Examines students' perceptions of media, specifically video and a hypermedia learning environment, the Reading Classroom Explorer (RCE), when placed in an existing preservice literacy methods course. Reports that RCE allowed them to easily revisit video and analyze activities, but they were more comfortable with and liked the context provided by…

Follows 10 beginning teachers from their last year of preservice education into their first three years of teaching. Describes how these teachers appropriated a set of pedagogical tools for teaching writing. Suggests teachers drew on pedagogical tools introduced during teacher education to develop their classroom practice, and these tools were…

Examines the "living dialogues," or the complex interplay between discourses, among three children, their families, and teachers to recontextualize the often polarized debates about literacy instruction. Argues the creation of more inclusive school literacy practices requires a consideration of how discourses function within and across homes,…

Finds adult readers' efforts at and enjoyment of reading tasks varied depending on the texts and purpose for reading. Notes most readers relied on activating prior knowledge, rereading of text, and note taking. Finds a significant three-way interaction between reading source, setting, and occupation only. Illustrates how specific social context…

Examines how parents from different cultural groups mediated a simple narrative text to their 4-year-old children. Suggests when reading is less important for the parents personally, they are less inclined to deviate from the text to negotiate meaning. Notes the ethnic groups differed in how the parents interacted with their children, but these…

Explores issues surrounding community-based literacy research. Suggests that, although well intentioned, literacy researchers risk overdetermining, essentializing, and romanticizing what it means to engage in community-based literacy if they do not define and question what is meant by community. Examines various definitions of community and argues…

Analyzes the discussion of four "struggling" fifth-grade girls and the researcher as they transacted with Mildred Taylor's "The Friendship." Shows how participants' responses to the text and adult and peer guidance created a response development zone. Notes the girls used reading, writing, and discussion to address comprehension difficulties and…

Examines in-depth one kindergarten child's comprehension when reading "considerate" (including multimedia effects integral to the story) and "inconsiderate" (including incidental multimedia effects) CD-ROM talking books in a classroom computer center. Finds considerate CD-ROM talking books support the child's understanding and retelling of the…

Examines the bias in 6th-grade boys' and girls' memories of a "feminist" folktale. Finds girls averaged twice as many nontraditional inclusions as the boys. Finds the boys and girls did not alter an overall dualistic perception of maleness/femaleness; however, there was some movement away from stereotypical gender positioning for the girls. (RS)

Defines components of activity systems shaping readers' responses to literature. Applies a framework to responses of "advanced" and "regular" high school students to a story about a regular student going on a field trip with advanced students. Applies the framework to responses of teachers in a graduate writing methods course in reaction to a…

Argues that the most common use of reader-response theory in the classroom is misguided in its emphasis on personal response and identification. Discusses the social and political nature of readers, texts, and contexts. Suggests that when a text is about characters whose life and culture are very different from the reader's, it can heighten the…

Discusses what Complexity Theory (presented as a rubric that collects theoretical understandings from a number of domains such as ecology, biology, neurology, and education) suggests about mind, selfhood, intelligence, and practices of reading, and the import of these reconceptualizations to reader-response researchers. Concludes that developing…

Television has been seen by some as an enemy of literacy and by others as a tool for enhancing literacy. It has been used to arouse public awareness through national campaigns, to instruct in basic skills, and to motivate potential learners to seek education. According to the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS), adults with limited literacy…

Analyzes the tenuous relationship between school learning and one student's everyday life. Emphasizes that standard tests and benchmarks should only ever be the baseline for a teacher. Examines national benchmarks, testing, and standards in the light of one case in Australia in order to discuss the pitfalls associated with judging students on the…

Explores the issues of recognizing people's identities within the context of community life and work; fostering literacy within the various domains of social life; and helping individuals develop literacy tools with which to examine, critique, challenge, and change existing situations of economic, social, and political inequalities from the…