This paper examines how students' independent reading of good books--one example is "The Phantom Tollbooth"--leads to improved reading performance. The paper also touches on the important factors that are impacting independent reading: priority and time. A literature review in the paper found, among other things, that the best predictor…

Developing the lifelong love of reading requires lifetime literacy efforts. Teachers and administrators who support these efforts view the language arts from a "big-picture" perspective but realize that they must act in specific ways. Determining students' attitudes toward reading, giving them experiences with different texts, providing them with…

Effective literacy programs involve a wide range of reading and writing activities, all of which are necessary and which support learning in different ways. An essential part of the language arts curriculum involves direct instruction in reading. Many teachers are beginning to teach reading in small groups, a process called "guided…

This paper investigates the validity of two current approaches for estimating text difficulty at the first-grade level--the Scale for Text Accessibility and Support-Grade 1 (STAS-1) and the Fountas/ Pinnell system--and analyzed student performance in relation to each. Subjects, 105 first graders in two schools, used "little books"--easy to read…

Although an increasing number of young people encounter adversity in their environments, many manage to rebound and live successful lives while others repeat patterns of adversity in their adult lives. Classroom educators and special educators should therefore establish a learning environment that builds resilience in all learners. Educational…

Suggests resources useful in selecting, recommending, and ordering books that are regularly used and relied upon by English teachers. (RB)

Suggests offering literature to children that is meaningful in terms of the child's growth and furture, and the future of people, rather than avoiding all books showing people and the world in less than idyllic contexts. (TO)

Suggests six ways to prepare for and meet attempts at censorship of reading materials in classrooms and school libraries. (TO)

Community vascillation, the inability to adequately identify the opposition or support, and the difficulties of defined audience communication tested basic principles and philosophies of the Rochester Board of Education. (Author/SJ)

in umus Delphini": literally, for the use of the Dauphin", in reference to the Delphin Classics, an edition of classic Latin texts prepared during the reign of Louis XIV for his eldest son. (RS)