Most people have struggled with reading in one situation or another, depending on their appreciation for the content, their prior experiences, and the texts. This department column shares ways for educators to help literacy learners unlock their potential with instruction anchored in their skills, knowledge, ways of learning, interests, and…

Most people have struggled with reading in one situation or another, depending on their appreciation for the content, their prior experiences, and the texts. This department column shares ways for educators to help literacy learners unlock their potential with instruction anchored in their skills, knowledge, ways of learning, interests, and…

Most people have struggled with reading in one situation or another, depending on their appreciation for the content, their prior experiences, and the texts. This department column shares ways for educators to help literacy learners unlock their potential with instruction anchored in their skills, knowledge, ways of learning, interests, and…

The goal of this writing is to introduce the reader to the urban fiction genre, explore why adolescent African American girls may be engaging with novels from the genre, and how teachers may be able to use texts from the genre to increase literacy skills.

This formative experiment was designed to ensure that a group of high school students developed their literacy habits. The intervention consisted of a schoolwide approach to literacy using four instructional routines: think-alouds, note-taking writing to learn, and dedicated reading time. As part of the formative experiment, we document the…

The Chinese people have great regard for those who read widely, yet little is known of the extracurricular reading behaviors of Chinese students. This study drew on data from two national surveys to investigate the amount of time Taiwanese college students spend on extracurricular reading. Findings are interpreted in relation to prior research on…

Suggests that learning more about what draws adolescents to particular texts and practices can help teachers to facilitate literacy events that are meaningful to students. Concludes that, by allowing youth's ways of constructing meaning and identity to inform academic practices, play becomes a fruitful endeavor both in and outside of classrooms.…

Describes the weekly book talks scheduled in ninth-grade English classes, in which invited faculty and administrators share a favorite book, thus exposing students to enthusiasm for reading, shared interests and reading habits, and a wide array of reasons for reading. (SR)

Describes the "quick book share," an activity used by a seventh-grade reading and language arts teacher, in which students in small groups share with each other their passion for a particular book, thus getting recommendations from each other, and letting the teacher know what books are being read in the reading workshop. (SR)

Presents, in the form of a conversation with a vampire, results of a teacher's research on middle school students' reading preferences. Includes a list of favorite books mentioned, favorite authors mentioned, and how students found these favorite books. (SR)

An important research paradigm applied to the study of adolescent resistance to reading--listening to student voice--has yielded rich information regarding adolescent literacy practices, adolescent agency, and adolescent identity as components of resistance to reading. Instructional perspectives of teachers and researchers also serve to shed light…

Describes a collective case study of 12 high school juniors who identified themselves as avid readers of popular fiction. Finds strong reading relationships between parents and high school students. Describes the different roles that parents played in their adolescent children's reading lives. Looks at implications for secondary English classrooms…