Designed to provide practical resources for planning and teaching reading development courses, units, or lessons, the objectives and strategies contained in this handbook are generally oriented toward adult basic education academic upgrading or prevocational programs. The first section of the handbook, which focuses on the development of reading ability, discusses reading ability assessment and the developmental approach to helping readers improve that ability. Learning objectives in reading improvement, reading for special purposes, and reading and responding to literature comprise the second section. The third section reviews 18 strategies for teaching reading improvement, grouping them in categories similar to the objectives section and making specific reference to materials in the instructional and professional resource sections. The instructional resources section comprises annotations on over 50 commercially published texts and workbooks, including some audio-visual materials. The annotations provide detail on format, cost, readability, adult appeal, topics, and special features. The final section of the handbook provides professional references that were mentioned in the strategies section as well as other selected references in adult learning and reading instruction, government publications, and periodicals. Publishers' addresses are listed, with Canadian addresses included wherever possible. (HOD)