Presents a modification of the traditional Anticipation Guide format (a reading comprehension strategy) that includes a prereading "I'm Not Sure" response option and helps students to differentiate the purpose for reading. (SR)

Reprints a reading classic, originally published in this journal in 1979. Describes the method of repeated readings, discussing the procedure, comprehension, and theoretical rationale. Compares it with music and sports and notes how versions of this method were used in early schooling. (SR)

Narrates the author's experience and insights regarding the power of stories from an individual's own family. Discusses the power of learners' family stories, story in the freshman English classroom, learning how story structure works, family stories in remedial college classes, and writing for publication classes. Describes a year-long writing…

Describes a cross-age reading program called Storymates, which connected school and home literacy experiences of 9-, 10-, and 11-year olds through storybook reading to younger siblings, relatives, and neighborhood friends. Discusses exploring story structure in the classroom; reading storybooks in school and at home; how retellings improved; and…

Presents an interview with author/illustrator Peggy Rathmann, writer of the 1996 Caldecott Award winner for the children's picture book "Officer Buckle and Gloria," about her development as a writer and illustrator and about her "safety obsession." (SR)

Describes how a group of third-grade teachers engaged in meaningful and useful curriculum development in the language arts, starting with a belief statement, and moving to program outcomes, integrated topics, specific objectives, and student exhibitions and portfolios. (SR)

Presents brief annotations of 43 children's books first published in countries other the United States and Canada or in languages other than English. Presents them in three groups: British children's books; books first published in countries other the United States and translated into English; and books that are completely or partially bilingual.…

Provides a brief overview of the literacy assessment procedures and processes many teachers are now using to gather information about what their young students know and can do. Describes techniques for gathering information about young children's literacy development, and notes its usefulness to teachers. (SR)

Presents three short replies from readers (a special educator, a teacher educator, and a superintendent) of this journal to a question about productive ways of dealing with the many instructional and affective issues raised by including gifted students and students with disabilities in the regular classroom. (SR)

Describes the Orava Project in Slovakia, a school reform project involving the University of Northern Iowa in collaboration with Slovakian teachers and institutions, to prepare citizens for democracy. Describes how, with literacy instruction at its core, the project is working with pre-school, kindergarten, and elementary teachers, and with school…

Describes how the use of children's books may enable students with Attention Deficit Disorder to develop a clearer understanding of themselves and their problems. Includes a 33-item annotated list of books useful for this purpose. (SR)

Reprints a classic article originally published in this journal in October 1973, which argues that the problems vernacular-dialect-speaking students suffer in school are not the direct result of so-called dialect interference but rather the result of educators' negative attitudes (based on deficit theory) toward learners who speak vernacular…

Uses the example of Reading Recovery to examine how remedial reading programs can function to preserve the status quo by protecting the structures of schooling, which so effectively serve the needs of some students better than others and thus so effectively restrict access to social goods to members of dominant groups. (SR)

Finds literature to be the most effective model for writing in the author's second-grade classroom. Discusses five ways that children borrow ideas from literature and the function of borrowed ideas. (SR)

Provides brief descriptions of 24 children's books identified as outstanding in that they are culturally authentic, rich in cultural details, and celebrate both diversity in the common bonds of humanity. Groups the books in five categories: Stories from around the World; Heritage and Childhood Memories; the Immigrant Experience; the Struggle for…