Practitioner inquiry partnerships offer a method of professional learning that positions teachers as experts and supports their culturally, linguistically, and racially diverse students through the cultivation of responsive pedagogical practices. This article builds on the research base around practitioner inquiry in literacy classrooms and…

This article examines the issue of children with incarcerated parents within the broader topic of criminal justice in multicultural children's literature. The sheer magnitude of culture of children with incarcerated parents makes it necessary for their stories to be included in children's literature. Children with an incarcerated parent need to…

The purpose of this "teaching tips" article is to describe practical classroom instruction that helps elementary students write expository responses to narrative texts. It focuses on the importance of scaffolded, interactive discussions comprised of a combination of teacher think alouds and similar student responses before, during, and…

When response activities and comprehension strategies are combined, classroom instruction can enhance student engagement and understanding of a text, enrich student response, and improve students' awareness of their own strategic reading. This article presents some activities, adapted from the new IRA book "Children's Literature in the Reading…

Discusses the advantages of a technique that requires children to respond simultaneously to the teacher's oral questions, and suggests ways to apply the technique to reading instruction. (DD)

Considers how teachers can create discussions through their literacy curricula that will develop children's understandings of moral elements--responsibility, friendship, fairness, empathy, or hope. Discusses children responding to stories read aloud, teachers restructuring classroom dialogue, and reinforcing literacy and morality. (SG)

Suggests that a partial cause of student reading difficulty may be lack of comprehension of the process of reading and proposes that teacher explanation might help solve the problem. (RW)

Describes a method for enhancing students' abilities to answer comprehension questions that categorizes questions according to the source of the information required for the answer. (FL)

Provides information on how teachers can contribute additional encouragement, direction, and guidance for exploring and expanding intermediate-grade students' personal response to literature. Describes eight response options and offers guidelines. (PRA)

Argues that using story frames to guide students' responses to comprehension questions seems to help them provide better answers and to develop their independent comprehension skills. (FL)

Analyzes six basal reading series and reveals that the number of "distant" stories--those with content that is not closely related to the reader's experience--increases with the age of the intended audience. (FL)

Comprehension and interest were high when children read stories where nontraditional sex role behavior was perceived to be appropriate to the action of the story. (MKM)

Explores the literary connection between writers and readers by offering examples from the work of the writers and the responses of their readers. (HOD)

Examines a subset of oral responses young children (grades K-2) make during interactive read-alouds of picture storybooks. Describes this set of responses and does some theoretical speculation about how educators might understand them. Describes how knowledge of the various types of these responses could be put into practical use in classrooms.…

Describes a two-week unit about Benjamin Franklin, and discusses what happens when 9- and 10-year olds use their own language and life experiences to learn new content. (SR)