Using as a case study the experience of teaching Jane DeLynn's "Leash" (2002), a "pornosophical" novel about a sadomasochistic lesbian relationship, I argue in this essay for the pedagogical value of shock. I argue that shocking works of pornography can unsettle not only students' comfortable understandings of sexuality, but…

We suggest that a healthy literacy diet for beginning readers consists of literacy experiences along a number of dimensions, including experiences with decodable text. As such, this article explores the role of decodable texts in a comprehensive early literacy curriculum that recognizes literacy as a complex, culturally mediated, and multifaceted…

Despite long-standing acknowledgement that U.S. adolescents of color are disproportionately deemed "struggling readers," various iterations of supposedly neutral neoliberal literacy reform legitimized by quantitative data systemically deny access and opportunity through labeling and sorting and perpetuate educator deficit ideologies.…

To promote independent reading in middle school, teachers must understand why adolescents choose to read or not read a specific book. Yet, there is limited research on the factors that students consider when evaluating books that teachers have introduced them to in class. This study aimed to describe factors that 43 Grade 7 and 8 students noted as…

The mixed perceptions towards extensive reading (ER) were shown by several studies of higher and university-level students in foreign and second language learning contexts. However, ER perception studies are limited, particularly qualitative ER studies with kids, and Bhutan has yet to implement and evaluate the important concept of extensive…

In response to a large backlog of demand for data analytics expertise, universities are adding analytics courses and/or programs. Data visualization and exploration are among the pillars of the analytics curriculum and should be included in analytics programs. This article presents the philosophy, structure, and content of a data visualization and…

Ensuring classroom reading materials align with learners' lexical knowledge is crucial, often requiring teachers to infer vocabulary knowledge from vocabulary test performance. However, the best approach to match learners with lexically appropriate texts based on vocabulary test scores remains unclear. This study compared two methods:…

Extensive reading (ER) refers to a form of reading that exposes students to large amounts of text [usually full books] that is interesting, self-selected, and below their lexical difficulty. Despite ER advantages, its integration into university-based English language programs (ELPs) in the United States seems to be limited. This article presents…

Digital technologies have, over the past few decades, brought significant changes to the learning tools that are available to teachers and students. One of the reading interventions that has contributed to enhancing the reading ability of elementary school students is known as MyON. This intervention helps students easily identify books they can…

The way that people of different identities are portrayed in children's books can send subconscious messages about how positively or negatively children should think about people with those identities. These messages can then shape the next generation's perceptions and attitudes about people, which can have important implications for belief…

This article offers examples of K--6 classroom texts as vehicles for teaching the Black Historical Consciousness principles as encouragement for teaching Black histories long beyond Black History Month. The framework for Black Historical Consciousness (BHC), which outlines eight principles that provide support for teaching through Black lives and…

The state of reading to meet a person's needs develops over time, and this habit becomes a part of the person's life. In this study, a focus group interview was the preferred method of qualitative research. High-level readers who read more than 30 books a year were included in the study. Even though they read about 30 to 100 books a year, they…

Collection development is at the core of the work of children's librarians, an ongoing activity that shapes collections as well as library spaces, services, programming, and communities. The process of collection development includes the consideration of several factors that impact the evaluation, selection, and acquisition of books available for…

This article examines the familiar imperative for educators to cultivate affective attachments between students and reading--to foster love or ward off hate, for books. It considers the interplay of this affective economy with other "economies" of reading long theorized in literacy studies: the moral economy, promoting dominant social…

This study sought to explore the reading culture of students in pre-tertiary technical institutions from two Municipalities in Ghana. The study adopted a descriptive observational cross-sectional study design to understand the phenomenon under study. The population of the study consisted of two hundred respondents who were purposively sampled from…