Describes an instructional model for presenting students with opportunities to analyze, synthesize, and evaluate ideas through cooperative problem solving. Provides suggestions for implementation using examples from the author's classroom experiences. (MM)

Recommends pretesting intermediate grade students' basal skills to eliminate unnecessary basal skill instruction. Provides guidelines for pretesting reading comprehension skills. (MM)

Describes in detail a three-month class project focusing on fictionalized biographies and the life of Benjamin Franklin. Notes that in-depth integration of reading, writing, and content area instruction improves reading skills, as well as learning from content area textbooks, especially for low ability readers. (MM)

Explores how teachers can guide children to deeper understandings of how literature works, just as a curator might show them through a collection. (MG)

Argues that music is a powerful way to motivate students to read. Discusses reading picture books made from songs or written by musicians; using music to set the mood; combining poetry with music; and using instruments or sound effects. Lists picture books made from songs or written by musicians, books for mood music, and books with musical…

Describes an informal test for determining a student's ability to use context clues in decoding unfamiliar words. (TO)

Discusses factors that must be considered before deciding on a reading skills management system. (MKM)

Proposes a seven-stage model of direct instruction as it might be applied to a reading skills lesson on predicting outcomes. Discusses each stage of the model: exploration, explication, translation, modeling, guided practice, application, and closure. (FL)

Notes the problem in reading instruction of teaching children both one-to-one representational meaning of words and world-meaning of words, a distinction that can alter their perception of truth as found in written works. (JC)

Presents a hypothetical situation of an elementary school principal's concern at students writing during reading time, and offers a possible teacher's response with information about the direct tie between writing and reading improvement. (JC)

Describes a six-week program in which a teacher did not talk to her students but rather wrote all assignments and questions on the board. Concludes that the experiment improved student self-reliance and helped them to read and interpret instructions. (FL)

Concludes that there are numerous problems with the test studied. Argues that the abilities it assesses and their relationship to reading and reading instruction are not sufficiently understood to warrant the test's use. (FL)