Theoretically, reading and writing skills should be taught beginning in elementary school. As early as kindergarten teachers should be emphasizing reading and writing, teaching children how to read using phonics, and how to write things as simple as one-line sentences. This paper discusses the things that teachers can do to make sure that all…

Discusses how teachers can make schools and classrooms literate environments. Presents two sets of correspondence between a teacher and her eighth grade students to show how they learned to approach reading and writing as "insiders." (HTH)

This paper presents a secondary analysis of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) dataset. The study explores differences in the NAEP fourth, eighth, and twelfth grade reading scores by students' gender across the years 1992, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2002, and 2003. The study used the NAEP National Public School data. The statistically…

Reveals the phases through which an apathetic eighth-grade class of poor readers went on their way to becoming active learners. The phases included: (1) discussing attitudes and goals; (2) positive environment; (3) sharing literature through oral reading; (4) reading for an audience; and (5) active learning. (SKC)