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Th is study in vestigated th e th inking in wh ich young chi ld ren engage in relation to authentic literature a s expressed in their unassisted retellings. Young children (ages 5 and 6) were read a narrative text and then engaged in an oral, dictated retelling. For comparison, a group ofold er children (g rade 6) were also read a narrative and th en engaged in a written retell ing. R etellings were examined for evidence ofth inking pro cesses, which were tallied for both groups. There were no significant differences in the lengths ofthe retellings by old er and younger chi ldren, and few sig ni fican t differences in the amount or type s of thinking. Older chi ldren tended to provide summaries of paragraphs and single sentences, while younger children provided more summaries of paragraphs and multiple paragraphs. S om e d ifferences in th e typ es of th inking also were observed, such as th e use of text ill ustra tions and drawing inferences of text events and actions; thes e were used to a greater extent by younger, not older students. For the most part, both gro ups of children engaged in th e same types, and to the same extent, of th inking. This research suggests that young children are cap able of engagi ng in many typ es ofthinking in relation to texts, and that retellings may be used a s one means ofevaluating this th inking.Text: The skeleton chased the little old lady up a tree. It stayed on the ground. For what if it fell from that tree and broke its bones? particularly whether we are accurately evaluating their capacity to think about the texts they read or have read to them. (Tom my, age 5)Retelling: She climbed a tree, but the sk eleton didn't climb the tree, because if he climbed up the tree , he thought that he would break his bones. So he didn't climb the tree.

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Using analysis of oral reading and eye movements, this study examined how third grade children used visual information as they orally read either the original or the adapted version of a picturebook. Eye tracking was examined to identify when and why students focused on images as well as what they looked at in the images. Results document children's deliberate use of images and point to the important role of images in text processing. The content of images, availability and placement of text and images on a page, and children's personal strategies affected the use of images.

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