Presents reservations about reading games and questions whether they actually teach, reinforce, and motivate. (JM)

Recommends using drama in the reading classroom, and offers suggestions for selecting stories, using puppets, and creating sets. (PRA)

Presents an autobiographical narrative on the importance of teachers and testing and on how the ways in which they teach can affect a child's life sometime in the distant future. (SR)

Vocabulary is important, yet instruction in word meaning is often tedious and ineffective. This article presents motivating and time-efficient strategies for introducing and practicing the meaning vocabulary students will encounter across subject areas and texts in school. In the "Semantic Impressions" word-introduction strategy, students write a…

Presents specific ideas for using television as a springboard to instruction in reading, writing, and other subject areas. (FL)

Lists twelve activities to encourage children to enjoy reading. (MKM)

Notes that competitions can excite and motivate students in reading and writing. Lists a sampling of such competitions, appropriate for students of all ages, and offers tips about participation. (SR)

Discusses recent work on the nature of children's motivations for reading, in particular a reading-specific measure of motivation called the Motivations for Reading Questionnaire. (SR)

Shares a sampling of the core educational principles of the late French educator Celestin Freinet, who emphasized active learning in a democratic setting in order for the democratic way of life to survive and flourish. Discusses respect for the child's integrity, bringing real life into the curriculum, motivation through meaningful work, and…

Describes insights about students' motivation for literacy learning based on a student-researcher collaborative inquiry in a fifth- and sixth-grade whole-language classroom. (SR)

Describes a project which increased motivation for reading by involving students in real-world problems using the Concept-Oriented Reading Instruction approach. (SR)

Shares the author's vision of literacy engagement. Offers a portrait of an engaged fifth-grade literacy learner and then discusses what engagement in literacy is, why it is important, how classroom contexts foster literacy engagement, and how teachers can build engaging classroom contexts. (SR)

Features literature to help with one goal educators have--to nurture the desire to always learn something new. Presents annotations of children's books including topics such as: examining the learning process, learning by trial and error, learning challenges and anxieties, choices and responsibilities in learning, and learning as exploration. (SG)

Children who read only when they have no choice will not become good readers. One of the simplest ways to motivate children to read at all grade levels is for teachers to read to their classes. In this column, the author suggests some steps that teachers can take to make reading more appealing to their students.

A historical artifact has stories to tell. Using artifacts, from primary documents to objects that can be held in the hand, is a motivational strategy that brings a period of history to life. Motivated learners think critically, write, collaborate, develop research skills, and deepen knowledge about another time and place. In addition, they apply…