Authentic learning experiences are those in which students engage with texts as well as the behaviors of reading and writing within contexts of real-world use beyond traditional academic use. This study provides quantitative analysis of how students (n = 200) engaged with an adult pen pal in a shared literacy experience. Findings indicate that…

The basic skills of reading, writing, and arithmetic are necessary, but not sufficient for participation in a world that demands independent and cooperative problem solving of its citizens. Young children come to school with an interest in the community and the world outside their own. Social studies curricula can affirm the child's immediate…

This study investigated the effects of reward proximity and choice of reward on the reading motivation of third-grade students as measured by indicators of task persistence. The major finding from this study was that students who were given a book as a reward and students who received no reward were more motivated to engage in subsequent reading…

Recommends teaching both mental imagery (an unobtrusive, natural text processing strategy) and summarizing (an efficient text reorganization strategy) to students who do not spontaneously use them. (NKA)

Describes a study of third- and sixth-grade students indicating no differences in comprehension between story reading on a page and on a computer screen, and that students were more interested in the story while reading from the screen, but that the story was more difficult in this condition. (HTH)