New research findings are presented in this paper, responding to a significant knowledge gap about the role of pedagogy in tackling persistent educational inequalities. The paper examines the potential of reading for pleasure (RfP) pedagogy to disrupt 'pedagogy of poverty' in low socio-economic (SES) schools and to enable children to reap the…

Switch-on is an intensive, targeted literacy intervention that aims to improve the reading skills of pupils who are struggling with literacy. There are two versions of the intervention: Switch-on Reading and Switch-on Reading and Writing. Both involve specially trained Teaching Assistants (TAs) delivering a tailored programme of literacy support…

In the context of the current debate about teaching reading, research to ascertain primary teachers' personal and professional reading practices was undertaken. The study explored teachers' reading habits and preferences, investigated their knowledge of children's literature, and documented their reported use of such texts and involvement with…

Children, ages 8-9 and 11-12, rated fiction they had just read. Boys preferred supernatural, adventure and mystery stories while girls rated fairy and pony stories highly. Both preferred characters of their own sex. Sex differences were smaller in the 11-12 age group (f=fiche number). (CP)

Surveys some recent fiction which reflects both the diverse interests and varying reading abilities of 11-18 year olds. Presents brief reviews of 26 novels touching on themes such as family, first love, social issues, adventure, fantasy, and thrillers. (RS)

What are adolescents choosing to read? This is an important question because of potential divergence between school students' reading interests and reading expectations in school. This article considers the findings from a study of the reading over one week in May 2002 of 707 school students aged between 11 and 15, undertaken in 30 schools in the…

A survey of 500 children aged 8 to 14 pointed to an enormous gap between children's stated attitudes toward poetry and their actual interest in poetry, as measured by their recall of lines of poetry. (GT)

A study of the current expressed reading interests of children in the first two years of school conducted in ten countries--Austria, Canada, England, Israel, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Panama, Sweden, and the United States--is reported in this paper. Over 2,000 children drew pictures about what they would best like to read or have read to…

Concludes that there are fewer differences in children's reading preferences between sex, age, and nationality than educators have been led to believe. (FL)

Compares reading interests of 8- to 11-year-old children from the United States and England. Finds that (1) American children showed greater interest than English children in science, poetry, and biographies; (2) categories of jokes, mystery, crafts, and adventure were popular in both countries; and (3) expected sex differences between reading…

Uses a small-scale attitude survey to assess children's attitudes to the way reading is taught in England, and examines possible alternatives to existing practice. (RS)

A 2-year study examined the leisure reading of 60 13- to 15-year-old students in England. Each subject was interviewed once a term for five terms, and was asked to keep a "reading diary" containing information about books read. Results indicated that young people do read, probably more than teachers think. Specific findings showed that…

The Bradford Book Flood--an experiment in which large numbers of additional books were made available to middle school children in England to see whether easy access to books improved reading skills and developed a taste for reading--is detailed in this book. The first chapter discusses the purpose and methodology of the experiment, while the…

Surveys the reading and viewing habits of British teenagers. Discovers that, although U.S. horror fiction (R. L. Stine, Stephen King) tops the lists, a wide diversity exists among the less popular authors. Reveals marked gender differences in amount of time spent viewing videos, television, and computer games. (MJP)