Historically, higher learning was based on the study of the Great Works of thought of the Western canon. These works span a broad range of time, from the Classical period, to early Christianity, and the Enlightenment, all the way to the 20th century. Presently, close study of Great Works is less common at most mainstream colleges and universities.…

Bookmark Reading supports children's reading in primary schools by offering a six-week programme involving two 30-minute face-to-face sessions each week with a child who needs extra support with their reading. By training volunteers to read with children in their local schools, the programme offers support for children in Years 1 to 3 who are at…

The Reader Organisation's Get into Reading programme is all about getting people together in groups to engage with serious books. The groups are mixed and the participants sometimes challenging, but the outcomes are often remarkable. Jane Davis, who founded the Reader Organisation and continues to oversee Get into Reading, has witnessed a massive…

A large, suburban, Southeastern university conducted a multi-method study on the effectiveness of its common reader program in meeting multiple learning objectives. Data from approximately 700 respondents, all of whom were first-year students enrolled in 37 sections of the university's traditional first-year seminar course, revealed that the…

Literature, one of the fine arts requiring imagination both from the writer and from the reader, can be read for relaxation, for escape, or for its diversionary effect. Literature can be read also for stimulation, for challenge, or as an antidote to boredom and shallow thinking. Teachers of literature must convince three basic groups of the value…

As part of the community service program of a community college, courses in world literature were taught to residents of two nursing homes on a non-credit, tuition-free basis. This paper explains the origin of the project, course organization, types of subjects taught in response to student needs, and types of evaluative instruments completed by…

Reporting on a doctoral practicum that examined children's literary works and developed related expressive language activities, this document contains a description of the practicum--including its purpose, goals, procedures, and results--and a guide for primary teachers to use in language arts instruction. The expressive language activities…

A study investigated the effectiveness of a program to improve the reading/vocabulary skills of an ability-grouped fifth grade class of "low achievers" (N=15) through the implementation of a literature-based whole language approach. Students were read aloud to from quality children's literature. From these books, spelling and vocabulary…

This introductory manual offers an overview of the Hawaii English Program in Literature for elementary students--a program designed to help children enjoy and understand literature through active exploration of a variety of stories and poems from contemporary works as well as from the classics. Part I, "Preparing to Teach the Program",…

This is the first volume in an annual series which collects, catalogues, analyzes, and compresses basic information intended to help improve foreign language instruction in America. The review, covering all levels of instruction, ranges from equipment selection standards to planning of bilingual programs. It concerns itself with materials…

Provides a detailed description of an experiment involving a particular method of teaching poetry to a class of high ability boys and draws attention to some common educational research procedures and their attendant problems. (DD)

Junior Great Books Curriculum model uses interpretive discussion within the reading process to help students of all reading abilities understand literature, or construct inferential and thematic meaning from their reading. Program was piloted in third-grade classes in 13 Chicago schools between 1989 and 1991. The model's cornerstone is the…

A description of the 100 level English program at Ohio University, an explanation of how the program got started, and a brief evaluation of how the students and faculty responded to the program are included in this paper. Acknowledging that the students come into the program with 12 years or more of study of English composition and literature, the…

This document is an executive summary of a study examining the Inexpensive Book Distribution Program (IBDP), a federally funded and sponsored program operated by Reading is Fundamental (RIF). Sections of the report provide the following information: (1) methodology and procedures for conducting the study, (2) a brief description of RIF national…

This report provides details of a study of the Inexpensive Book Distribution Program (IBDP), a federally funded and sponsored program operated by Reading is Fundamental (RIF). The specific objectives of the described study were to determine the effectiveness of the IBDP in generating student reading motivation, and to describe the process by which…