Prepared as part of the Extended School Services Program in Kentucky, this paper provides information on how to help students become more proficient readers. The paper begins with a discussion of what reading is, the characteristics of a "good" reader (strategic, motivated, and independent), and beginning readers. It then discusses a few…

Discusses benefits of booktalks, including encouraging children to read good literature, guiding students' reading selections, and increasing library circulation; and offers suggestions for successful booktalks, including techniques to calm young children. (LRW)

Tells what happened when the authors invited six eighth graders to participate in a bilingual Reading Detective Club with the goal of helping them revalue themselves and what they can do as readers. Argues that when students believe their thinking and ideas are valued beyond getting a correct answer, their self-efficacy and engagement with reading…

Presents a discussion of the findings from reading-motivation research applied to computerized reading-management programs for elementary school students. Highlights include criticism of computerized reading management programs; intrinsic and extrinsic motivation; tangible and intangible rewards; methodological concerns for researchers; and…

Describes a year-long teacher action-research study involving fifth graders that used trade books to teach students various reading-comprehension strategies. Finds that students retained and transferred strategy learning to other texts and contexts; valued reading more and reported reading more; and demonstrated enhanced appreciation for books and…

Describes a strategy adaptable to middle school, high school, and college levels that helps to motivate students to want to read and gain information; promotes discussion and fosters students' learning from one another; helps below-grade-level readers understand content; and encourages higher order thinking. (SR)

Five popular, but distinctly different, remedial reading programs were reviewed regarding the potential to motivate children to read. It is argued that current remedial reading program designs and research on program effectiveness ignore the impact that motivation has on struggling readers. In addition, we develop a theory of reading motivation…

A think-aloud protocol study examined changes in real-time cognitive, metacognitive, and motivation processing that may have resulted from reading-strategy training. Eighth-grade students participated in 4 weeks of reading-strategy training during social studies class. Students used their own social studies text during the training. Fourteen…

This book offers a framework called Learner Support to help teachers, grades 1-6, identify and support children who need extra help in their reading development. During 15-minute, one-on-one sessions using real literature, teachers learn to help struggling readers use reading strategies, incorporate sight word review, complete cloze procedures,…

In college-level courses, the vast majority of students read expository textbooks with a primary purpose in mind: to memorize and, hopefully, understand enough information to receive a particular grade on a course exam. Intuitively, this kind of reading is different than the kind of reading that these same students do when reading a novel while…

A study investigated the effectiveness of a program for improving the recreational reading habits of fifth-grade students and encouraging them to become lifelong readers. The targeted population lived in a growing, low- to upper-middle-class, suburban community, located in Hanover Park, approximately 35 miles west of Chicago, Illinois. Students in…

A study examined the reading strategies of a "reluctant reader," a bright and accomplished fifth grader whose achievements had not as yet included a love of reading or very good comprehension skills. Subject of the study, a female, was an excellent student at a private school where whole language, reading and writing groups, and…

Considering the necessity to facilitate the optimal development of reading ability, and the cooperation of the community, family, school, student, and teacher, this paper presents Washington State's Essential Academic Learning Requirements in Reading as a way to encourage equal access to excellent reading instruction and opportunities to learn for…

Providing rich supply of high-interest story books is more feasible policy for literacy education than urgent exhortations to improve teacher quality. Free reading profoundly improves students' reading and writing ability, spelling, grammar, and vocabulary. The quality of a country s or state's school libraries significantly predicts its reading…

Discussion of the mission and roles of library media programs and teacher-librarians focuses on promoting books and reading, through which students become effective users of ideas. Highlights include reading proficiency; reading advocacy options; motivation approaches, including the ARCS (Attention, Relevance, Confidence, Satisfaction) model;…