Tess is a joyful eight-year old girl with epilepsy, frontal lobe dysfunction, and dyspraxia, as well as delays in language, fine motor, and gross motor skills. However, despite her disabilities, Tess happily embraces life. With assistance from a few support professionals, Tess currently functions successfully in a regular education second grade…

Describes how to use drama to help students live through and see what they are reading, thus enjoying reading more. The workshop offers strategies for reading and writing dramatic texts. A reading and writing workshop poster on a Midsummer Night's Dream is included. A reproducible sheet allows students to use their imaginations to create dramatic…

Presents primary and intermediate level activities that use predictions to help students think deeply about books. The primary activity uses a prediction chart to encourage thinking and enthusiasm about reading. The intermediate activity uses prediction book reports to change writing about books from merely retelling, to higher-level thinking. A…

Discusses how to use sustained silent reading to encourage elementary students in independent reading. The strategies include making independent reading a key part of every day, being sure students know the strategies they should practice, and concluding independent reading sessions by discussing strategies. The paper presents a list of 13…

Describes how teachers can set up high-quality classroom libraries that motivate students to read. Suggestions include assessing student needs; acquiring reading materials (through book clubs and donations from students and families); and being actively innovative so the library remains fresh and dynamic (e.g., by adding shelves, offering a wide…

Three assessment strategies to help elementary teachers gather information about their students' reading (and thus direct their teaching) include keeping running records of students' oral reading, requesting retellings of stories to determine students' comprehension, and talking seriously about reading with students to determine their overall…

To motivate students to read, it is important for teachers to teach the reader, not the reading. This article presents three strategies for accomplishing this: studying the child, not the book; focusing on students' reading lives and knowing them as readers; and thinking of students as readers. (SM)

Argues that teachers and librarians can have a positive influence on the lives of young girls by complimenting their reading choices and search strategies rather than just their shoes and hairdos. Discusses books dealing with beauty, clothes, media stereotypes, women in sports, sexuality, and recommended reading for girls. (PEN)

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)

The most important activity for building the knowledge required for eventual success in reading is reading aloud to children at home and in the classroom. At school, reading aloud is important for starting the day, presenting reading and writing mini-lessons, supporting social studies and science curricula, supporting whole-class book studies, and…

Presents an annotated listing of books about all kinds of heroes for elementary school students. Stories include the young King Arthur; an assertive, baseball-playing heroine who becomes a princess; an older brother dealing with his younger brother; a Christmas story; civil rights icon Rosa Parks; and the cow who jumped over the moon. (SM)

Presents ideas for creating a purposeful classroom environment that will help students become strategic readers. Suggestions include using the conference table to learn about students as readers, organizing books to help children make wise choices, and creating a meeting area that invites discussion. (SM)

Shared reading lets elementary teachers show children what reading is about. Teachers read the text aloud and encourage students to read along. All levels of readers can participate. Teachers can do letter or sound searches to help children understand how to use what they know about letters and spelling patterns in order to read unfamiliar words.…

Describes Accelerated Reader (AR), a computer software program that promotes reading; discusses AR hardware requirements; explains how it is used for book selection and testing in schools; assesses the program's strengths and weaknesses; and describes how Grant and Madison Elementary Schools (Muscatine, Iowa) have used the program effectively.…

Teachers can confront issues of students' infrequent reading and infrequent choice of content area texts by using specific instructional strategies that are highly motivating. Five research-based language arts strategies that many teachers use to successfully teach content area information are: (1) previewing vocabulary and content; (2) developing…