Researchers have largely ignored students' creative works as a source of insight into their everyday experiences. This study is a hermeneutic analysis of 23 works written by talented writers on the topic of academics. The findings include depictions of students as detached from their teachers and their curriculum. In these stories and poems,…

This study examined the extent to which a range of child characteristics (sex, age, socioeconomic status, reading skill and intrinsic and extrinsic reading motivation) predicted engagement (i.e., time spent) in different reading activities (fiction books, factual books, school textbooks, comics, magazines and digital texts). In total, 791 children…

The clear message in the common core literacy standards is that students need to do less narrative reading and more informational reading. But narrative, the author contends, is the deep structure of all good writing. Teachers need to show students how narrative works in their reading, be it fiction or nonfiction. Students should understand that a…

This article aims to present an annotated bibliography of paired books--one fiction and one informational--about multiple topics in history and social studies that, when read together, can help support students' learning through experiencing the topic from multiple perspectives and voices. It begins with a brief rationale for pairing fiction and…

Understanding young people's educational choice is of interest in order to recruit sufficient numbers of young people to careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). In this article, questionnaire data (closed and open-ended questions) from 5,007 Norwegian first-year students in all STEM higher-education disciplines are…

This article considers the role of reading fiction within the school subject of Swedish as a second language. It examines how a group of advanced second-language learners in a Swedish upper secondary school read and discuss a contemporary Swedish novel, how they interact with the text and with each other in relation to the text. Further, it…

This manuscript focuses on fifth graders' understanding of science fiction. It is argued that it is necessary for students to understand both reading strategies and the key elements of a genre for comprehension. Students read "The Giver" within literature circles and conversation and written responses about the book were used for…

Preservice teachers of secondary English need sustained and confident experiences of the pedagogical affordances of information and communication technologies (ICTs), to overcome the constraints perceived by their secondary teaching colleagues. They also need to rapidly develop an extensive knowledge of adolescent fiction titles for progressing…

What is a sense of period? And how can pupils' sense of period be developed? Questions such as these have troubled history teachers for many years, often revolving around debates over the role played by empathy and imagination in coming to know a period on its own terms. Rather than adopt a comparative approach, Dan Smiths decided in his teaching…

Quality historical fiction enables readers to imagine what life might have been like for a variety of people, particularly those not typically written about in history texts. Social history of an era is often of particular interest to young students. This article looks at using the American Girl Series to interest students in history and provides…

Considering the arts model as a tool for promoting awareness, understanding, and support for people with autism and developmental disabilities, this paper discusses stories as a measure of societal thinking as well as a vehicle for societal change. The author's dual perspectives are shared as a researcher of books for children and young adults, as…

To some, discussing the demise of the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) system is tantamount to blasphemy, while to others it is a discussion long overdue (no pun intended). The author was asked, as an educator of librarians, to present her thoughts on the issue. Her conclusions are based not on thorough scientifically sound research, but rather…

Ernesto "Che" Guevara's iconic photograph has taken on mythical proportions since his death. Though his image has ironically been exploited by the apparatus of capitalism against which he fought, his translation into a symbol has assured that his foothold within popular culture remains largely unassailable. While recent films and…

Purpose: To report preliminary comparisons of developing structural and dialectal characteristics associated with fictional and personal narratives in school-age African American children. Method: Forty-three children, Grades 2-5, generated a fictional narrative and a personal narrative in response to a wordless-book elicitation task and a…

Authentication projects, particularly for historical fiction, provide a means for students to explore literature and history while practicing critical literacy skills. The authors 1) present benefits and cautions for historical fiction use in elementary classrooms, 2) introduce authentication projects as a means to mitigate risks and enhance…