Given the political and social fragmentation and incivility that currently exists in America, this paper examines existing scholarship on diversifying the American literary canon in order to increase cultural literacy and to encourage reflective and critical conversations about modern-day issues of social justice. A brief overview of pedagogical…

Media literacy (ML) education has emerged as a promising approach to slowing the spread of "Truth Decay," described as the diminishing role that facts, data, and analysis play in political and civil discourse. Several factors contribute to Truth Decay, including a rapidly evolving information ecosystem and overburdened educational…

Reading is considered by many to be a very important skill among four macro skills for English as a second language and is highlighted in Malaysia Standard Curriculum for Primary School (KSSR) and English language curriculum in Malaysia. However, poor reading habits among Malaysian students especially in English remained a pressing issue in…

The study aimed to identify the beliefs of female student-teachers regarding children's literature and its importance in developing language skills of first primary classes at Petra University of Jordan in light of specialization and academic year variables. The study sample comprised (64) female student-teachers of B. A level at the faculty of…

Teachers of the d/Deaf (TODs) struggle to select appropriate storybooks for elementary-aged Deaf pre-readers who use American Sign Language (Hayes & Shaw, 1994). Hayes and Shaw (1994) created a book selection system for TODs, but their methodology was difficult to evaluate. The purpose of the present research was to create an empirically…

This document is a guide through the process of setting up and running a book study about diversity, equity, inclusion, and belongingness, to better create an inclusive and equitable environment where everyone feels they belong. Books on these topics provide tools and context to navigate race, age, physical ability, religion, and sexual…

This study examined the role of relevance determinations within the context of undergraduates' multiple text reading and writing. In this study, undergraduate students were randomly assigned to one of two experimental conditions (i.e., to compose a research report about either the causes of or the solutions to the urban housing crisis), using a…

Helping students engage with complex texts has been a longstanding challenge, though teachers have received little guidance about practices that help students in engaging with texts. This paper provides a range of empirical evidence about a tool designed to provide formative insight into text-focused teaching, which we used to reliably score more…

The importance of Critical Thinking (CT) to support every individual's success in academic, personal and social life has long been acknowledged. The accelerating advancement of technology makes the need for CT more crucial. However, due to various factors, CT development through the educational process has not been satisfactory. This article…

The author and Karin Perry conducted surveys with educators for the past five years asking them about their reading habits and preferences. To date, they have more than 2500 responses. They paint a picture that all is not well on the teacher front. This article presents a few observations from the data. On average, educators report reading one to…

This qualitative study explores parents' considerations in selecting narrative picturebooks to read with their children. Participants included 104 middle-socioeconomic status parents (84 mothers, 20 fathers) of young children (51 boys, 53 girls; M[subscript age] = 61.26, SD = 9.52). We presented parents with two translated children's books whose…

This article discusses the importance of making available in classrooms a range of children's literature offering authentic and meaningful representations of characters with disabilities. The focus is not only on reading inclusive literature with typically developing students but also on the importance of making inclusive literature available to…

Teen literature expert Carstensen, creator and editor of "School Library Journal"'s Adult Books 4 Teens blog, presents this comprehensive resource for serving the reading interests of teens in all types of libraries. Moving far beyond merely offering lists of book titles, this RA guide specifically helps librarians and educators in…

Read-alouds are a frequent practice in early childhood classrooms and provide great potential for developing literacy skills for young learners including vocabulary, comprehension, text structure awareness, visual literacy, and fluency. Yet, any potential benefit of read-alouds depends on how the teacher enacts a read-aloud, particularly in…

Delays in oral language development in early childhood can be an indicator for later reading disabilities and affect students' overall school success through high school. Fortunately, there are research-based approaches to help young students at risk for reading disabilities make long-term improvements in their vocabulary development skills. This…