The conventional wisdom among educators and literacy gurus is that reading comprehension depends on the acquisition of isolatable, teachable, and generalizable skills. Consequently, many elementary and middle school English classrooms follow the "reading workshop" model, an approach to literacy instruction, with several variations that…

To motivate students to read, it is important for teachers to teach the reader, not the reading. This article presents three strategies for accomplishing this: studying the child, not the book; focusing on students' reading lives and knowing them as readers; and thinking of students as readers. (SM)

The most important activity for building the knowledge required for eventual success in reading is reading aloud to children at home and in the classroom. At school, reading aloud is important for starting the day, presenting reading and writing mini-lessons, supporting social studies and science curricula, supporting whole-class book studies, and…

Presents suggestions to help struggling readers in upper elementary grades. The suggestions focus on: how to select the right books, how to introduce the books, and how to read the books. A sidebar presents a below-level readers' gripe list (e.g., people think they are dumb, treat them like they cannot think, and make them invisible). (SM)

Shared reading lets elementary teachers show children what reading is about. Teachers read the text aloud and encourage students to read along. All levels of readers can participate. Teachers can do letter or sound searches to help children understand how to use what they know about letters and spelling patterns in order to read unfamiliar words.…

Argues that music is a powerful way to motivate students to read. Discusses reading picture books made from songs or written by musicians; using music to set the mood; combining poetry with music; and using instruments or sound effects. Lists picture books made from songs or written by musicians, books for mood music, and books with musical…

This paper examines how students' independent reading of good books--one example is "The Phantom Tollbooth"--leads to improved reading performance. The paper also touches on the important factors that are impacting independent reading: priority and time. A literature review in the paper found, among other things, that the best predictor…

This report describes a program for increasing student reading motivation through the use of cooperative learning activities, differentiating reading instruction, and active reading strategies. The students of the targeted second, fourth, sixth and eighth grade classes exhibited a reluctance to read that interfered with academic growth. Probable…

Describes New York City teachers' emphasis on independent reading, with the rest of their reading curriculum growing out of needs identified during that time. They begin with mini-lessons, then create social supports for reading, make independent reading central and collaborative, reinforce what works, make time for solitary reading, and learn…

This poetry activity helps K-3 teachers increase students' enthusiasm for reading by highlighting personal interests. Students read a baseball poem, discuss the wording, examine how it conveys action, and look for key words. The next day, they read the poem again and write about favorite activities of their own. The baseball poem is attached. (SM)

Describes techniques used in a multi-age class at Coupeville Elementary School, Washington, to boost reading comprehension and inspire students' love of books: access to an abundance of books, challenges to students, skills reinforcement, combined phonics and whole-language instruction, running-record assessment, paired reading, independent…

Multimedia ties text to the words children hear and things they see by combining text, sound, and graphics, and it motivates young students to learn beginning reading and writing skills. Discusses multimedia programs that encourage beginning reading and writing and includes an annotated bibliography of CD-ROM storybooks, poetry collections, and…

Describes strategies used to improve students' reading achievement in a New York elementary school: Hire the best teachers; train office staff members to support teachers; assign teachers based on needs; observe teachers in reading; design a staff development program; develop a reading action plan; use the existing research; involve students and…