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 applied Reader Response theory (which stresses an aesthetic experience with the text) with seven less proficient readers (learning-disabled fifth and sixth graders). Student response was best when the text was read to them, when their responses were oral, and when instruction focused on active meaning construction and the reader/text…

Explores aesthetic responses to literature by examining the responses of fifth graders to a variety of books and films. Finds three main characteristics of students' responses: picturing a story in their minds; extending a story or hypothesize about it while reading; and relating associations and feelings evoked while reading and responding.…

Reconsiders the nature of literature as a school subject. Discusses the notion that school literature is different from reading literature outside school. Discusses three anomalies: the text and the textbook; educators' idolatry of "naive readers" whose heads are to be stuffed; and the roles of the reader and writer in school programs.…

Provides a case study of a young child's responses to "Hansel and Gretel" over a four-year period, providing insight as to how literary response develops in the early years. (MG)

Argues that the field of education has produced and absorbed a steady barrage of information about the threats and causes of illiteracy. Contends that the field has managed to demystify the wondrous and profound acts of reading and writing. Concludes that research on reader response has much to offer in the rehumanization of literacy. (RS)

Considers some aspects of contemporary picture books that can be especially engaging for readers young and old. Reports a study of readers of various ages who read and discussed David Macaulay's picture book "Black and White." Considers questions of concern that these readings raise for adults who are interested in children's reading.…

Explains how a teacher comes to learn that primary and intermediate grade students are engaged by fiction and nonfiction both, that they do not associate one with pleasure and the other with learning. Argues that readers of all ages find meaning in a work, fictional or nonfictional, to the extent that it relates to their own lives and experiences.…

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,…

Discusses the popularity in Britain and America in the 1920s of texts written by little girls. Suggests the child writer offers a private experience that seems to speak only to the reader but in reality speaks to everyone. Claims the child writer is at once perfectly ordinary and utterly extraordinary. (NH)

As a lover of language and literature, as a serious yet secular Jew, and as a long-time educator in Jewish schools who strives to implement the best practices possible, the author found herself in an educational trap. Typically, even in liberal Jewish practice, Written Law, i.e. the Torah, and Oral Law, i.e. the rabbinic commentaries, are tightly…

This article explores the potential and limitations of Louise Rosenblatt's account of aesthetic reading as a basis for understanding the relationship between literary experience and spiritual development. It does so by examining a particular act of reading involving a poem by Ernst Jandl in the light of Rosenblatt's account of "aesthetic reading"…

Offering a poetics for myth in 20th century fiction, this book argues that the nature of myth is to inspire interpretation, that every myth carries with it an intertextual body of theories regarding its meaning and yet remains capable of evoking new meaning. The book further argues that myth, when used in fiction, functions like a language, with…

Black feminist novelists continue to take issue with males who try to theorize about their artistic creations. Male attitudes toward black women's novels have been characterized as either apathetic, chauvinistic, or paternalistic. Black feminist writers should heed the call for collective racial progress and collective theoretical progress. The…

Although the concept of coherence is elusive, explorations of the historical, theoretical, and empirical discussions of coherence can illuminate, though not eliminate, the concept's elusiveness. There are three inter-related and overlapping ways that readers make coherence. Intratextuality, the notion that readers perceive a text as coherent if it…