To develop a model of newspaper readership more closely related to explanation of readership behavior than prediction, a study used a combination of demographic and political participation variables in a multivariate analysis of data obtained in a national survey. Information from interviews of approximately 1,200 adults conducted in 1979 was…

Written literature has evolved over a long period to an entity separate from oral tradition. Written literature aspired to perpetuation, to the creation of written "monuments." This aspiration caused authors to find the means of multiplying authentic versions so that they could popularize their "original" form unchanged. On the…

Intended for junior high and high school English teachers, the articles and features in this journal focus on adolescent literature and the young adult audience. Articles in the journal discuss (1) politics as an emerging topic in young adult novels, (2) teacher attitudes and practices relevant to the use of the young adult novel in secondary…

The responses of 422 fourth, fifth, and sixth grade students were analyzed in a survey that sought (1) to determine what poems selected for the survey were most enjoyed by the students; (2) to analyze the most popular poems considering such characteristics as the form, content, certain poetic elements, and age of the poem; and (3) to determine any…

Discusses the negative impact of poetry instruction based on scansion, biography, genre theory and formal principles. Describes three alternative lesson plans using imagist poetry, specifically that of Williams, because it rejects formal traditional rules and provokes student response. Concludes that students appreciate stylistic traits and that…

Describes the Directed Reading-Writing Activity (DRWA) as a framework that helps high school students write about the information they acquire through reading. Discusses how the DRWA's three steps--preparation, involvement, and reaction--extends the thought processes associated with reading comprehension into effective writing. (AEW)

Maintains that the literature curriculum should reflect our pluralist society, not a canonical tradition. Suggests pairing canonical works with works instantiating pluralism. Describes a unit on the novel for a ninth grade honors class and the use of an "adolescent problem novel" in a sophomore intermediate class. (SR)

Investigates patterns in readers' ratings of imagery, affect, and story structure in selected short stories read in a college classroom. Concludes that texts constrain the renditions of individual readers when they read for enjoyment. Finds that imagery appears to mediate affective associations of text viewed as structurally important. (MM)

Explores briefly the New Criticism that dominated literature instruction until recently and then provides an overview of reader response theory and how response approaches can be used in the classroom to enhance reading. (NKA)

Provides a background of response theory, two Canadian perspectives on response theory, a description of transactional response theory and response-centered curriculum, a discussion of the concepts of participant and spectator roles in literature and of the idea of narration and storying as literature, and a discussion of analysis and criticism.…

Describes a teaching method that uses Molly Bloom's soliloquy from James Joyce's "Ulysses" to teach punctuation to freshman writing students. Argues that the assignment helps students discover their power as orderers. (EL)

Presents arguments to researching response to poetry that attempts to track the process as it occurs. Describes procedures designed to ensure that the responses that are recorded come close to representing the process by which adolescent readers go about making sense of a poem. (EL)

Describes an individualized reading program called First Reader, which allows student tastes to be used and offers a nonthreatening environment in which to talk about a novel. (CRH)

This experiment explored relationships between seven to eight-year-old children's reading comprehension skills and inferential and constructive processing, and between verbatim text recall and ability to make inferences. Skilled readers were more successful at answering questions from memory, but less skilled readers' performance on literal…

Argues that when involving students in activities that require them to explore texts creatively, teachers should also make them inquire into their own reading processes--especially since the reading of literature helps the students to become aware of their own intellectual process if attention is focused on them reflexively. (HOD)