Describes an outreach program for imprisoned women in Iowa that allows mothers to read their children bedtime stories. Project Storybook mothers choose new books, record themselves reading the books on tape, then mail both to their children at home. Women must belong to a mother's support group to participate. Community response to this project…

Argues that reading literature and poetry aloud dramatically is one way to catch youngsters' attention, turning them into lifelong lovers of the written and spoken word. Offers tips to prepare for an effective oral reading, including warming up the voice, and getting to know the text by breaking it into the three critical elements of any story:…

The authors investigated whether practice in reading fluency had a causal influence on the relationship between working memory (WM) and text comprehension for 155 students in Grades 2 and 4 who were poor or average readers. Dysfluent readers were randomly assigned to repeated reading or continuous reading practice conditions and compared with…

Parents and caregivers can play an important role in helping their at-risk children improve their reading skills. Parents generally want to be part of their children's academic achievement, but may not always know the most appropriate or effective way to contribute. Teachers encourage at-risk students to read consistently at home and supportive…

There is a large collection of students who experience difficulty with the development of reading fluency and comprehension. Many students receive little to no benefit from non-systematic instructional methods. In order to become proficient readers many students need explicit instruction in fluency to serve as a building block to comprehension.…

Children enter kindergarten in the United States with large differences in their background knowledge, vocabulary, and early literacy experiences. There is a strong relationship between language development during the early years and reading ability in the primary grade and teachers must understand the importance of developing vocabulary and its…

This study examined the effectiveness of Sensory Stories on "circle time" behaviors in preschool children with autism. This single-system ABA design with a convenience sample of four participants consisted of one week for each A phase and two weeks for the B phase. The intervention phase (B) consisted of reading a Sensory Story from one…

Beginning a study of literary sense of place with books about New York City makes sense because both children and adults are likely to be familiar with the city through movies, television, and advertisements, even if they have never been there. By paying close attention to the ways in which authors and illustrators convey a sense of place in these…

To teach reading to a transient population of incarcerated young men on Rikers Island, Dave Iasevoli utilized the students' desire for knowledge and their talent for storytelling, humor, and acting to engage them. Students embodied the characters by reading aloud from the novel "The Planet of Junior Brown," from which discussions about obesity,…

The present study was carried out in French immersion classrooms in an urban Quebec school board that is increasingly characterised by the heterogeneity of its French-dominant, English-dominant, and French/English bilingual student population. The study explored the extent to which a bilingual read-aloud project would (1) raise teachers' awareness…

Intended for any student of the art of story telling, this bibliography cites books about story telling as well as volumes of stories for telling from around the world. Those citations with story telling as the subect are marked with an asterisk. Other volumes listed may also include essays or lessons, but are classified primarily as anthologies…

Presents classroom teachers' recommendations for a variety of poetry anthologies, as well as one teacher's suggestions on making one's own anthology. (ARH)

Presents guidelines for reading/listening activities for the holiday season. Eight suggested stories about Christmas or Hanukkah for grades 2 through 6 are listed. (MES)

This third book in the four-book Children's Book Corner set provides a complete program for those starting a read-aloud program in their classroom, their school or public library, or their home. This volume focuses on read-alouds for children in grades 3 and 4. It provides book lists, book selection ideas, as well as pre-reading, while-reading,…

Points to introspective evidence that both writers and readers experience auditory imagery of intonations, accents, and hesitations in written language. Suggests that some aspects of this "written language prosody" are made partially overt through punctuation. (RAE)