Considers two CD-Rom narratives as examples of high quality, interactive multimedia texts currently available. Looks at how verbal and visual texts draw the reader into an interactive response and the extent to which multimedia elements shape the reader's experience of the text. Bases findings loosely on fieldwork involving responses of four…

Evaluates the effect of variations in sex-typed behavior in hypothetical peers on children's ratings of friendship. Four reading experiments with a fictional male or female exhibiting certain sex-typed behaviors were used to examine friendship ratings among kindergarten and elementary students. Results show friendship judgments can be influenced…

Explores how students take what they understand through reading and talking about literature and express their ideas in art, drama, music, or math. Argues that one way learners push their understandings and create more complex meanings is through such transmediation. Offers examples of responding to literature through multiple sign systems. (SR)

Explains the author's organized yet reflective approach to getting her fifth-grade students to read in literature circles. Discusses her slow and thorough process of building a community, and teaching students to respond to literature. Discusses resources for literature circles, and describes the first literature circle in her classroom (after…

Examines the benefits of reader response by means of student letters to authors. Notes that students involved in response writing become more interested in reading, are more reflective individuals, and more responsible for monitoring and resolving their own questions. (SD)

Intended as a guide for teachers of grades 3-6, this book presents ideas for the use of literature groups in the classroom. In chapter 1, the author talks about her own reading background and her discovery of teaching methods for literature, and presents ideas for forming literature groups. Chapter 2 offers advice on selecting and collecting good…

A study analyzed the discourse in a variety of Hong Kong newspapers to assess how an individual takes on the role of reader in relation to the rather complex public discourse of a daily newspaper, particularly in a multicultural, politically charged context. Four categories of newspaper (Hong Kong English, Hong Kong Chinese, non-Hong Kong Chinese,…

A study examined the theory concerning reader response and the rationale and practice of reader response in the high school English curriculum. Formal experimental studies existed that explored reader response practices in the high school setting, but no formal studies existed on the questioning practices of potential reader response teachers. A…

Whether questions embedded in expository text could improve the correspondence between adult readers' subjective assessments of test readiness and their objective test performance (prediction calibration) was studied with 168 undergraduates. In order to minimize the confounding effects of prior knowledge, the subjects were asked to read a text…

This paper proposes a reorientation of classroom practices in the teaching of literature, a reorientation proceeding from new understandings of literary reading. The first section of the paper reviews convergences in current theory and research on literary reading that teachers ought to consider when rethinking classroom practice. The second…

"New Horizons in Adult Education" is an electronic journal started in the fall of 1987 by the Syracuse University Kellogg Project. In the spring of 1989, the project surveyed readers of New Horizons to find out how they were reacting to the journal and its method of transmission. Data were collected by sending the survey electronically…

The problems arising from treating word and sentence complexity as the direct causes of difficulty in comprehension are surveyed in this paper from the perspective of readability formulas. The basic choices and assumptions made in the development and use of readability formulas are discussed in relation to the larger question of text…

Designed to provide an alternative to the book report, this booklet presents ideas for students to use in responding to books they have read. These ideas may help to get students to react to their reading, to stretch their minds, to learn to think as independent human beings, and to use their imaginations in experiencing literature. The 152 ideas…

Focusing on the notion that the author supplies the words in a text while the reader supplies the meaning, this issue contains essays that combine literary theories with classroom practices. Following an introduction by R. E. Fitch, articles include "Teaching a Western: Jack Schaefer's 'Shane'" (J. R. Ruff); "Pragmatic Criticism in…

What kind of meaningful learning goes on when an introverted and intuitive traditional professor imparts his knowledge to an extroverted student of the new wave generation? In a project exploring how teaching personalities influence student learning, a traditional professor of literature and a "new wave" (defined as characterized by…