This study analyzes how second, third, and fourth graders in a racially integrated suburban school engaged in multimodal meaning making in the context of a book club discussing Ben Hatke's graphic novel "Zita the Spacegirl." Qualitative analysis of field notes and assessments indicated three overall findings: First, students responded to…

A one-year experimental program that transported a total of 38 "volunteer" disadvantaged city children to schools in a nearby suburban community was evaluated in grades 1 and 2. Twenty-six of the 38 children were in a total of 12 different classes at these two grade levels. At the conclusion of the program, transported first graders…

Includes an historical overview of reading textbooks, a discussion of some procedures used by publishers to eliminate textbook bias, an analysis of a popular Houghton-Mifflin reading series (for grades 1-3), and a proposed statement of the rights of children to unbiased textbooks. (Author/GC)