All students can benefit from a deeper understanding of how our language works. "Playing With Language" shows elementary school educators (K-6) how to think about, talk about, and manipulate language out of context. This cognitive skill set, known as metalinguistic awareness, is an important component of reading ability. This practical…

Storytime is an important fixture in many school libraries that helps foster students' reading abilities. With a history of success, why would librarians want to alter storytime by incorporating technology? This article discusses how Laura Fleming, a long-time school librarian, addressed decreased student engagement in traditional reading…

Understanding ambiguous words, phrases, and sentences is an important part of reading well, communicating skillfully, and enjoying humor based on word play. With this seven-unit activity book--filled with creative, ready-to-use activities based on jokes and puns--students will learn how to decipher the language ambiguities they encounter inside…

Today more than ever, educators are challenged to meet the literacy needs of all learners in increasingly diverse classrooms. To help them meet this challenge, author Susan E. Israel, shows how to use metacognitive assessments to adapt literacy instruction to elementary students' individual needs. This book supplies teachers with easy access to…

Explores whether training in mental imagery can improve text comprehension in good and poor nine-year-old comprehenders. Finds that a three-session program of training in imagery benefited the poor, but not the good, comprehenders. Discusses results in relation to possible causes of children's comprehension difficulties. (MG)

Discusses methods and research related to increasing children's reading rates to improve their comprehension and self-esteem. Concludes that the improvement of reading rate should be an established component of any reading program. (MG)

Examines the advantages and disadvantages of peer tutoring and Paired Reading, a program of structured pair-work between children with different reading abilities. Claims these methods have great potential for cooperative learning, and emphasizes that good organization by the teacher is essential. (MM)

Presents open-ended and semistructured interviews to assess reading comprehension. Highlights the potential value of interviews in aligning assessment practices with instruction and learning theory. (MG)

Describes an experimental investigation of how a live metaphor might help readers connect an old idea with a new concept, thereby adding new information to an existing base of knowledge. Finds that the use of metaphors may generate a meaningful learning experience for less able readers at the university level. (MG)

Examines research evidence that suggests an association between impulsivity and poor reading performance; outlines methods that have been helpful in training children to respond less impulsively, to take more time, and to make fewer mistakes so that ultimately they may become better readers. (Author/GT)

Describes dynamic assessment which uses a response-to-instruction paradigm to complement traditional diagnostic assessment of word recognition and comprehension. States that this approach to assessment provides the opportunity to evaluate systematically the instructional factors that influence reading performance. (MG)

Discusses how teachers can build and sustain students' positive self-images within the classroom. States that emphasizing effort instead of reading ability and focusing on learning goals instead of performance goals will help the "learned helpless" child immensely. Discusses the role of teacher expectations in the success attained by…

Defines the set of characteristics known as cognitive style, suggests how these traits possibly influence reading behavior, and cites some of their ramifications for classroom reading instruction. (FL)

Suggests using readability formulas, a skills inventory, an introspective report, and diagnostic approaches based on models of comprehension as informal evaluations of students' content reading ability. (MKM)

Discusses the nature of color vision defects as they relate to reading instruction. Suggests ways that teachers can adapt instruction to help provide maximal learning opportunities for the color deficient child. (RS)