Describes one educator's whole-language approach to elementary school reading. Her class activities focus on books and friends during February to help celebrate Valentine's day. Two student pages offer friendship-oriented student activities. (SM)

A third-grade teacher's account of her struggle to determine the most appropriate methods for teaching reading skills includes grouping techniques, methods for creating interest in reading among the students, techniques for diagnosing reading levels, and a fifth dimensional approach to teaching beginning reading. (JN)

A widely used technique for teaching reading, Directed Reading Activity (DRA), contributes to the development of passive readers rather than thinking readers. This article describes an alternative approach, Directed Reading-Thinking Activity (DRTA), contrasts DRTA with DRA, gives an example of DRTA in action, and provides tips for switching to…

This article offers suggestions to teachers of middle school students on how to encourage children to read for pleasure and how to build a classroom library suited to their interests and abilities. (JD)

The systems approach to learning used in the majority of classrooms today redefines reading as its component skills. Two different approaches developed by teachers to teach reading as the sum of its components are presented. (JN)

The article explains how elementary teachers can strike a balance between whole language and traditional approaches to reading instruction, describing successful programs and sharing several teachers' suggestions for combining the two methods in the classroom. A list of reading resources is included. (SM)

This activity book uses the whole language approach to encourage young readers and prereaders to become critical listeners and viewers by comparing different versions of familiar fairy tales ("The Three Little Pigs" and "Beauty and the Beast"). Class activities, educational games, posters, and student activity pages are…