This article discusses how Mary Curran-Hackett, an adjunct faculty member at the University of Cincinnati in the English Literature and Composition and Rhetoric Departments, was determined to hook her students on reading. She wanted to find a topic on which every single student would undoubtedly have an opinion, and if not a preconceived notion,…

Describes how the author was shaped by his reading experiences as a boy and young man. Suggests some of the values literature holds for individuals in various circumstances and urges that teachers work to match books to individual students and their needs and interests. (TJ)

While English teachers want students to enjoy reading, to appreciate the beauty of literature, and to recognize the universality of the classics, many adolescent students do not become interested in the aesthetic aspect of literature until they are beyond high school age. Some works, outside the traditional literary canon, speak more directly to…

Pays tribute to comic books as sources of real enjoyment for children. (TO)

Discusses how romantic novels can be used to generate interest in the secondary school classroom. (DF)

Notes that pupils need to have opportunities to select challenging reading materials and need chances to read on an individual basis as well as in group work situations. Notes that interest and purpose in reading are important. (RS)

Discusses the teacher's responsibility to provide interesting reading materials for his students without the fetters of censorship; a paper presented at annual Conference on English Education (7th, Syracuse, N.Y., March 28, 1969). (SW)

Describes a reading scheme involving classroom use of books the children chose themselves. (HOD)

Whether teachers are horror fans or not, part of a teacher's service to student readers is to recommend recent and good horror novels. Unlike the almost idiosyncratic horror market of years past, today a series of recognizable horror writer such as Christopher Pike, D. E. Atkins, R. L. Stine and others are turning out numerous titles specifically…

Reports a study of the reading likes and dislikes of 900 fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh graders. (RD)

Many English teachers face the widespread misconception that if a work of fiction is enjoyable, it cannot be good, or, conversely, if it is good, it cannot be enjoyable. Critics of horror fiction, for example, would likely argue that better reading materials are available for students to read. Inclusion of materials other than "classics" into the…

Suggests that teachers of reading would do well to look at the books in use in their classrooms and ask if they really do help present the acts of reading and writing as being varied, important, and enjoyable. (HOD)

Maintains that traditional summer reading assignments discourage students' pleasurable responses to reading; based on a paper presented at annual convention of National Council of Teachers of English (59th, Washington, D.C., November 29, 1969). (RD)