There are many critical problems that are influencing the status of literature and the teaching of literature in the United States today, according to this paper. Some of the problems cited are the poor quality of recent best selling books; the smaller number of people who read books compared to the number of people who read magazines and…

For the most part, research into the reading activities of elderly readers has focused on three areas--amount of time spent reading, reading preferences, and psychological benefits of reading--and has yielded inconsistent results. The data from reading time research both supports and refutes the claim that reading is less prevalent among older…

Writers and writing teachers should be wary of depending on readability indexes as indicators of the difficulty of written messages. The Gunning Fog Index and the Damerst Clear Index, two readability formulas, were used to determine the readability of "A Statement of Editorial Policy" and two abstracts appearing in an issue of…

A total of 29 teachers and 227 students served as subjects in a two-phase study to identify the factors that influence teacher judgments of students' reading interests across grades kindergarten through grade six. The first phase of the study identified 29 cues affecting both student reading preferences and teacher judgments of those preferences.…

A study investigated factors in the backgrounds and present status of eighth and ninth grade inner city students at different stages of reading attitude development and examined how those factors compared from stage to stage. The 50 participants, 48 of whom were black, were administered three attitude measures. Data concerning student conduct,…

Reasoning that in a basic English class there is barely enough time to read one or two novels a year, an English teacher convinced the principal of a Youngstown junior-senior high school that an independent reading course would be of tremendous value to those students who are avid readers as well as those who enjoy reading but can never seem to…

Eighty-one fifth grade students from a suburban parochial school were randomly assigned to one of two treatment groups in a study designed to determine the effect of daily sustained silent reading (SSR) on student reading habits and attitudes toward reading. One teacher supervised 40 students in daily fifteen-minute periods of SSR, using…

The purpose of this publication is to present methods designed to develop a greater awareness of the affective domain and to examine the way children's literature and poetry is used at school and at home. The 12 articles provide information about the following topics: developing an awareness of attitudes, examining approach-avoidance behaviors in…

SIXTEEN ARTICLES PRESENT DISCUSSIONS OF THE ROLE OF THE LIBRARY AND CHILDREN'S LITERATURE IN THE TOTAL SCHOOL READING PROGRAM. THE ARTICLES OFFER SUGGESTIONS FOR BUILDING POSITIVE ATTITUDES IN READING, PLANNING THE LITERATURE PROGRAM, USING BASAL READERS TO FOSTER READING, STIMULATING READING HABITS, AND DEVELOPING THE LIBRARY SKILLS AND READING…

This paper uses the term "informational books" in place of the label "nonfiction" and proposes that the difference in connotation might promote a change in students' attitudes toward content reading. Several examples of informational books and their use are provided, showing classroom teachers and librarians how to enhance learning while providing…

Fifteen high school English teachers and 544 students in their classes participated in a study to determine how well teachers assess student reading habits and attitudes and to compare the accuracy of their judgments with those of student-peers. Each student was administered a measure of reading ability and of reading attitude; additional data…

This developmental study offers a definitive strategy for successfully teaching such representative classics as Hamlet, A Tale of Two Cities, Silas Marner, and My Last Duchess to students who are reading as much as three years below grade level but who are nevertheless normally intelligent. The study provides evidence tending to support the…

This paper asserts that what is really basic in education lies first in recognizing what it means to be human, to accept the challenges and pains and joys of being alive, and to attempt not only to preserve but to raise the level of that humanity a notch or so for the next generation. It is suggested that adolescent literature can be a vehicle for…

The third volume in the NCTE Distinguished Lectures Series, this collection of papers includes (1) William Stafford on poetry and the language of everyday life, (2) Fred Stocking linking Shakespeare to his time and all time by analysing "temperance" in Sonnet 18, (3) Alan Downer discussing the nature of comedy in drama and the universal…

The premise that course material must engage the students' interests if the instruction is to be successful guided this pilot study, which was conducted (1) to test the effectiveness of two instruments designed to determine the reading and media preferences of college freshmen, and (2) to determine the reading and media preferences of freshman…