Highlights the instructional benefits of alphabet books for students aged 8 to 11. Discusses their features and uses. Provides an annotated, categorized bibliography of alphabet books appropriate for students beyond the beginning reading level. (SR)

Reports on the television viewing habits of fourth, fifth, and sixth grade students, and includes specific assignments to take advantage of the time students spend watching television. (RB)

Discusses ways to use games in teaching reading skills and lists commercial games appropriate for primary and intermediate levels. (MKM)

Reports on a study that examines the effects precis writing and outlining have on students' ability to identify ideas in a text and generate and elaborate on those ideas in a written form. (FL)

Presents annotations of 29 newly published trade books for children and adolescents that teachers find to be exceptional in curriculum use. Notes that many annotations include specific curriculum use suggestions. Groups annotations into primary (K-2), intermediate (grades 3-5), and advanced (grades 6-8). (RS)

Describes some of the research being done by the Center for the Study of Reading, a federally sponsored center established to pursue research into the processes underlying the development of reading comprehension by children in grades three through eight. (MKM)

Describes a hierarchical summary procedure that directs students' attention to the organization of ideas in content area textbook selections. Explains how the procedure helps students to improve their comprehension and recall and to write better organized compositions. (FL)

Students can be motivated to share their reading interests and their writing talents by creating book report mobiles. After students have read a book, they begin their mobile by attaching string to an empty box which has been covered with plain paper. Next, they decorate one side of the mobile with a drawing which illustrates the story or they…

Concludes that using a reading plan sheet and prompting cards helped fourth grade students increase their literal recall. (FL)

Discusses "Cobblestone," a social studies magazine, and "Penny Power," a consumer education publication, in this the second of a two-part article concerning content area periodicals for intermediate grade students. (FL)

Reveals that fourth-grade children were able to tell the differences between expository and narrative text but still needed guidance in how to read the two types of materials best. (FL)

Presents a list of books with nonviolent themes which may be used as alternatives to the violence children see on television. (MKM)

Examines some problems and techniques for teaching prefixes and suffixes at the middle elementary level. States that fewer affixes should be taught, while emphasizing the application of affix knowledge to unfamiliar words. Lists the most common prefixes and suffixes in printed school English for grades three to nine. (MM)

In a replication of two studies, the author found that sixth and eighth graders performed comparably to their counterparts of 60 years ago on reading comprehension and vocabulary tests. (MKM)