The seven articles in this journal issue focus on the evaluation of reading programs at the elementary and secondary school levels. The articles contain (1) guidelines for evaluating reading materials, (2) a checklist designed to provide a broad overview of a school reading program, (3) an interview with Wayne Otto concerning techniques for…

The individualized reading approach is a means of teaching reading to middle school students using self-selection of books by students, individual teacher-student conferences, and grouping according to needs and interests. During the teacher-student conferences, the students share their feelings about the book they are reading as the teacher…

Surveys show that literature is virtually absent from secondary level second language (SL) programs; at the same time it is often asserted that literature used to dominate these programs. The thoughts of authorities and educators in Ontario, Great Britain, the United States, the Canadian province of Ontario, and Germany over the period of 100…

Historically less emphasis has been put on the importance of attitude factors than on the skills of reading. When defining attitudes as a person's views, interests, expectations, and so on, attitude toward reading is a combination of all components that contribute to a person's underlying disposition to reading including expectations, interest,…

Bibliotherapy may be of assistance in helping children cope with problems in the following ways: by helping them learn to analyze their attitudes and behavior; by assisting them in comparing their beliefs with those of others; by offering possible solutions to problems; and by contributing to their socialization. To identify the types of problems…

The focus of this issue of the "Ohio Reading Teacher," a journal dedicated to the improvement of reading instruction, is vocabulary development. Feature articles include "Helping Children Find the Words,""Webbing Words--Weaving Connections," and "Syllabication." Other articles provide a list of publishers of basal readers, a discussion of…

Selection of language arts instructional content can be guided by the concepts of integration (the entwining of language arts content with other subject matter) and meaningfulness. Among the considerations pertinent to the curricular concepts of integration and meaningfulness are the question of whether something is acceptable content and the need…

The four papers in this collection focus on cross-cultural concerns related to literature and literacy. The first paper discusses the development of children's literature as a field of study, and describes the emerging interest in children's literature as reflected in library collections, exhibits and book fairs, professional conferences,…

This paper presents proposals for the design and institutionalization of a system for the production and distribution of reading materials for adults, especially in developing countries. Ideas about the problems of production and distribution are developed, along with ideas for use in designing, evaluating, choosing, and promoting policy and…

Designed to simplify the task of selecting the right reading materials for students, this guide provides a method for structuring the work of textbook selection committees. It guides committees through a six-step process involving answering the following increasingly specific questions: what is the socioeconomic background of the students? What do…

A remedial-English pilot program for college freshmen yielded four major observations about basic writers: they are poor readers, their level of syntactic maturity is low, their writing is riddled with errors, and the strategies they use in their writing often work against them to compound their difficulties. Among the conclusions drawn from these…

THE FIRST OF A SERIES OF STUDIES DESIGNED TO INVESTIGATE THE SUITABILITY OF INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS WITH REGARD TO LEVELS OF DIFFICULTY IS REPORTED. THE STUDY ATTEMPTED TO DETERMINE WHETHER SOME RANGE OF DIFFICULTY MAXIMIZED THE AMOUNT OF INFORMATION STUDENTS GAIN AS A CONSEQUENCE OF READING INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS. IN ORDER TO FORM 129 PAIRS…

In order to determine the variables which influence children's choice of books, 52 second-grade students from one elementary school were selected and interviewed. Twenty books, which circulated most frequently among second-grade children, were designated "high preference"; another 20, randomly selected from 634 books which were borrowed only once,…

The purpose of this investigation was to analyze the preferences of fourth, fifth, and sixth grade urban black children with regard to characters, type of setting and story in books and the relationship between these preferences and grade level, sex, and socioeconomic status. Three hundred seven black students were read to from 15 books of five…

Consisting of nine individualized inservice packets, the Teaching Teen Reading Series describes reading procedures applicable to instruction in all subjects in the elementary, middle, and secondary school. The third packet provides teachers with information and instructional guidelines for assisting students to read for specific facts, literal…