Teachers hold significant power to determine which books or printed materials students might access, choose, or reject. It is important to consider how teachers' objectives, understandings, or perspectives serve as literacy sponsorship and implicitly privilege or suppress which texts, genres, or authors students access. This case study examines…

Lack of motivation to read is the culprit of many students' struggles in literacy achievement, resulting in wider gaps in reading achievement and resulting inequities in schools across America. When students are provided with the ability to choose the text they read for English class, they have an increase in interest and commitment to read, which…

Speeches given at the 1986 ALSC (Association for Library Services to Children) Charlemae Rollins President's Program on the nature of productive analysis of children's books are presented in three articles. The need to select books that are challenging and exciting to read is discussed, and literary and extraliterary criteria for evaluating books…

Argues that reading is a useful tool in successful living as well as a pleasure in itself and discusses the importance of making books accessible to children and teaching them how to select appropriate reading materials. (CHC)

In the mystery genre, the one characteristic that the enduring figures of Sherlock Holmes, Nancy Drew, and Encyclopedia Brown have in common is a rational mind. The source of their strength is their ability to think and think well. A study examined some typical examples of the mystery genre in young adult literature and surveyed children and…

This discussion of factors influencing youth literacy in Ukraine highlights information on availability and content of reading material in the Soviet Union and Ukraine. The population of Ukraine is 100% literate. Regional children's libraries and separate libraries for youth are located in the cities and larger towns, are funded by the Ministry of…

The reading content offered in Hong Kong to advanced learners of English as a second language underestimates their intellectual capabilities. Material presented to second language learners is found to be linguistically correct but containing trivial, dull, and unchallenging cultural and intellectual content. This situation is closely related to…

A study was conducted to determine whether students' preferences for reading or for viewing television were related to the quality of their leisure reading choices. The families of 198 fourth, fifth, and sixth grade students were asked to complete television and reading logs for four weeks. Sixty-six students were identified from this sample as…

A study was conducted to explore the reading habits, interests, and attitudes of older readers. One hundred and twenty readers aged 60 to 64 years participated in the Adult Inventory of Reading Interests and Attitudes (AIRIA) and were classified as minimal, moderate, and avid book readers. Fifty-five of these subjects were then interviewed. Among…

Classroom teachers of adolescents need to analyze the material they use for instructional purposes, as well as the materials they suggest for independent reading, to be certain that both incorporate text which is informational or technical, since experience suggests that this type of material is generally preferred by readers of this age group.…

A study investigated the relationships between reading interests, habits, and attitudes of third, fourth, and fifth grade students and the variables of teacher/parental influences, ethnic background, gender, and grade levels of the students. Subjects, a random sample of 101 Black, 92 White, 2 Chinese and 1 Arab low-to-middle socioeconomic-level…

Employing a body of texts for the reading and study of literature in the English classroom leads to much argumentation, with much disagreement about what is fair game for the writing student. To help determine which texts to select it is necessary to define cultural literacy in a different way from that of E. D. Hirsch. Hirsch would prescribe…

Historically less emphasis has been put on the importance of attitude factors than on the skills of reading. When defining attitudes as a person's views, interests, expectations, and so on, attitude toward reading is a combination of all components that contribute to a person's underlying disposition to reading including expectations, interest,…

When one educator was teaching English in middle and high school, she wondered why so many adolescents disliked reading. Even teen-aged protagonists and up-to-the-minute topics were not guaranteed to be "interesting." Yet something engages these young readers, at times and in some texts. To begin to get some answers, she interviewed…

Learning environments have an impact on acquiring skills in reading as well as developing positive attitudes toward reading. Another variable that affects attitudes and aptitude toward reading is the "climate" or "environment" in which children learn their skills. This paper concentrates on the phenomenon that is reaching epic proportions in the…