Fifth-grade inner city boys engaged in reader response via e-mail with preservice teacher education candidates. Books and laptops were provided via funding from a federal grant. At the semester break, the boys were assigned new partners with which to correspond regarding their reading. All e-mails were filtered through the classroom teachers and…

Authentic literacy activities in the classroom replicate and reflect literacy activities that occur in people's lives outside of school and instructional contexts. A growing body of research supports use of such activities in teaching and learning. The authors elaborate on the definition of authentic literacy, describe supporting research and…

The author's experiences in using children's literature to engage her students in mathematics are described in this article. Using the book "The Wolf's Chicken Stew", the author's class participated in an interactive read-aloud, graphed favorite foods from the story, and finally followed a recipe to bake chocolate chip cookies. Reasons for making…

Since ancient times, humans have sought explanations for the mysteries of nature's beauty and variety. Like other kinds of folk stories, pourquoi tales can be considered parables about how humans and animals originated or why they look or behave the way they do. Pourquoi tales have high appeal, are generally simple and straightforward in…

CD-ROM storybooks may facilitate reading comprehension for students who are struggling with reading comprehension. Therefore, the use of CD-ROM storybooks in the classroom as part of a reading instruction program, literacy center, or for independent reading time could benefit young readers. (Contains 2 tables and 1 figure.)

Talk is the foundation for thought and understanding and the key to literacy learning. Research demonstrates that powerful metacognitive strategies can be taught to help students self-monitor their comprehension when reading print and digital texts. This article provides a repertoire of speaking and listening strategies to develop the…

While it is easy to find lesson plans on the Internet, the quality of plans and the formats in which they are written vary considerably, and the process of sifting through the chaff in order to find the wheat can be time-consuming and discouraging. To address these concerns the authors of this Technology in Literacy column introduce…

Research shows that students who have a good understanding of narrative text structure have fewer problems comprehending stories. Research also suggests that many students require explicit instruction in how to comprehend this text type. While some children are able to figure out the more elaborate structure of narrative text on their own (i.e.,…

This exploratory study describes the instructional strategies and related activities a Grade 1 teacher and I used to promote engagements with informational texts in one rural Jamaican primary school. Some of the instructional strategies and activities were bridging connections from the known to the unknown, reading aloud to increase content…

In many literacy classrooms, teachers provide instruction in comprehension by helping students to practice explicit comprehension strategy use when they encounter difficult texts. In many of those same literacy classrooms, students are placed in peer-led groups to discuss literary texts as a way to increase their engagement with difficult reading.…

Most children seem to love computers, and there has been much speculation and research about how educators might harness this interest to facilitate literacy learning. A growing body of research indicates that electronic talking books (ETBs) can help children learn to read and encourage them to read, so we decided to investigate what would happen…

Teacher knowledge is important because it is related to student outcomes. The researchers of this article wanted to answer the following questions: (1) How do classroom teachers describe the reading cueing systems? (2) How do classroom teachers analyze running record information? and (3) How do classroom teachers implement classroom reading…

Reviews past and present practices in the teaching of reading with advice for the future. (MB)

Integrating comprehension and vocabulary instruction in read-alouds can help teachers make the very most of class time. The curriculum described illustrates how read-alouds, when implemented with strategic purpose, can boost learners' vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension. Specifically, the author presents guidelines for: (1) selecting…

This article discusses two activities--Readers Theatre and Rhythm Walks--that encourage students to "get moving" with fluency instruction. Movement can be a motivating factor for struggling students, as well as a kinesthetic tool for conceptualizing the rhythm and flow of fluent reading while triggering brain function for optimal learning. Also…