Student motivation is a critical element of engagement, learning, and achievement. With this in mind, teachers are particularly interested in motivating their students to read. However, getting students to do so can be a difficult task, especially if they lack confidence in choosing personally interesting books. We advocate for carefully nurturing…

Two university professors and 11 urban school faculty collaborated on a professional development (PD) effort focused on critical literacy to explore literacy practices aimed to reshape definitions of literacy that involved questioning power relationships concerning the environment and social justice. We examined the journey of a veteran teacher,…

Studies indicate thoughtfully planned chants integrated with shared book reading help young children remember concepts and vocabulary they hear in literature, capture children's imagination, develop their rhyming acuity, and background knowledge, and increase their sense of story structure, understanding of story sequence, phonological awareness,…

Offers a rationale for the practice of elementary school teachers reading frequently to their students and discusses guidelines for book selection and for planning read-aloud sessions. Includes a bibliography of read-aloud books. (FL)

Presents a teaching technique of assessing the child's reading interest, making available a collection of books, and specifying time for recreational reading. Discusses how the teaching objectives avoid the listing of activities for students and focus on behavior to arouse children's interest. (MG)

Describes a Story Reading Program and Shared Book Experience to improve the language and reading skills of multiply handicapped children. Concludes that the employment of multiple stimuli--large print, pictures, speech, and signs--in story reading activities increases children's attention skills, improves receptive and expressive language use, and…