Offers principals some practical ideas to help youngsters become competent, motivated readers. Principals can spend spare moments reading favorite books to students and encourage others to do likewise, help form book clubs, provide cozy reading areas and high-interest materials, help nonfluent readers practice their skills, and ask good readers…

Discusses the benefits of reading aloud to children of all ages. Lists some of the distractions in the home that compete with reading aloud. Offers ideas for parents who want to "sell" reading's pleasures and importance to their children. Lists nine broad areas that can be stimulated by teachers and parents who read aloud to children. (PRA)

An inventory collected responses from 63 adult beginning readers and 41 proficient readers regarding beliefs, feelings, and behaviors about consumer, social context, work-related, at-home, and recreational reading. Many views of the two groups were similar, although beginners disliked reading complex materials and reading aloud, do not read at…

Finds adult readers' efforts at and enjoyment of reading tasks varied depending on the texts and purpose for reading. Notes most readers relied on activating prior knowledge, rereading of text, and note taking. Finds a significant three-way interaction between reading source, setting, and occupation only. Illustrates how specific social context…

Sustained silent reading programs have many names, but share similar guidelines. Students read for enjoyment for an uninterrupted time daily, choose their own books and whether to finish them, observe teachers modeling good reading habits, and are not required to take tests or write book reports on their reading. (9 references) (MLH)

A survey was conducted to determine the reading and library use patterns of adults 18 years of age or older. One hundred subjects chosen by a random sample technique were individually questionned by the researcher and data were tabulated by computer using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). A profile of the respondent was…

Describes a study designed to assess students' reading maturity, involving such factors as achievement, interests, attitudes, and leisure reading habits. (MKM)

Seven well-known people describe their early experiences with books and reading and tell how they became avid readers. (MD)

Describes a behavior modification program aimed at encouraging students to increase the frequency of leisure reading done at home. (EL)

Describes an outside reading and oral book reporting method that counts for as much as 40 percent of the entire course grade which, by being mandatory, motivates the students to read. (HOD)

Research has shown that reading ability is positively correlated with the extent to which students read recreationally. Educators are increasingly encouraging their students to read and write on their own, outside of school. Changes in the frequency with which students (in grades 4, 8, and 11 in studies conducted from 1984 through 1994) read and…

A dozen recommended steps for organizing and running book fairs that develop student reading habits and reading interests. (RL)

Rural offspring of the back-to-the-land people of the late 1960s appear to have substituted reading for television viewing as a primary pastime. (LH)

Seven scholars respond individually to these questions: Do you read many contemporary novels? If you do, whose novels do you read and for what reasons? If you no longer read many contemporary novels, why have you ceased to do so and what kinds of reading have supplanted them? (Editor/SJL)

Examines differences in reading habits of developmental college students with varying levels of reading proficiency. Finds that subjects spent an unusually low amount of time on academic reading and even less time on nonacademic reading. Finds no significant differences between high- and low-proficient readers with regard to amount of time spent…