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To change the mind of a reader, authors compose written persuasion according to a set of rhetorical features. This article describes the features of persuasive texts and reviews research results to explore whether adults indeed change their minds after reading persuasion. Toulmin's (1958) model of argument and Aristotle's model of persuasive content characterize the structure and content of well-written persuasion. Research in social psychology and text comprehension shows that adults typically build a case for their own prereading belief rather than process a persuasive text mindfully, weigh evidence, and change their beliefs. An important contract between author and reader is typically broken. Research on designing text to disabuse students of scientific misconceptions points to text features that authors could use to encourage readers to read persuasion mindfully.

Using activities as its analytic focus, this article compares the classroom cultures of two reading lessons taught by the same teacher. One was from a regular reading class and the other from a reading intervention class that was designed to help students pass the high-stakes state assessment. By developing fine-grained descriptions of classroom activities and participant roles, the article offers educators and policymakers a close look at the ways in which childcentered and test-centered classroom cultures are constructed and the different types of learning opportunities and relationships each provides. [literacy instruction, classroom culture, high-stakes tests]He sat down to take the test and tears were coming down his face and he looked up at me and he said-I was teaching third grade-and he said, "I thought I could read." And I thought, from that minute on, that's never going to happen to me again. My kids are all going to feel comfortable. No one is going to look at this test and start crying.

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