Investigates effects of issue-related emotional involvement on reading comprehension. Notes that three groups of eighth graders read silently about a basketball game that ended in a fight--two groups were highly emotionally involved with the teams while the third group was emotionally uninvolved with the teams. Finds that emotional involvement can…

Contends that, when developed and shared in small groups, analytic reading lists can lead students to assess individual reading habits, identify patterns and preferences, and set future goals. Gives a step-by-step method for the process: gathering and listing, discussing and reflecting, and documenting accomplishment in reading. (PA)

Notes that the author was struck by the "self-centered" readers she encountered in her classroom and at professional conferences--readers who respond to reading by thinking of their own life and experiences. Argues that reading is so much more than a trip into the self. Presents two brief responses, by Lauren L. Wohl and Daniel Hade. (RS)

Concludes that the author's study of the once-popular but now largely forgotten periodical "The Youth's Companion" shows how children's literature can call forth in readers a powerful response--a personal, literary, critical and active response that is shaped by a text's purpose, promise, positioning of readers, and the enduring passion it…

Presents an interview with a middle school student, a boy of Caucasian and African American descent. Notes that the student's candid thoughts on reading provoked the author to wonder about the middle school reading experience, especially for those who resist it. Looks at choice, time, and the classroom to help students become engaged readers. (SG)

Considers reasons that teachers and students alike do not read for pleasure. Lists three steps to address this: defining the teacher's reading philosophy; defining students' reading philosophies; and fusing reading research and curricular expectations. Describes how the author focuses her curriculum to accommodate more reading. (SG)

Through email partnerships or email exchanges with university, students increase confidence in reading and discussing literature. The act of composing email messages helps the student to articulate their thoughts.

In this article, the author relates how he had found solace and diversion in reading aloud while caring for his father who was undergoing chemotherapy. One particular incident left him completely immersed in reading that he did not noticed his father had been awakened from a deep sleep. From those experiences, the author observes how engagement in…

Beyond decoding words and sentences, everyone thinks of a reader as a person who makes particular kinds of intertextual connections, who asks particular kinds of questions of a text, who reads at a particular intellectual distance from the text, who talks about more than the text's meaning and analyzes its nature. The difference in how teachers…

Despite the fact that students are an important component of the educational process, their preferences for instruction are not typically a consideration for classroom practices. The purpose of this survey study was to determine high school students' preferences for methods used in the instruction of literary works of art. Students expressed…

The following Action Research Project Report is to improve the oral reading fluency of the 4th and 5th grade students with learning disabilities. The targeted population participating in this study consisted of a total of ten participants of which five were 4th grade students and five were 5th grade students located in a middle class community…

Summer book groups enhance and sustain student literacy behaviors over the break, making available an enjoyable social forum for critical-thinking and critical-reading practices to occur naturally. Significantly, the book groups grant faculty and students an informal space to connect meaningfully through reflective discussion of texts. Because…

The Motivation to Read Profile (MRP) is a public-domain instrument designed to provide teachers with an efficient and reliable way to assess reading motivation qualitatively and quantitatively by evaluating students' self-concept as readers and the value they place on reading. The MRP consists of two basic instruments: the Reading Survey (a…

A study assessed dimensions of children's reading motivations by giving them a revised version of the Motivations for Reading Questionnaire (MRQ). The MRQ is designed to assess 11 possible dimensions of reading motivations, including reading efficacy, several intrinsic and several extrinsic reading motivations, social aspects of reading, and the…

A study investigated the relationship between locus of control and intrinsically motivated reading for children. The entire sixth grade, totalling 53 students, of a parochial school in San Francisco was administered the Children's Nowicki-Strickland Internal-External Control Scale. A free-choice paperback reading rack provided the measure for…