In the spirit of the Steven Stahl 600 Book Kid Challenge, 90 preservice teachers engaged children in 36 read-aloud sessions for a vocabulary improvement service learning project. This article describes how the preservice teachers used narrative and informational books as a vehicle for rare-word vocabulary exposure for children ages 8-12.

There is a wide range in the educational qualities and overall quality of interactive storybook apps for tablet computers (ebooks). Minimally, ebooks for young children present illustrations on a screen, accompanied by an oral reading of the text. Today's ebooks can also include animation, zooming in and out, musical scores, sound effects,…

This article discusses diversity issues evident in fairy tales and explores the pedagogical implications for adding counter-narratives in the school curriculum. Critical Race Theory is employed. In order to uncover contradictory discourses of race within Black cultures, four Africana (African, African American, and Caribbean) Cinderella tale types…

Preparing students for college and careers in the 21st century has shed light on text complexity as an important variable for consideration in English Language Arts. Authors of The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) define text complexity as broad, highlighting qualitative, rather than quantitative evaluations of narrative fiction as appropriate…

In this column the author discusses several major works that came out in the 50-year period from the 1920s to the 1960s, as well as real-world examples that show that differentiated curriculum works and can make a difference in the lives of gifted learners. In the 1920s, Leta Hollingworth's work advocated a specialized curriculum for gifted…

This paper explores educating for democratic citizenship with a focus on the intersection between reading and values, specifically the nurturing of social responsibility. Using a pre-designed framework for teaching for social responsibility, excerpts from a young adult historical fiction series are used to consider learning possibilities in the…

Research in the field of literacy has identified choice as a key component affecting students' reading habits and their resulting literacy growth. This article discusses an in-school independent reading project in which students are provided the freedom to choose books, use ambient music, and engage in book talks. The children showed…

Two university professors and 11 urban school faculty collaborated on a professional development (PD) effort focused on critical literacy to explore literacy practices aimed to reshape definitions of literacy that involved questioning power relationships concerning the environment and social justice. We examined the journey of a veteran teacher,…

Introduction: This paper aims to understand the adoption of e-books and e-readers by persons aged sixty and above. This includes an investigation into where seniors are in the stages of e-book adoption. Method: Data were collected through semi-structured interviews in a mid-size city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. Analysis: Interviews were…

When mostly white, middle class, female undergraduate preservice students enter social studies, reading, and language arts methods courses, they usually have not yet been asked to think critically about the curriculum they will be responsible for teaching. One of the primary conduits for sending messages to students about themselves and the world…

Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender-Queer (LGBTQ) representation in composition readers remains limited and is frequently nonexistent. In addition, the LGBTQ-related materials that do find their way into composition readers are often problematic. In this essay I explain why WPAs and composition teachers should be concerned about LGBTQ representation…

The book publishing industry in general and picture book materials for children in particular have undergone rapid and profound changes in recent years with the developments in the digital realm. As a result, teachers, school librarians, and literacy researchers have been largely left to their own devices to figure out basic questions related to…

Often the difference between a successful and unsuccessful reader is that the former is simply better at finding enjoyable books to read. The capacity to select appealing reading is not developed in classrooms where the decision about what book to read is made by someone other than the reader: the teacher, the curriculum planner, the person who…

This study examined the impact of independent practice of multiple-criteria text that targeted high-frequency words, decodability, and meaningfulness. Second-grade students, including at-risk students, were randomly assigned within classroom to a treatment group that read multiple-criteria text ("n" = 34), or contrast group that read…

We want all children to love reading, and Which Book and Why demonstrates how effective guided reading for children in Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1 can help teachers make this happen. Balancing theory and practice, this book explores how schools and teachers can implement guided reading more confidently and more effectively. Which Book and Why…