Early views considered computer-mediated discussions (CMDs) to be ideal forums for fostering dialogue because women and other marginalized groups could be equal participants. However, such optimistic views have been tempered by research that found CMD to be dominated by a few individuals, often men, and discourse that is sometimes abusive. The…

Gaps in reading performance between Anglo and Latino children are associated with gaps in vocabulary knowledge. An intervention was designed to enhance fifth graders' academic vocabulary. The meanings of academically useful words were taught together with strategies for using information from context, from morphology, from knowledge about multiple…

Videotapes 96 middle-income parent-child dyads as they shared an unfamiliar book together. Suggests that parents' utterances varied in systematic ways and that the predominant pattern within this sample was one of limited numbers of extratextual utterances during the sharing of an unfamiliar book. Notes that these findings have implications for…

Investigates the order of acquisition of phonological sensitivity skills among preschool and kindergarten children. Supports a developmental conceptualization of phonological sensitivity. Discusses findings in relation to their implications for improving assessment, early literacy instruction, and prevention of reading difficulties. (SG)

Explores more deeply the role of oral reading in instructional practice, primarily in the elementary grades and with students who struggle in reading. Attempts to conceptualize more fully the positive role oral reading may play in classroom instruction, notes ways in which some persisting forms of oral reading practice in classrooms are counter to…

Investigates the interactions of 16 first-grade children during one academic year as they participated in literacy events with their peers. Suggests that issues related to peer acceptance and reading competence complicate children's interactions during collaborative literacy events. Presents concepts critical to understanding how children with…

Considers how writing personal and professional narratives together has taught the author the complicated ways in which he uses his early childhood skills in caring for his parents--the importance of routines, transitions, relationship building--and they in turn have prompted him to rethink the early years of life, including the learning of…

Discusses the notion of stance as presented by some of the major transactional theorists. Considers how stance operates in the reading of narrative fiction and poetry. Argues nonfiction is an important part of literature for children and offers possibilities for teaching. (SG)

Tests a hypothesis about the growth of word knowledge in kindergarten and first graders. Notes that it was predicted that phoneme awareness develops in phases and that ability to finger-point read interacts with phoneme awareness in the development of early reading skill. Concludes that structural equation modeling showed that the longitudinal…

Explains that students who participated in a Grade 11 English media/communication course that incorporated extensive critical media analysis were compared with students who received no such instruction. Notes that the students' reading comprehension, writing skills, critical reading, critical listening, and critical viewing skills for nonfiction…

Explores early adolescent girls' use of digital technologies in their literacy practices. Highlights the technology-mediated literacy practices of two seventh-grade girls. Discusses two major themes which emerged from data analysis: the centrality of multimedia popular culture texts in the girls' technology-mediated designing; and the importance…

Contends it is important to examine the role of new media and online literacies in the lives of reading researchers and teachers. Proposes reading researchers and educators need to view new media and online literacies as a central aspect of literacy research. Concludes that taking mainstay ideas about media and literacy from different disciplinary…

Contends that knowledge about information and communication technologies (ICTs) is unevenly experienced and distributed among youths and adults. Notes that teachers and researchers are confronted with the need to observe and learn from students while making critical decisions about the kinds of old and new literacies that could make schooling…

Proposes that collaborative, constructivist, and problem-based learning are powerful conceptual antidotes to pedagogy as transmission and knowledge as parceled facts and objects. Notes that as more texts become available in digital form, users access information in different ways that have profound ramifications for reading and writing. Contends…

Proposes that reading researchers and teachers must acknowledge that contemporary new readers have no other way of learning about reading except within the context of a background of vast textual experience across many media and through multiple forms of address. Suggests educators need to take a broad view of the complex context in which texts…