Presents young adult literature as a solution to empower students and to make reading literacy attainable for middle and senior high school students who have not become fluent readers. Discusses the importance of accessing the student's own culture and outlines the criteria books should have to mirror the world of adolescents. (SC)

Shares a classroom vignette illustrating ways in which the author shared her own feelings about books as a demonstration to her students, demonstrating why a reader values a certain text, how reading can help readers see the world with a fuller insight, and how literature can help readers come to terms with real-life situations. (SR)

Offers reflections (by Nicholasa Mohr, writer of children's, young adult, and adult literature) upon how she learned to read and how reading gave her a sense of freedom, as well as pride in her own Puerto Rican heritage, in spite of the nonacceptance and contempt she experienced in school. (SR)

Examines what happens when seventh-grade students share their personal reading with peers as "Reader of the Day," a way for them to define themselves publicly as they interact within the literacy community of the classroom. Discusses cultural value associated with "Reader of the Day," operations and task demands, and scripts for reader and…

Describes the author's teaching practice of sending her preservice reading teachers (and herself) on a reading odyssey that results in the creation of a personal anthology. Includes guidelines for the odyssey and the anthology. Discusses five books the author read on her reading odyssey and discusses the ways in which reading was ubiquitous in…

Reports results of a literature-based developmental reading program in a junior high school. Uses students' comments to reveal how their reading had changed and to report improvement in both reading and content area classes. Identifies beneficial program attributes: choice in reading material, interesting reading material, time given just for…

Offers overviews of 13 recent predictable books for children, noting books that invite drama activities and books that lead to writing activities. Suggests ways to help young children become confidant and joyful readers and writers. (SR)

Describes the characteristics of the Tech Prep reader and writer. Recommends a language learning environment to foster literacy for these students, and provides a 17-item annotated bibliography of adolescent literature to motivate these reluctant readers. (SR)

Investigates literacy experiences of 42 children at ages 3, 5, and 7, and explores the relationship of home factors to literacy development. Finds that having a favorite book at age three, letter knowledge and parents reading to children at school entry, and access to home computers and parents' knowledge of literacy teaching in school were…

Focuses on I Like Me! program that promotes emotional health in children through self-concept. Notes two components of self-concept, self-efficacy and self-esteem, are developed at home from ages 2 through 6. Twelve-week program originally developed for kindergarten by Kindergartners Count strengthens self-concept through literacy and attitude…

Describes the author's voluntary reading program in her second-grade classroom. Describes how her basic Drop Everything and Read program needed to be added to and tinkered with to keep students interested and motivated: paired reading and discussion, visual reading records, and praise and occasional rewards. (SR)

Argues that it is time to legitimize the whole of literature for students and reject without qualms the presumption that certain books are more fit to be read than others. Argues that educators deny students gems by proffering them a list of great works, and that this "bulldozing mentality" damages an already fragile acceptance of reading. (SR)

Suggests that literacy projects are the ideal service learning genre for scholastic journalists. Considers a literacy project that reaches out to elementary and middle school students to encourage their love of reading. (SG)

A teacher reflects about his first experience in using response journals in his literature classroom and his attempt to use the extant research and other teachers' suggestions. Response journals helped most of his secondary students to change from passive to active readers. Discusses techniques and concerns about implementing response journals.…

Evaluates one aspect of the Read It Project, a community literacy project initiated and managed by Leeds Education 2000. Focuses on the reading attitudes and behavior of 61 children who attended Read It Clubs in 1998-1999. Concludes children enjoyed the Read It Clubs they attended, valued the experience, and believed they gained from it. (RS)