Relates the author's experiences teaching remedial reading in a Texas high school, where the state-mandated exit-level competency test heavily influences teaching. Discusses negative effects on students and on teachers. Describes how the author's teaching evolved from an emphasis on this basic skills test to a focus on engaging students in…

Discusses three recent novels for young adults set in medieval times, illustrating several ways that modern writers incorporate medieval material into fiction. Argues that pairing such novels with medieval texts such as "Beowulf" and "The Canterbury Tales" offers opportunities to explore traditional literary topics while providing a gateway into…

Discusses the value of reading picture books aloud to secondary school students. Describes how to select picture books and discusses strategies for reading aloud. Lists 17 suggested picture books for reading aloud. Argues that reading aloud to middle and high school students demonstrates a teacher's enthusiasm for reading, which can be contagious.…

Presents the perspectives on books and reading of two middle school boys, both reluctant readers who were passionate about reading self-selected materials outside of school. Argues that the perspectives of these renegade readers can inform educators who want to improve students' engagement with reading. (SR)

Considers how educators need to know more about self-esteem in males and females of different grades with different reading achievement levels. Attempts to determine the difference of fourth and sixth graders' self-esteem. Suggests that educators must do more to instill a genuine curiosity and love for reading to have boys in our nation's schools…

The purpose of this case study was to explore a middle school student's emotions in the tutoring context in order to better understand the "struggles"faced by a struggling reader. Through cognitive explanations of emotions, the researcher identified aspects of tutoring that influenced Mitchell's feelings of enjoyment, pride, and success. These…

A study examined a program for improving attitudes toward reading. Subjects were 19 kindergarten, 39 first-grade, 17 second-grade, and 29 sixth-grade students in a middle class southwestern suburb of Chicago, Illinois. Reading attitude problems were documented through parent/student surveys and observations. Students' reading was prioritized in…

A survey was administered in September 1994 to 226 students enrolled in reading courses at Bishop State Community College to gain information about the students' reading habits and experiences and their expectations from the courses in which they were enrolled. Results indicated that: (1) math was chosen by 29% of subjects as their favorite…

New fields of English study are developing their own canons, their own majors, and their own departments: Black studies, Caribbean studies, women's studies. Yes, all scholars in English read Shakespeare, Emily Dickinson, Zora Neale Hurston, and Derek Walcott, but do they read them alike? Are the places of these works in the literary tradition the…

This book adopts the point of view of a child to consider young children and how they think about reading. A premise of the book is that beginning readers have rich understandings of reading and are able to share these insights with any adults who care to listen. The book argues that reading instruction can be improved by listening to children and…

The purpose of this study was to determine if cross age peer tutoring of fifth grade and kindergarten students would have an effect on reading achievement. For eight weeks one group of fifth graders and kindergartners paired together four times a week, while the other group was not cross age paired. Both groups were given a Reading Interview…

Two separate research methodologies, quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis, were employed to determine the differences in second grade children on method of reading instruction. Fifty children in two classrooms from one school in North Carolina were subjects. One of the two teachers employed a literature based methodology, while the…

A study investigated whether students in whole language based and basal reader approaches would have different concepts of reading when asked to define reading. Subjects, 69 suburban New Jersey first and third graders and 16 New Zealand first graders, were asked 3 questions: "What is reading?"; "What do you do when you read?";…

Most of the 43 instruments described in this bibliography are attitude measures designed to elicit students' opinions toward various aspects of reading. Some of the measures are geared toward teachers and their beliefs about reading instruction. This document is one in a series of topical bibliographies from the Test Collection (TC) at Educational…

A practicum was designed to intervene and assist borderline elementary school RSP (Resource Specialist Program) students in special education classes and/or through extra assistance within the regular classroom. Borderline RSP students who had been referred to the Student Study Team (SST) for below-grade-level scores and classroom functioning in…