy pedagogy which have traditionally excluded actual pedagogical practices from the dialogue. Advocates classroom interactions be allowed access to the "literacy crisis" debate. (RS)

Asserts that student resistance to assigned reading is an essential part of the process of critiquing and intervening in oppressive ideologies. Argues for using resistance to help students see where they are located within ideology and within the interplay of conflicting ideologies and their own experience. (PRA)

Elaborated by a group of teacher educators and reading researchers, this monograph serves as a forum for responses to the federally sponsored 1985 report, "Becoming a Nation of Readers." It consists of the following essays, listed here with their authors: (1) "Reading Instruction and Underlying Metaphors in 'Becoming a Nation of…

Presents a 115-item annotated bibliography of research in the teaching of writing published between January and June 1996, including books, articles and dissertations under subtopic headings such as historical studies, language, family literacy, language interrelationships, language and learning, literature, reader response, writing, assessment,…

Argues that current library and information science discourse has drawn definitional boundaries around the word "information" so tightly as to exclude research on reading. Highlights include access to, versus content of, information; literacy studies; print culture history; reader-response theory; ethnography of reading; cultural…

Part of a larger ethnographic study, this investigation focused on the literacy development of a college student as he participated in the virtual culture of a computer-networked writing classroom where all instruction and communication occurred through the computer. The student was a member of one of two classes of adult students, ranging in age…

Argues that the cultivation of the imagination in schools and colleges is largely ignored because of utilitarian biases in the education system, where achievement is determined by quantitative measures of cognitive skills. Discusses Williams' view that acts of the imagination transform reality and applies view to English education. (JG)

Focusing on recent composition theory, this paper offers suggestions for writing teachers in applying concepts of dialogic discourse directly to the pedagogy of the college writing course. The first section of the paper addresses the influence of the social constructionist work on interpretation theory by Richard Rorty, Clifford Geertz, and…

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…

The majority of current college freshmen see no place in their lives for reading as an opportunity for intellectual or emotional enjoyment. They read only the most utilitarian texts--appliance instructions or road signs, for example. A teacher cannot "make" students read anything, but he or she can help them find ways to like reading;…

The 43 manuscripts presented in this collection represent qualitative and quantitative studies, as well as papers that present literacy research, theory, and pedagogy. Papers in the collection include: "Family Uses of Literacy: A Critical Voice" (D. Madigan); "Intergenerational Literacy: Impact on the Development of the Storybook Reading Behaviors…

This book presents 25 essays and studies that explore the interplay of a variety of factors that provide the fuel for individual and collaborative explorations into the nature of literacy. Essays and studies in the book are "Patterns of Response: Struggling Readers Respond to a Real Book during Transactional Literature Discussion" (JoAnn Rubino…

Intended as an introduction to the literature on the reading/writing relationship, this annotated bibliography covers the areas of theory, research, and pedagogy. The citations include journal articles, conference proceedings, conference papers, books, dissertations, and monographs. (SRT)

Drawn from talks given at a conference held at the University of New Hampshire in October 1984, the papers in this collection explore the relationship of composition to reading and literature studies. Following an introductory chapter written by Thomas Newkirk, which contains background information about that relationship as well as an overview of…