As a well-known advocate for promoting wider reading and reading engagement among all children--and founder of a reading program for foster children--Pam Allyn knows that struggling readers often face any printed text with fear and confusion, like Max in the book Where the Wild Things Are. She argues that teachers need to actively create a…

In this commentary, the author stresses that reading habits in Russia have changed since the Soviet era, and the more intellectual journals and magazines in particular have lost their importance. Audiences for books and magazines have fragmented, and there are fewer sources of commonly shared information and ideas than was true a few decades ago.…

This study explored relations of print exposure, academic achievement, and reading habits among 100 deaf and 100 hearing college students. As in earlier studies, recognition tests for book titles and magazine titles were used as measures of print exposure, college entrance test scores were used as measures of academic achievement, and students…

Reading is often thought of as a skill, something to be learned and practiced. But reading can also be considered a creative art, capturing the imagination of the reader in ways that result in creative thought and expression. School librarians have a unique opportunity not only to support classroom-based reading skill building but also to serve as…

Publishing graded readers is big business, but there is evidence that the texts themselves are not being read in sufficient quantity to improve language proficiency. This article reports on a study of graded readers, focusing on interviews with some major publishers of graded readers, to investigate their production rationales. The findings…

Earlier this year Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Education, announced that British children were not reading enough and should, he believed, reading 50 books a year. This idea had come from a charter school he had visited in the US and was met with some degree of scepticism by authors and professionals who questioned whether a focus on…

18,141 young people aged 8 to 17 participated in this online survey in November/December 2010. While the survey focuses on young people's attitudes towards reading, writing, communication skills as well as technology use, this report focuses exclusively on the reading aspect of the survey. More specifically, it explores how much young people enjoy…

In the past few years, there has been increasing demand from school librarians for books for "reluctant readers"--despite the impressive offering of children's literature published each year and the success of blockbuster series like "Harry Potter, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Twilight," and "Hunger Games," among others. This is also in addition to all…

This supplement describes national adaptations made to the international version of the PIRLS/prePIRLS 2011 background questionnaires. This information provides users with a guide to evaluate the availability of internationally comparable data for use in secondary analyses involving the PIRLS/prePIRLS 2011 background variables. Background…

The gender gap has been a hotly debated issue, both nationally and internationally. In 2000, the then Department for Education and Schools commissioned a four-year study into raising boys' achievement. The commission worked with over 60 primary, secondary and special schools in England to identify and evaluate the strategies highlighted to be…

Purpose: To prepare Hong Kong students to face a rapidly changing twenty-first century, the Hong Kong Government implemented a major curriculum reform entitled Learning to Learn--The Way Forward in Curriculum Development. This reform has shaped the direction of Hong Kong's school education since 2001. The purpose of this paper is to examine the…

This report presents the 5th Edition of Scholastic's biannual study of children's and parents' attitudes and behaviors about reading. The latest research touches on reading aloud to children of all ages, the impact of reading independently for fun at school and at home, the importance of frequent reading, and the books children want most to read.…

This report presents second year information about the degree to which children and young people in Middlesbrough enjoy reading and writing, how often then engage in reading and writing, what types of materials they read and write and how they feel about reading and writing. It also outlines information about their confidence in their own…

According to the author, one of her most important goals as a school librarian is to inspire her students to become lifelong lovers of reading. She recognizes that she cannot do this alone, and one of her most powerful partners is a parent. She can encourage a child to check out a book that may open their eyes to the wonders of literature, but if…

Parent support for reading is one of the many elements that may play a role in the development and sustainment of children's reading motivation; to date, however, research has focused much more on the role that parents play in their preschool and primary-grade children's reading than in their older children's reading. Thus, this paper examines the…