Drawn from an annual symposium held at the University of Guam to recognize and encourage scholarly activities of graduate students in the reading education department and to promote continued interdepartmental dialogue on the teaching of reading, the papers in this compilation deal with the prerequisites for effective reading instruction. Topics discussed in the papers are (1) the effects of bibliotherapy on student attitudes and self-concepts, (2) the reading interests of middle school students, (3) study skills instruction, (4) the importance of interest as a motivating factor in reading instruction, (5) the motivational effects of material rewards or reinforcement toward reading, and (6) brain functioning in the process of reading. (FL)