Describes several activities to maintain first graders' enthusiasm for reading, such as paired reading with third grade and kindergarten students, and other reading aloud activities outside the reading group. (MM)

Presents practical ideas for classroom use in literacy education, including a schoolwide reading incentive program; a center to publish students' work; a way to use the calendar to improve reading; and a method for using children's oral language patterns (such as jump rope rhymes) to teach reading skills and strategies. (PRA)

Describes the author's voluntary reading program in her second-grade classroom. Describes how her basic Drop Everything and Read program needed to be added to and tinkered with to keep students interested and motivated: paired reading and discussion, visual reading records, and praise and occasional rewards. (SR)

Argues that teachers are the most important factor in the process of motivating children to read. Explains how teachers can model reading for their students. (FL)

Describes a contest in which students competed for book prizes. (FL)

Suggests that a molar view of classroom reading instruction be employed to discover factors in the students and the system which lead to reading success and failure. The molar view also is seen to generate research hypotheses for instructional improvement. Bibliography. (RW)

Suggestions from five contributors deal with the following topics: (1) helping the child who stutters to read fluently, (2) the vowel-consonant-vowel controversy, (3) motivating the reluctant reader, (4) building self-concept through a story wall, and (5) dictionary study. (FL)

Explains the game of "Words of Fortune" in which students act out vocabulary words. Notes that this activity provides students the opportunity to make strong visual, aural, and kinesthetic connections with vocabulary lists. Concludes that "Words of Fortune" helps students write better sentences for vocabulary assessment. (PM)

Provides classroom teachers with seven guidelines for responding to readers in ways that support the use of strategies for making sense of text. Discusses traditional responses to readers and "round-robin" reading versus reading conferences. Concludes that by responding appropriately to readers, teachers provide powerful demonstrations of the…

Describes a remediation program designed to promote students' self-confidence, in addition to promoting fluent reading and enhancing comprehension. Notes that the program uses real books with meaningful language patterns, presented so that each student experiences success. (MM)

Argues that, especially in the intermediate grades, keying into students' personal interests is a powerful motivator for learning. Illustrates this with the story of a formerly excellent student who became disillusioned with school in fifth grade, becoming resistant and disruptive. Describes how a project approach to reading and writing that…