Describes Colonel Francis Parker's efforts to humanize beginning reading, discussing how they offer guidelines for present day lesson planning. Reveals that his aims were to connect reading with children's interests and backgrounds, with content area studies, and with modes of expression such as speaking, drawing, oral reading, and writing. (SKC)

Explores the effects of the attitudes and culture of Israeli-Jewish English-language students on their reading comprehension. Eighth-grade students read stories in Hebrew and English and answered questions both about the stories and their own attitudes. Reveals that culturally familiar texts boost reading comprehension scores. (MJP)

Surveys the reading and viewing habits of British teenagers. Discovers that, although U.S. horror fiction (R. L. Stine, Stephen King) tops the lists, a wide diversity exists among the less popular authors. Reveals marked gender differences in amount of time spent viewing videos, television, and computer games. (MJP)

Describes the Dublin model, a program which uses thematic units or individualized reading assignments to focus on popular adolescent literature and includes projects that demonstrate students' comprehension of text. Discusses the formulation, implementation, and assessment of this program. (RS)

Defends the study of literature in the elementary and secondary grades for its ability to help students think both creatively and critically. Provides objectives for teaching literature such as development of perception, expression, cognitive style, aesthetic awareness, moral values, and writing ability. (SRT)

Considers literature as something different from the texts themselves (specifically, a way of reading that includes the writer, the text, and the reader) so that the purposes of teachers and readers may be considered, and a flexible approach to selection, organization, and pedagogy be permitted. (SRT)

Discusses the teachers' and the students' roles in the selection of literature to be taught, developing a selection policy, the place of the classics in literature curriculum, and the connection between literature and values education. (SRT)

Examines a selective sampling of children's novels that exhibit different views toward slavery and the Civil War, based on gender, race, geographic location, and national origin. Briefly summarizes these selections and discusses their strengths and weaknesses. (MJP)

Investigated book-reading habits of families and teachers to hearing impaired and normal hearing kindergarten children. Found that while there was no significant difference in the book-reading habits of the two groups to their children, hearing-impaired children's families are more careful in book choosing and reading to their children. (Author/SD)

Discusses strategies aimed at moving undergraduates beyond the traditional stereotypical and demonized portrait of the Middle East. Suggests focusing on boundaries (shifting between national, cultural, religious, and economic), on bases of information (different students bring different knowledge levels), and using a wide variety of biographies…

Maintains that any historical literature needs to be evaluated both as history and literature. Presents a review of recommended books for teaching about the Holocaust. Asserts that no single book can convey the full story and true horror of that historical period. (CFR)

Describes a third-grade instructional unit that begins with a basic introduction to African geography and culture. Children's books, from sources as diverse as current politics and Masai folk tales, are used to illustrate key concepts and places. Includes a list of children's books used in the lessons. (MJP)

Lists and briefly describes an array of educational resources relating to Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal. Includes notable books, organizations, videos, audio cassettes, software, educational kits, and simulations. Collections of art, photographs, and cartoons also are available. Includes price and ordering information. (MJP)

In this paper, we discuss the link between effective literacy practices recommended by the International Reading Association and current research on how the brain learns derived from MRI and PET scan studies begun in the 1990's. Five key areas of brain-based research discussed include time and attention, emotion, the nature of memory, the learning…