Language Arts - Volume 74, Issue 8, 1997

Explains repeated readings and the procedures involved. Looks at the reading miscues of a seven-year-old child over successive readings of a text to learn what miscue analysis reveals about repeated readings, fluency, and the word recognition view of reading.

Asks what role miscue analysis might play and how it might be (re)defined, given a view of reading and writing as “complex human activitiestaking place in complex human relationships.” Examines some of the original assumptions underlying miscue analysis, then redefines it by highlighting three aspects of reading and writing: intertextuality, reader stance, and reader identity.

Examines three previously published articles which call for compromise in the debate over reading instruction. Argues that the articles are misleading and have the potential to create fear of whole language and anti-whole language sentiment. Shows how the writers portray themselves as concerned educators grounded in "true science," and portray whole language supporters as uncompromising extremists.

Profiles Eloise Greenfield. Reveals that Greenfield’s early love of music echoes in both the form and content of her poetry and prose. Notes that her poems are marked by strong rhythms, expressions of emotion, and a strong sense of children, their voices, and the waystations on their journey through life.

Language educator Dorothy Watson challenges the concept of decodable texts with a review of contemporary children’s books that support reader’s learning with predictable features. She discusses 38 children’s books in relation to Kenneth Goodman’s model of reading: predictable books as support for readers; text, lives, and other literature as support for inferencing and predicting; and curricular support for reading.

Available in print version only.

Available in print version only.