Since pairing the classics with young adult literature can increase reading comprehension and spark interest amongst our students, this essay explores a unit plan for connecting Will Hobbs's "Downriver" (1991) with William Golding's "Lord of the Flies" (1954). Both works espouse significant and timely themes: the importance of…

After briefly reviewing how reading is conceptualised in the "Progress in International Reading Literacy Study" and the English National Curriculum, this article examines two unofficial reading activities in a class of 10-11-year-olds' to see how far these activities match up with the official definitions of reading, or whether they…

In this column, readers are asked to reconsider several traditional instructional strategies, in particular predicting and picture walks, and the role these practices play in the elementary reading curriculum. In addition, what happens after a book has been read must be reconsidered in light of the activities in which life long readers engage. To…

This rejoinder provides responses to the conceptual concerns expressed in the nine critiques published in this issue of "Educational Researcher" of the 2008 National Early Literacy Panel report. It explains the necessity of adhering to clearly established study selection parameters in conducting trustworthy meta-analyses and the need to be…

When response activities and comprehension strategies are combined, classroom instruction can enhance student engagement and understanding of a text, enrich student response, and improve students' awareness of their own strategic reading. This article presents some activities, adapted from the new IRA book "Children's Literature in the Reading…

Shares how the author designed reading activities to increase students' understanding of nonfiction by adhering to three principles: purpose, classification, and collaboration. Recounts how students responded to the reading materials and each other as they developed an understanding of the information available to them. (MG)

This 19th issue of "Notes Plus" contains descriptions of original, unpublished teaching practices, and of adapted ideas. Under the Ideas from the Classroom section, the August 2001 issue contains the following materials: "Imitation: The Sincerest Form of Flattery" (Anna M. Parks); "Stories That Make Us Who We Are"…

Describes a three-week unit with disadvantaged students in an alternative school called "Outsiders: Literature and Life," which focused on experiences of alienation, involved reading "The Outsiders" by S. E. Hinton, and culminated in the production of a magazine of student-written oral histories. (EL)

Readers' theater engages students in reading and writing activities that offer both affective and cognitive rewards. Students can develop their own scripts that introduce books, replacing the traditional book report with creative participation and active peer recommendation. Appendices provide two sample scripts. (AEF)

The Literature Project is a literature-based reading program designed to meet the needs of adolescent females with behavioral/emotional disorders, adolescent female offenders, and adolescent females at risk. The project uses novels and short stories written by and for women as basic reading material. Literary selections with heroines who are…

This practicum was designed to improve the congruency of resources, activities, and assessment strategies in intermediate-level language arts programs with a holistic process-oriented perspective on literacy development. Taking place in a large public elementary school in Vancouver, Canada, the practicum's goals were: (1) to implement…