Relates how a high school English teacher reorganized the "basic skills" course to reflect greater attention not to isolated skills and drill but to meaningful practice in reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Focuses on the technique of a "Reading Blitz"--five successive days of reading--to develop other language activities. (RL)

This feature tells how one teacher would arrange a sensible reading program that not only teaches children how to read but how to use reading as a skill. It also reports on how five schools encourage the reading habit. (Editor/SJL)

Argues that adult literacy programs should be structured so that reading becomes a genuine means of enhancing the lives of the elderly. (FL)

Discusses three obstacles to reading: the overproduction and cheap production of books, the extensive use of computer technology which hampers the development of reading habits, and the general decline of good writing and of the teaching of good writing skills. (JMF)

Offers a series of questions to help readers establish a chronology of feelings about reading, based on the facts of their earliest reading history. Argues that by answering these questions the reader will understand what kind of reader they can become. (MG)

Evidence that shows the value of free voluntary reading (FVR) for language acquisition and literacy development is reviewed. Additional evidence is reported showing the advantages of FVR as a source of ideas and information, contributor to life success, and inhibitor of verbal memory decline. (Contains 34 references.) (LB)

Describes the literary lives of four adolescents and explores the reasons why students stop reading as they get older. Discusses what teachers can learn from the opinions of their adolescent students. (PRA)

Proposes a cross-cultural study of the working relationships of all who are involved with children and their books which have a direct bearing on where the field of children's literature began and where it is going. Traces the author's early experiences with children's literature and highlights a few children's titles. (AEF)

Discusses assumptions behind the implications of English teachers' in Thailand--both Thai and non-Thai--beliefs that students do not like reading. Discusses how teachers can harness their learners' enthusiasm at a young age and introduce reading for pleasure into their teaching, as well as how to encourage their learners to read outside the…

Elementary school students learn in school to stay within the boundaries of a single text, but students should be encouraged to read beyond a single text. A "single-passage paradigm" pervades school-based reading instruction, research, and assessment. Four scaffolding issues can promote a variety of stimulating approaches for reading…

Noting that what becomes of reluctant readers should be of great concern to a nation that advocates education and has traditionally been committed to principles of the higher order, this paper identifies the characteristics of reluctant or unmotivated readers and discusses what happens to them. Following background reflection on the limits people…

Being a reading mentor to students, colleagues, or friends is one key strategy in the development and promotion of a wide variety of reading interests. Readers serve as mentors by passive means, such as indicating how much they read, being able to name the last book recommended to them, displaying their books visibly, and maintaining their…

Preschool children experience literature early on through nursery rhymes, being read to, and tales told by parents and grandparents. This introduction to the literature of a child's culture, family, and times should be a most comfortable experience. On reaching school, however, the child will find that the demands of pedagogy become insistent over…

Argues that reading of just any kind is not enough to stave off the effects of television. Contends that the reading must involve quality books, rather than mass-marketed, instantly gratifying books geared to the lowest common denominator. (JK)

Explains that if the ability to read in the fullest sense can be fostered from infancy in and out of school, children will grow to be the highly literate society of tomorrow. (DF)