In this high-accountability era--one in which there is an expanding movement to condemn teachers for the failures of their schools--teachers teach students who believe writing is primarily an act of complying to a prompt, likely for a state accountability assessment or the troubling 25-minute essay that constitutes less than half of the writing…

As an instructional tool, graphic organizers (GOs) have been highly recommended and used in contemporary classrooms. Over the past decade, a number of concerns have been raised about claims for the effectiveness of GOs. These concerns involve the inconsistent research results on student improvements, the limitation in generalizability from…

The ability to read is vital. It paves the way to success in school, which can build self-confidence. It is power, key to personal growth. Through reading, we generate learning power that helps us know ourselves better and others as well. It also helps us understand past, present and future more clearly. So it is necessary for the teachers to find…

Argues that reading specialists' lack of success in persuading content area teachers to help their students read and study texts in social studies, science, and mathematics is a result of reading specialists' lack of careful thought about text structures. Discusses the text structures of textbooks in these content areas. (RS)

Research on text processing is reviewed including the role of text structure and summarization ability. Implications for the instruction of learning-disabled students include strategy instruction and instruction in such text processing skills as identifying main idea and identifying text structure. (DB)

Classifies the various forms that exist in a type of poetry dubbed "burstnorm" poetry, a form of lyrical poetry. Differentiates burstnorm from two other types, "plaintext" and "songmode poetry." Describes three types of burstnorm poetry: surrealistic, pluraesthetic, and language poetry. Discusses further subtypes of…

Deals with the text patterns commonly found in social studies books. Explores the expository text pattern and offers a teaching pattern to help guide students through the transition from narrative to content area texts in the upper elementary grades. (MG)

Discusses how to create a profile of students' abilities to apply document strategies (locate, cycle, and integrate strategies). (SR)

This paper discusses the difficulty students often face when many new words are simultaneously introduced in a text. It suggests teachers may address this difficulty in a number of ways, including the following: writing to a publisher to suggest improvements; providing lists of new words to students before reading selections; and focusing on…

For much of this century, text linguists have recognized that various tokens called "metadiscourse" may help explain how texts function. In linguistics, metadiscourse has a more concrete meaning than it typically does in composition: it refers to specific words, phrases, and clauses which are primarily intended to help the reader…

Analyzes the use of graphic aids in electronic texts by using four conceptual differences distinguishing printed and electronic texts. Proposes that these four differences can act as a theoretical framework informing the use of such graphic aids. Discusses the need for and the ramifications of such a theoretical model. (HB)

Examines advantages and disadvantages of using textbooks as the basis for curriculum and instruction, discussing textbooks as the predominant instructional medium. The article describes attributes of good textbooks and text structures, identifies strategies for improving readers' text comprehension, and notes teachers' role as facilitators in…