This article examines the familiar imperative for educators to cultivate affective attachments between students and reading--to foster love or ward off hate, for books. It considers the interplay of this affective economy with other "economies" of reading long theorized in literacy studies: the moral economy, promoting dominant social…

Standardization has been part of teaching and learning in the United States since the late 19th century. This technocratic approach has gained more traction in the past two decades beginning with the passage of the landmark No Child Left Behind law in 2001 and continuing through the recent standardization movement to restrict content and…

Teachers hold significant power to determine which books or printed materials students might access, choose, or reject. It is important to consider how teachers' objectives, understandings, or perspectives serve as literacy sponsorship and implicitly privilege or suppress which texts, genres, or authors students access. This case study examines…

A literacy festival is one of the most effective ways to promote reading and fosters the idea that books make a difference, especially to under-supported students. This paper is based on a research study that focused on how a university literacy festival supported engagement and increased reading attitudes and habits for students of Title I…

Based on data from a researcher-generated activity and with the overall objective to gain insight into how students talk about themselves as readers, the study examines how, in a conversation with two classmates and a research assistant, 12-13-year-old students embrace or reject different figured worlds related to literacy. The analysis…

Australia and New Zealand have participated in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's Programme for International Student Assessment since 2000. Reading literacy was the main focus of the Programme for International Student Assessment in 2000, and at that time both countries' students generally performed well above the…

Background: Owing to the dearth of reading practices within the South African literacy landscape, many learners neither engage in productive reading habits, nor exhibit a positive attitude towards English First Additional Language (EFAL) reading. Consequently, many learners experience reading challenges, which negatively impact on their academic…

The purpose of this study was to measure the motivation for academic and recreational reading of 6th grade students in a middle school located in southwest Florida using the Elementary Reading Attitude Survey (ERAS). In this mixed methods study, motivation for both types of reading were measured, individual demographics of the population, such as…

The 160 third, seventh, and eleventh-graders involved in this study agreed, almost unanimously, that reading was "important." Participants cited the empowering benefits of reading as they justified this opinion. However, with regards to the enjoyment of reading, fewer middle and high school participants reported "liking"…

Although literacy skills have been associated with critical academic, social, and economic outcomes, most adolescents in the United States lack basic proficiency in reading comprehension. Experts in the field of adolescent literacy have identified affective components of reading (e.g., reading attitudes) as a critical topic in need of further…

This article illustrates the serious challenge of engaging boys in reading and writing which has become more complex and even influences the lives of gifted adolescent males. This article attempts to address this concern. In order to do so, the authors examine the scholarly literature on boys' reading preferences and report findings from that…

This paper reports on a research study investigating the role of pleasure reading in the lives of 12-15 year old residents of an eastern Canadian regional municipality. Pleasure reading was found to fulfill three broad functions: it enhanced academic performance, social engagement and personal development. In conclusion, the study confirms that…

A survey was conducted with the aim of identifying attitudes towards reading amongst upper primary pupils, and establishing whether these attitudes had changed over the five-year period from 1998 to 2003. A sample of 5076 pupils in Years 4 and 6 completed questionnaires. Attitudes were generally positive, but declined somewhat between the younger…