Since pairing the classics with young adult literature can increase reading comprehension and spark interest amongst our students, this essay explores a unit plan for connecting Will Hobbs's "Downriver" (1991) with William Golding's "Lord of the Flies" (1954). Both works espouse significant and timely themes: the importance of…

With the changes in school library spaces and school librarians' roles, there has never been a more extraordinary time to be a librarian. However, one thing will never change even in these dynamic times; librarians are still the driving force behind strong reading programs and fostering that love of reading. How do librarians create a culture of…

Strong oral reading fluency skills are an important indication of good reading. In addition, reading engagement is often correlated with reading success. Unfortunately, students with learning disabilities (LD) often struggle to read fluently and engage with text. Incorporating graphic novels as part of a comprehensive reading program may help…

School libraries play a powerful role in enabling, informing, and sustaining student agency, and nothing engages and motivates students more deeply than enabling them to become the active agents in the process of learning. Students with agency are powerful learners who are prepared to engage with the world with sustained, courageous curiosity.…

This article introduces the cognitive affective engagement model (CAEM) of multiple source use. The CAEM is presented as a way of unifying cognitive and behaviorally focused models of multiple text engagement with research on the role of affective factors (e.g., interest) in text processing. The CAEM proposes that students' engagement with…

In an educational climate in which many teachers may feel the tension between achieving grade-level literacy standards and creating lifelong readers, interest can be a powerful mediator that impacts students' cognitive and affective experiences with reading. This practical article presents four research-based principles of reading…

Pleasure reading is an absolute choice to eradicate readicide, a systematic killing of the love for reading. This paper encompasses the different forms and consequences of readicide which will have negative impact not only on comprehension but also on the prior knowledge of a reader. Reading to score well on tests impedes the desire for reading…

Positive early-literacy experiences--whether at home, in early-childhood programs, schools, or libraries--set children on a trajectory to become confident readers by the time they reach third grade, which is an important milestone on the pathway toward high school graduation. This review outlines seven practices that research shows families use to…

The co-CEO of Archie Comics, a former elementary school art teacher, knows from personal experience that comics should be a tool in a teacher's toolbox. Comics can hook students on the love of reading. The author shares her experience of not enjoying to read, and even struggling with reading, to becoming the co-CEO of Archie Comics, which has…

Most people have struggled with reading in one situation or another, depending on their appreciation for the content, their prior experiences, and the texts. This department column shares ways for educators to help literacy learners unlock their potential with instruction anchored in their skills, knowledge, ways of learning, interests, and…

University educators work with preservice teachers who often feel overwhelmed when facing high school science classrooms full of reluctant readers. These struggling students often have various special-education modifications or are English language learners (ELLs) with different degrees of language proficiency. Teachers report that these students…

Print in the environment is typically posted in early childhood classrooms. However, the print that exists is often not meaningful to children, and teachers rarely engage children in using the print. This is a missed opportunity to support children's writing. This article presents research-based ideas for engaging children with meaningful print in…

This article respectfully challenges the metaphor of "open doors as resistance" by reconceptualizing power in the English classroom. It also offers an alternative metaphor -- open doors as acts of love and possibility -- through different theoretical and practical underpinnings. When we, according to the authors, conceive of teaching…

Many sixth grade students think they are telling the truth when they complain, "Reading is boring." However, they don't realize what sort of activities encompass reading. As a teacher with a few years of experience, I am finding new ways to engage reluctant readers and show them reading can take many different forms. In this essay, I…

This article begins by explaining the student centered learning paradigm. Next, the article explains various features of a student centered approach to education and how extensive reading (ER), as it is most often practiced, fits with those features. The bulk of the article suggests how ER might be implemented to make it even more learner centered.