Most educators recognize the importance of home-school connections, especially for the development of engaged and enthusiastic readers. This collection of 33 articles published in "The Reading Teacher" from 1993 to 1999 presents the "best of the best" classroom-tested ideas and approaches for increasing student motivation for…

This book shows middle school and high school classroom teachers how read-aloud excerpts from a variety of genres can be used in the content areas. The book aims to promote students' motivation to read and further study. It offers teaching ideas for special populations such as adult beginning readers and readers with disabilities. The book…

Suggests that the increasingly popular genre of informational storybooks can "turn students on" to independent learning from text. Notes that these storybooks, such as the Magic School Bus books, present and explain a nonfiction topic in a storybook format. Poses four questions as a framework for examining some of the key issues that…

Presents strategies to help elementary teachers encourage their students to read by matching students with books that contain the right balance of supports and challenges. The four strategies are: getting to know the books, making initial matches, determining reading level, and redirecting students based on findings. (SM)

Shares an effective teaching strategy (developed by a university student in a content reading practicum) that enthusiastically engaged two reluctant, even confrontational, male seventh graders in a study of "Our Northern Neighbor, Canada." (SR)

Considers the use of local daily newspapers in the high school journalism classroom to learn news reporting. Suggests weekly quizzes consisting of six questions that are global, national, and community related in nature. (PA)

Elementary and middle school teachers can employ storytelling techniques using selections such as episodes from children's novels to encourage even the most reluctant readers. The telling of complete episodes from novels causes reluctant readers to identify with a character and brings them into the plot. The Storytelling Episode Model (SEM) is a…

Noting that there are many strategies a teacher can use to increase motivation and confidence of students who avoid reading, this paper discusses the strategy of using repeated readings through audio support. After an overview, the paper discusses setting up the program. Three scenarios are presented: a student who does not like to read, a student…

Pupils need to experience a quality literature and reading program. By following tenets concerning the principles of learning developed by educational psychology, teachers can provide more adequately for students' individual differences such as the fast, average, and slower readers in the classroom setting. Teachers need to study each pupil and…

This cookbook is designed to help teachers and librarians engage in beneficial collaborations to bring reading to the lips of students in new and "delicious" ways. The more than 200 recipes offered in the book will tempt even the most reluctant reader of any age to "nibble" at a new book. The book's recipes enhance the process…

Describes a set of activities and materials using Language Master machines, combined with more traditional listening-while-reading procedures that helped emergent readers grow rapidly in reading ability and motivation to read. (SR)

Outlines the author's process of teaching Amy Tan's "The Joy Luck Club" not in the order it was written. Incorporates PowerPoint presentations, and has students lead discussions. Concludes her method enables students to create beyond guidelines. (PM)

In order to make predictions about a text, students must have prior knowledge or experiences about the topic and a means or a reason to retrieve this latent information and knowledge. The Imagine, Elaborate, Predict, and Confirm (IEPC) strategy takes the predictive process back to its origins in the imagination and extends it throughout the…

This book provides the library media specialist with activities designed to motivate students to read and with reproducible bookmarks, worksheets, and certificates . The book is designed to promote the enjoyment of reading in the elementary school. At the beginning of each unit, basic suggestions are included for using the activities, but the…

This year is the first for the collaborative effort between the Arizona Department of Library, Archives and Public Records, and Arizona Humanities Council and the members of the Arizona Reads Committee. This Arizona Reading Program manual contains information on program planning and development, along with crafts, activity sheets, fingerplays,…