Reports on a study that investigated what constitutes metaphor and simile for sixth- and eighth-grade children. Discusses the implications of the findings for reading and language arts curriculum development and instruction. (FL)

Reports on several studies that examined the use of newspapers in classrooms. Cites research supporting the conclusions that newspaper training programs improved teacher attitudes toward using newspapers in the classroom and newspaper use influenced students' reading attitudes, reading interests, reading achievement, and classroom verbal…

Describes a Title I summer program in which teachers and aides visited children's homes weekly with the objectives of (1) increasing the amount of reading done by the children during the summer and (2) involving parents in reading activities with their children. Evaluates the program, noting the benefits reported by children, parents, and…

Describes how to set up a science project that concentrates on the language arts skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing as a means of introducing students to the reading and study skills they will need in their content area subjects. (FL)

Discusses research that indicates the value of prereading and postreading in content area reading; explains the encoding specificity principle, which is the basis of methods that present similar cues during prereading and postreading. Describes several instructional applications of this principle. (GT)

Discusses the evolution of the reading and study skills program at one metropolitan open admissions two-year college, including the nature and reasons for the changes that have taken place in the program. Concludes that flexible reading programs can significantly assist students in all areas of academic study. (FL)

Reports on how one teacher created a classroom environment in which the "Standards for the English Language Arts" were put into action through modeling and offering particular kinds of written language activities and other strategies that created opportunities for students to use written language for many purposes. (SR)

This study compared two beginning reading programs, Integrated Reading-Writing (IR-W) and DISTAR in comparable urban schools with students "at risk" for literacy problems. Although the two programs resulted in comparable gains in word recognition and overall reading achievement by the end of first grade, children in IR-W tended to…

Presents suggestions from teachers who use computers to enhance education, including six ways to use the World Wide Web to support reading, the computer as a classroom management tool, and computerized scanning of photographs or images. (SM)

Examines whether reading aloud in the classroom is an appropriate student-centered method of teaching reading. Describes how using this method to study Steinbeck's novel, "of Mice and Men," provides a structural, sociolinguistics, cultural, and stylistic knowledge through a combination of explanation and active engagement. (Author/VWL)

Describes changes in literacy engagement during Concept-Oriented Reading Instruction (CORI), a new approach to teaching reading, writing, and science that emphasizes real-world science observations, student self-direction, strategy instruction, collaborative learning, self-expression, and coherence of literacy learning experiences. Finds that…

A special education teacher and a reading specialist who team taught fourth-grade students with learning disabilities were observed to determine the ways in which the teachers' beliefs and practices influenced their decisions about strategy instruction. The effects of strategy instruction on their reading and writing workshops are examined. (CR)

The case study reported here describes two student teachers' thinking related to emergent issues during their first field placement for a course exploring elementary reading instruction. The students submitted journals, lesson plans, portfolios, field notes, and discussion group reflections. Data analysis indicated the students had very different…

Used participant observation, child interviews, and teacher meetings to examine reading strategies that emerged in a first-grade, multiethnic, urban classroom over 20 weeks. Found that children used five reading strategies, including narrative storytelling, relying on memory, and word-for-word reading; tensions emerged between strategies that…

Suggests that school books present a hidden curriculum that restricts the thinking and learning of students, that the high rate of U.S. illiteracy can be attributed to the method by which reading has been taught since World War II, and that encouraging students to read "real" books will ultimately improve the quality of education. (LP)