This article reviews research to examine how teaching and learning are improved with the use of narrative story materials. Stories help to focus the reader's attention and build personal connection, resulting in better retention and deeper subject-matter understanding. Four key advantages of narratives cited by D. T. Willingham are discussed. The…

Examines children's picture books about soldiers and war, including fiction, folktales, and historical fiction, analyzing their implicit and explicit messages about war and the military, and evaluating them for gender stereotyping. Finds that the soldiers conform almost uniformly to an exaggerated male stereotype. Shows different value judgments…

Describes strategies that research indicates caregivers use while reading books with young children: strategies that simplify or extend book language; prosody; and management strategies so the book reading event is meaningful for children. Suggests how teachers can use these same strategies in preschool settings to plan meaningful book sharing.…

Reviews some of the most pertinent current research on possible causes of dyslexia. Offers guidelines for the prognosis and treatment of dyslexics and literary options for reading teachers and specialists to use in working with dyslexia. (PA)

Addresses legislation that led to the present focus on classroom inclusion for students with special needs and accommodation of such students in the classroom reading program. Focuses on children who are diagnosed with attention-deficit disorder and children identified as intellectually gifted. Gives recommendations to help these children…

Presents an approach to integrating bibliotherapy into teacher education courses at both the preservice and inservice levels. Includes theory relevant to bibliotherapy and emphasizes practical applications for engaging teachers in self actualization through bibliotherapy. Recommends readings for teacher education bibliotherapeutic experiences. (PA)

Aims to show a connection between authentic assessment practices and qualitative research techniques to aid reading teachers in their authentic assessment endeavors. Contends that awareness of an issue can change models and open minds to new ways of thinking. (PA)

Reports that not much is known about the role of fathers' involvement in their children's early reading development. Provides background information concerning research into fathers' involvement in early literacy development. Offers various suggestions on encouraging fathers to become involved with their children's early literacy activities. (PA)

Argues that, to transform students into lifelong readers, teachers must conceive a plan to motivate students to develop positive attitudes about reading. Cites self-efficacy as particularly pertinent to motivation. Reviews the research on self-efficacy to examine which instructional strategies are most effective in literacy education. (PA)

Cites a relationship between the quality of classroom environments and literacy-related behaviors and learning. Presents four effective design concepts for literacy classrooms which affect learning: presence/absence of literacy tools; space arrangement and placement of literacy tools within that space; social interaction using literacy tools; and…

Discusses trends in staff development and cites implications for reading personnel. (MKM)

Emphasizes the need for teachers to perceive the process of reading as a process of predictions so that teaching techniques emphasizing reading comprehension will be used. (MKM)

Reviews research on the effects of peer-tutoring on the tutor and asks at what point peer-tutoring changes from an effective learning technique to the exploitation of the tutors. (MKM)

Explores the central assumption of the cloze procedure, which is that context can be used inferentially to predict deleted words. (MKM)

Describes instruction that has proven effective in teaching Black children to read. (MKM)