The author reflects on the development of her own reading life and how that rich reading life failed to influence how she taught reading early in her career. During graduate studies, while researching in classrooms where reading workshop was the instructional model and through talking to those exemplary teachers, the author came to understand both…

Strong oral reading fluency skills are an important indication of good reading. In addition, reading engagement is often correlated with reading success. Unfortunately, students with learning disabilities (LD) often struggle to read fluently and engage with text. Incorporating graphic novels as part of a comprehensive reading program may help…

The author, a veteran second-grade teacher, has spent the past three years developing a system to help her students find appropriate books to read during independent reading time. The article describes how the CLICKS system evolved and how to introduce it to a classroom of young readers. (Contains 7 figures.)

Teachers recognize that frequent independent reading increases student knowledge on a wide range of topics, enhances vocabulary, and improves comprehension. "Ban the Book Report" inspires teachers to go beyond narrow and analytical book reports by exploring the potential of book talks, alternate book covers, identifying features of informational…

Presents a way of interesting students in high school literature by starting with children's books. The technique involves teacher modeling, using illustrations to motivate writing, and linking a children's book with a more advanced work on a similar topic. (SKC)

With the rise in popularity of teen romantic fiction, many teachers wonder about the nature of such books and whether they should be used in the reading program. Most of the teen romantic fiction is written to a well-defined formula, based on guidelines from the publishers and on high-interest low-vocabulary literature. Characteristics with the…

Intended for use by librarians, teachers, parents, and community workers as a guide to good children's literature, this annotated bibliography contains more than 1,000 entries. Each entry provides author and title, publisher, date of publication, price, International Standard Book Number (ISBN), and appropriate age levels. The entries are arranged…

Finds that utopias act as catalysts to young people exploring issues of personal growth through reading. Discusses several books that contain utopian elements. (EL)

Explains how a five- to seven-minute daily reading of popular children's books fostered aural comprehension and literary appreciation in students. (HOD)

Offers a plan for organizing and implementing a schoolwide reading week entitled, "Drop Everything Else, Read" (DEER). Presents explanations and directions for eight reading activities which focus on animals. Includes materials that can be duplicated and used by students as bookmarks and certificates. (ML)

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…

Describes a reading program for teaching study strategies in depth that integrates reading development with content area teaching. Recommends that course content teachers be responsible for reading development and that these teachers be offered instruction in teaching the strategies appropriate for study reading. (SRT)

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of several techniques for teaching reading to students with mental disabilities. Basic considerations include the following facts: (1) the effectiveness of the teacher is more important than the teaching method used, and (2) the teacher's view of reading should match the reading approach…

Intended for classroom teachers and reading specialists, this monograph features high-interest, easy-to-read materials for readers who experience difficulty with text. The monograph, a revised and updated edition of a 1979 publication, includes an overview and a bibliography that contains reviews of 44 book series and 15 periodicals. The entries…

Case study research of adult lifelong readers' key experiences reveals that some of the crucial events resulting in love of reading took place prior to formal literature instruction. Results of interviews with about 60 adult readers of all ages--some of whom choose to read fiction, some of whom do not--indicate reasons readers give for their…