Describes a reader response study indicating (1) a high degree of agreement on reader beliefs and text events and (2) that students who empathized with a particular character identified the story conflict as pertaining to that character. Suggests specific reader-based and text-based factors that produce convergence and divergence in reader…

Explores how students constructed their own texts and meanings when they were required to read, interpret, and critique unfamiliar text written about underrepresented people. Presents the concepts "conditions,""concessions," and many "tender mercies" of learning through multicultural literature when presented as new literature to a heterogeneous…

Tests a new model of the child's meaning-making process in response to literary text. Finds that the model is not disproved and serves as a valid means for adults to share information and ideas about young peoples' transactions with literary texts. (MG)

This study explored 22 ninth-grade English students' reading engagement and interpretation of a young adult multicultural novel dealing with biethnic identity development. The descriptive multicase study charted students' literary engagement in an urban technology magnet school and a rural Hawaii high school. The research question was: What are…

Assesses students' responses to and production of story conventions in detective or mystery stories and explores students' responses to literature as potential connections between comprehending and composing text. (MM)