Presents a teaching technique of assessing the child's reading interest, making available a collection of books, and specifying time for recreational reading. Discusses how the teaching objectives avoid the listing of activities for students and focus on behavior to arouse children's interest. (MG)

The first article describes the whole language approach as an outgrowth of individualized reading and the language experience approach, which encourages students to read books about their own interests, regardless of their reading levels. The second suggests ways in which media specialists can contribute to the planning and implementation of whole…

Suggests that some Australian schools in the 1980s took up too enthusiastically what may be called the Effortless Theory of Learning to Read. Describes how Paired Reading can work and what can go wrong with such instruction. (RS)

One theoretical approach for increasing intrinsic motivation for reading consists of teachers using situational interest to encourage the development of long-term individual interest in reading. The authors investigated that possibility by using stimulating tasks, such as hands-on science observations and experiments, to increase situational…

Based on the belief that the transition from learning to read to reading to learn can be facilitated by tailoring learning experiences to individual preferences, this book describes an affective-based 3-week summer reading program for students entering first through sixth grades. The first part of the book describes the philosophy of the program,…

To examine the effect of structural factors on the development of story appreciation, a developmental model of story liking for suspense stories was tested by having second, fourth, and sixth grade children rate suspense stories on 10 affective scales. Specifically, the model predicted that (1) reader identification would increase with greater…

Designed to assess children's preferences for story settings, the instrument requires children to indicate their preference for a story setting in each of 36 pairs of contrasting pictures, 12 pairs in each of the following categories: (1) fantasy versus realism, (2) past versus contemporary, and (3) geographically remote versus the near-at-hand.…

A study investigated the relationships between reading interests, habits, and attitudes of third, fourth, and fifth grade students and the variables of teacher/parental influences, ethnic background, gender, and grade levels of the students. Subjects, a random sample of 101 Black, 92 White, 2 Chinese and 1 Arab low-to-middle socioeconomic-level…

Jackdaws are collections of interesting artifacts that provide information about a particular subject, period, or idea, and build background and interest in works of literature for children. Jackdaws are easy to construct: practically anything that is related in some fairly direct way to a piece of literature and that can aid a student's…

The purpose of this investigation was to analyze the preferences of fourth, fifth, and sixth grade urban black children with regard to characters, type of setting and story in books and the relationship between these preferences and grade level, sex, and socioeconomic status. Three hundred seven black students were read to from 15 books of five…

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of text materials with relevant language, illustrations, and content upon the reading achievement and reading preference (attitude) of black primary and intermediate grade inner-city students. The subjects for the study were 330 black students enrolled in three schools in a large urban area. A…

Two studies are discussed in this research report, which was presented at the 1973 American Educational Research Association meeting. The first study investigated whether black children would evaluate Black English selections more favorably than standard English selections and whether favorable evaluation would lead to greater comprehension of the…

Records the progress of an educationally disadvantaged immigrant child in a literacy workshop for fifth graders, including the teacher's observations of what the child read and wrote. Claims that writing requires more attention in the classroom to help children develop a coherent mental picture of themselves and their place in the world. (JD)

This paper reports on an interview with a 10-year-old Black girl, in which she discusses her responses to books about strong, active Afro-American girls. The difficulty of obtaining such books is pointed out, as is the need for studies of the impact of culturally valid books for young readers. (PP)

Reports the findings of a study that replicated work done in the early 1970s concerning the media preferences and reading interests of intermediate grade children. Shows that the reading interests of boys remained much the same, with those of girls changing. Both groups continued to prefer television over print media. (FL)