As advocates for reading, librarians cannot help but love a reading program. In this article, the author talks about the Battle of the Books, a reading enrichment program that had been in place since 1996. Battle of the Books promotes reading among middle school students by offering interesting books and a trivia-type competition. The author…

Practice is important in learning, maintaining, or improving any skills. Studies by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) show that students perform better when they do independent reading. In order to be a good reader, a person must practice reading, but reading practice declines markedly after fifth grade. Educators and parents…

In a time of No Child Left Behind and strict accountability measures for teachers and schools, the active engagement of learners is at the heart of effective literacy instruction. Educators strive to make their students competent, independent readers. They want them to read for personal purposes, such as information seeking or pleasure. One way to…

The library media center is hosting an all-school team challenge, designed to celebrate reading and library skills. Students could choose from the contest categories like "Lord of the Rings", "Harry Potter", Author Facts Challenge and Opening Lines Challenge for the competition and those students who read more challenging books show their…

When Oprah Winfrey began her successful book club in 1996, she continued a tradition that public libraries have provided for decades. Oprah placed a spotlight on reading that encouraged many women who had never read a book "to read." Book clubs sprang up in neighborhoods, bookstores, and on Web sites. Library media centers began offering book…

Book folders are an effective way of assessing and encouraging student reading of the high school level. The use of book folders, and how teachers utilize them, and how both reading and information literacy skills are promoted when teachers and library media specialists collaborate on this project are described.