The "IDRA Newsletter" serves as a vehicle for communication with educators, school board members, decision-makers, parents, and the general public concerning the educational needs of all children across the United States. The focus of this issue is "Opportunity." Contents include: (1) Students Deserve to Read Diverse Books --…

Media literacy (ML) education has emerged as a promising approach to slowing the spread of "Truth Decay," described as the diminishing role that facts, data, and analysis play in political and civil discourse. Several factors contribute to Truth Decay, including a rapidly evolving information ecosystem and overburdened educational…

Disciplinary literacy encompasses not only the ability to read the texts of a discipline, but also to engage in the practices and discourse of that discipline. At the center of the discipline of history is inquiry. For these students to move from their ninth grade expectations about history toward the authentic discipline of history, they would…

The Young Readers Programme (YRP) motivates children to read for enjoyment by running a series of three literacy-focused events, teaching children strategies to choose books that are right for them, and showing them that reading can be enjoyable. One of the most effective ways of developing children's literacy skills is to engage them in reading…

Paired Reading is a peer tutoring programme in secondary schools which trains teachers to support and encourage the regular tutoring of Year 7 pupils (aged 11-12 years) by Year 9 pupils (aged 13-14 years). The Paired Reading programme aims to improve pupils' general literacy in addition to speaking and listening skills. This is achieved by pupils…

A large, suburban, Southeastern university conducted a multi-method study on the effectiveness of its common reader program in meeting multiple learning objectives. Data from approximately 700 respondents, all of whom were first-year students enrolled in 37 sections of the university's traditional first-year seminar course, revealed that the…

Describes "A Guide to Selecting Basal Reading Programs," which was developed to help textbook adoption committees select basal reading texts in elementary schools. Topics discussed include development of booklets that describe various aspects of reading instruction and the role of the guidelines in improving the quality of basal reading…

Common reading programs are becoming a ubiquitous component of first-year experience initiatives. Sometimes controversial, these programs are designed to provide students an introduction to the intellectual expectations of college in an often-informal gathering of college faculty and peers. Yet, truly dynamic and successful programs move beyond…

Intended for use by preservice and inservice teachers, day care providers, and all who work with preschool and primary age children, this book focuses on children's literature as an art form and on the ways it supports children's growth and development. The first two chapters describe the range of literature currently available and demonstrate how…

Selections from the last three basal reading series produced by the Houghton Mifflin Company were examined to determine what improvements were made. One of the fundamental changes occurring in the 1971 revision ("Readers") was the replacement of grade designations with numerical levels that provided a better match between student and…

The Language Arts Supervisor of the Des Moines, Iowa Independent Community School District is responsible for supervising and coordinating all aspects of the middle and high school language arts program. Aspects of the program include curriculum development, instructional material selection and implementation, staff development, evaluation, and…

Intended for administrators and reading teachers, this book deals with the issues about reading that seem to be the most common causes of concern. The topics discussed are the following: a general approach to the teaching of reading, ways to involve parents with reading, a prereading program, the organization of a reading program, the process of…

This paper describes procedures that can be used in individual schools to evaluate various aspects of their English programs. The major portion of the paper discusses schools' ability to foster voluntary reading, in the face of the widely reported decline in such reading after grade eight. Specific suggestions are given for bridging the gap…

This program assessment instrument was developed for use by educators and community representatives in evaluating secondary school reading programs and in establishing program goals. Using a rating scale of (1) not started, (2) started/little progress, (3) some progress, (4) almost achieved, and (5) achieved, the instrument covers the following…