Describes the Young Hoosier Book Award program, which is designed to promote voluntary reading. Notes that schools across Indiana are deeply impoverished in terms of literacy resources for students and that school libraries are chronically underfunded and are in dire straits. (RS)

Parents are offered six suggestions, based on research, that can help produce successful readers and learners. (IAH)

A longitudinal study compared the progress of 324 10-year-olds from four schools on reading attainments, attitudes, and habits. Two schools were given extra books to supplement their normal stock. Although results indicate important changes in reading attainments, no simple differential gain was identified in relation to attainments or attitudes.…

Determines the professional reading habits of 125 elementary school teachers and principals in South Dakota. Finds that professional journals with a "how-to-do-it" approach were the most widely read while those journals with theoretical and abstract concepts were the least widely read. (RS)

Relates children's extracurricular reading to their reading achievement scores to determine whether good readers read more and whether more frequent reading improved reading proficiency. Finds that preexisting reading proficiency and engagement in extracurricular reading both had significant effects on current reading achievement, although the…

Finds no foundation for the fear teachers and parents have that "light reading" (comic books, magazines, and novels) will limit higher-level reading. Notes that the vast majority of doctoral students at a major southern California university responded affirmatively to light reading as youths. (RS)

It is time to stop blaming children's nonreading on innate intelligence, ethnicity, socioeconomic background, TV-watching, or other factors beyond teachers' control. Too many schools are boring kids with dull texts and basal readers. Kids read about topics that interest them and particularly enjoy mystery, adventure, humor stories. Matching…

Suggests that the school year is like a growing season, but with planting in the fall and harvest in the spring. Discusses ways teachers can "prepare the soil" for cultivating students' love of reading. Presents a baker's dozen ideas to build the desire to read. (RS)

Surveys teachers nationwide to determine their level of commitment as readers, as well as to establish their use of recommended literacy instructional practices. Finds a significant linear relationship between teachers who read personally and their use of recommended literacy practices in their classrooms; and significant results regarding…

Describes how one elementary school developed and carried out the Million Minute Reading Incentive Program over the course of the 1996-97 school year to improve reading fluency in class and encourage students to read more at home. (SR)

Examines conditions under which readers experience intense engagement in a text, termed "optimal experience" or "flow." Reports on two studies examining flow during reading. Concludes that (1) texts for pleasure reading or interest reading provided more flow; (2) fiction was more likely to produce flow than nonfiction; and (3)…

A study examined how reading teachers' reading habits impacted their teaching practices. Subjects, 625 teachers who attended the Book and Author Luncheon at the 1993 International Reading Association in San Antonio, completed a survey. Teachers represented all 50 states and Canada. Results indicated that: (1) the majority of the teachers viewed…

Developing life-long reading habits is a process that should begin in elementary school. Children should be encouraged not only to read what has been approved for classroom use but also to look beyond classroom walls to read for interest and enjoyment. "Looking beyond the walls" is a parable that suggests that school curriculum go beyond the…

Examined the reading habits of four 4th grade classes before and after a changeover from self-contained to departmentalized instruction. Results indicated a slightly lower mean number of books read and far less variation among classes in the number of books read after departmentalization. (JMB)

Concludes that about 10 percent of stories in a basal series (grades one through eight) showed a character reading something for either information or pleasure, but seldom as an important part of daily life. Argues that basals could set a better model of the value of reading. (FL)