Argues, from the author's experience and with supporting quotes from many teenagers, that modern retellings of classic fairy tales can be very popular with teenage readers. Discusses numerous such stories, and offers an extensive list of retold fairy tales, organized into: Cinderella stories, Beauty and the Beast stories, Sleeping Beauty stories,…

Explores whether first-grade students' concepts about reading differed as a function of their teachers' theoretical orientations to reading instruction. Finds that whole language students verbalized more reading strategies than other students, valued and used phonics as much as other teachers and students, and viewed reading books as the central…

Offers a letter written by the author to himself 23 years ago in his first year as an English teacher. Offers four simple suggestions and a bit of extended advice to help him and his students. Encourages him to explore and use the wealth of adolescent literature that is available. Includes a list of young adult books worth reading. (SR)

Describes how Gary Paulsen's novels for young adults transformed the author's teaching, and caused her eighth-grade reluctant readers to read as if inspired. Relates how Paulsen's stories about his adventures and misadventures in education and in life stirred students to become active participants in the reading process. Offers a select…

Recommends Sustained Silent Reading (SSR) in grades 2-12 to improve students' reading and to teach them to love to read. Outlines rules for SSR, and offers notes to the teacher on its implementation. (SR)

Argues that struggling readers' pessimism about their own ability to learn to read can become the most powerful obstacle teachers face in helping those students become better readers. Presents 22 practical suggestions to help teachers craft an informed, persistent, systematic, emotionally supportive effort providing students with a wealth of…

Argues that instructional activities in teacher education programs can assist preservice teachers in identifying their beliefs. Identifies eight beliefs preservice teachers formulated about reading and literature following one part of a language arts education course in which they designed literature-based learning units. (NH)

Presents tips for giving successful teen booktalks, including advice on delivery, teasing students and getting their attention, selecting books that have sections that will interest them, stretching the truth, and, and limiting the presentation. Includes a sampling of young adult books and examples of scripts used to get teens' attention. (AEF)

Describes how a 4th-grade and a 6th-grade class meet to discuss books in a shared reading experience called "Hooked on Books," aimed at encouraging a reading lifestyle and helping students learn to articulate reactions to reading. Discusses getting started, helping students respond to reading, reading together, students' perspectives, and program…

Students in sixth and ninth grades were surveyed to determine attitudes toward reading and identify factors in the lives of older children and teens associated with the development of a love of reading. A group of 14 students who love to read, as well as an equal number of students who prefer not to read, were then interviewed about their reading…

The results of the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study 2001 (PIRLS) were reported in 2003. In addition to data about the reading achievements of 10-year-olds in 35 countries, the study also collected questionnaire information from children, their teachers, headteachers and parents. One aspect of the data that attracted comment in the…

The importance of reading for academic study cannot be overemphasized. At the postgraduate level, students are faced with complex text interpretation processes. Yet, while concerns have been expressed regarding the English as a second language literacy (Fitzgerald, 1995), few international students have been asked for their views on their…

A study examined how students developed as readers from their own point of view. Reader autobiographies and questionnaires were collected from 272 advanced, general, and basic level 12th-grade high school students from a variety of high schools in the state of Georgia. In addition, three students who were characteristic of the three types of…

A study examined the attitudes of participants of the Indiana University Southeast's Reading Clinic in New Albany, Indiana. Subjects, who ranged in age level from first through ninth grades (although few were past the sixth grade in school) were asked to complete a questionnaire. Data were gathered over 4 years and 214 (98%) of the clinic…

The goal of a practicum was to improve students' attitudes towards reading. Subjects, 35 third graders, were representative of the community's social composition. Activities encouraged increased reading time in and out of the classroom. Parents were asked to encourage their children to read and to participate by reading with them, to them, or…