Describes a number of ghost stories from American cultures, all of which, despite their different origins, seek to stimulate horror, escapism, and fantastic pleasure. Suggests that the stories may be used to improve reading and writing and incorporate "rainbow" themes in the classroom. (TB)

Describes the Young Hoosier Book Award program, which is designed to promote voluntary reading. Notes that schools across Indiana are deeply impoverished in terms of literacy resources for students and that school libraries are chronically underfunded and are in dire straits. (RS)

A Delaware district has pioneered an approach to ensure that all students can read proficiently by the time they leave third grade. To achieve this goal, the district adopted some safety nets, including identifying students early, using Chapter 1 tutors in regular classrooms, and testing mastery through a series of assessments. (MLH)

Describes the suggested use of three types of reading/study guides (K-W-L, Selective Reading Guide-O-Rama, and Levels of Comprehension) which can be used with students at all levels of academic and learning proficiency to help them read their textbooks with understanding. (RS)

Shows several different approaches used by a middle school to improve reading. Discusses importance of instructional leadership to assist all students to become good readers. (RS)

Describes a fifth-grade classroom where student goal setting and self-evaluation were an integral part of the curriculum. Explores the growth and development of these students and their teacher. Discusses what brought about changes in instruction and learning. (RS)

Describes the success of the Shared Book Experience with a GED class of inner-city adults. (SR)

Describes a six-step comprehension framework that was used to help academically gifted ninth graders improve their reading comprehension and tackle difficult texts. (SR)

Describes a summer reading program for 26 remedial readers in which each student left voice-mail messages on the school district's voice-mail system, either reading to the teacher for three minutes or summarizing a book chapter. Describes the teacher's responses and parental feedback and involvement. Notes that all students maintained their…

Describes how one elementary school developed and carried out the Million Minute Reading Incentive Program over the course of the 1996-97 school year to improve reading fluency in class and encourage students to read more at home. (SR)

Shares examples of explicit teacher talk to demonstrate its influence on learners: encouraging positive reading behaviors, thinking metacognitively, and using meaning as well as sounding out words. Describes teacher talk that (1) promotes struggling readers' understandings and control in reading; and (2) that empowers novice teachers and thus…

Explains how students who have difficulty remembering what they have read may be taught how to reread sections of text by suggesting to them that reading is analogous to watching a video with the remote control in hand. (TB)

Describes the paired reading approach and discusses why it appears to be more successful than other home reading activities in which parents help their children learn to read. (SR)

Highlights the teacher's critical role in spelling instruction and provides examples of how to support spelling development in classrooms. Argues that educators need to look closely at children's emerging capacities as writers, focusing especially on the issue of invented spelling, and its use and misuse in classroom practices. (SG)

An urban school district was able to improve its students' reading achievement substantially by implementing a variety of literary coaching models. The six literary coaching process strategies used by schools are discussed.