Discusses the value of reading picture books aloud to secondary school students. Describes how to select picture books and discusses strategies for reading aloud. Lists 17 suggested picture books for reading aloud. Argues that reading aloud to middle and high school students demonstrates a teacher's enthusiasm for reading, which can be contagious.…

This reproducible for teachers to send home to parents explains why parents should read aloud to their older children: to increase understanding and enjoyment, to give real-life context to stories, to check for mistakes as the child reads aloud, and to share the sheer joy of reading. It is important to choose high-quality literature when starting.…

Describes what constituted literary understanding for one classroom interpretive community of first and second graders by analyzing their oral responses as picture storybooks were read aloud to them. Suggests that the impressive literary critical abilities of children as young as first and second grade are appropriately understood through a wide…

Analyzes why mothers make metacognitive decisions affecting how they scaffold books for children, interviewing them while they watched a videotape of booksharing events with children. Indicates that mothers, regardless of children's ages, made specific strategic metacognitive decisions about how text was best shared with their children. Concludes…

Presents ideas for activities in an elementary school library in collaboration with classroom teachers that introduce students to biographies. Includes book talks, an activity involving food that represents various aspects of information included in biographies, and a list of 20 one-session read-aloud picture book biographies for grades two…

Interviews parents and guardians of 7,566 preschoolers and toddlers. Finds that frequency of reading to children varies by ethnicity, primary language spoken in the home, child's age, number of siblings, and mother's educational attainment; and that income and number of parents in the home did not influence reading frequency when controlling for…

Looks at two case examples of reader experiences, one of an 8th grader and another of a 2-year-old. Considers how to best promote reading by reading aloud in class. Presents a list of 37 highly recommended books for 8th-grade classes and a list of 11 books recommended for read-alouds. (SC)

Focuses on supplementing content-area instruction with read-alouds and discussions of picture books that engage adolescents, enrich content knowledge, and stimulate higher order thinking. Illustrates how a teacher read-aloud and collaborative picture book discussion enhanced students' engagement and content learning. (SG)

This K-6 social studies activity teaches students about the flag's origin while reviewing literacy skills. Students perform a poem entitled "The Flag We Love," which, in rhyming verse, explains the history and symbolism of the flag. Over eight days, students prepare for the performance, and on the ninth day, they perform a choral reading…

Describes how one public library's preschool storytime solved its overcrowding problem by using parent volunteers to offer more programs with fewer children. Offers tips on recruitment and orientation. Discusses planning and organization by library staff, and the need for ongoing observation and evaluation. (AEF)

Assessed the relative benefits of three styles of adult book reading for preschoolers' emergent literacy. Measured children's receptive vocabulary, print, and story comprehension skills after exposure to one style. Found that the describer style resulted in the greatest benefits for children's vocabulary and print skills; a performance-oriented…

Describes Bedtime Story Nights, a county-wide project where parents could observe techniques for reading aloud to their children. Parents and 2- to 8-year-olds met monthly in the evenings for 30 minutes of stories, rhymes, and snack. Details benefits for children and parents, site variations, and family reactions to the program. Includes tips for…

This study examined the structural relationships between (a) the latent independent constructs of orthographic and lexical knowledge and phonological sensitivity and (b) the effect of these constructs on the latent construct of literacy manifested by reading aloud and spelling regular and exception English words in 156 Cantonese-speaking Chinese…

In this article, the author relates how she uses an art lesson that integrates art, language arts, and science in an enjoyable, creative project about dinosaurs in her kindergarten class. She relates how the children enjoy being illustrators and becoming familiar with well-known children's illustrators. She also relates that she starts her classes…

Nine-ten-and twelve-year-old children (N = 75) read aloud dominant, subordinate or ambiguous bias sentences (N = 120) that ended in a homonym (BALL). After the sentence (1,000 ms), children read aloud targets that were related to the dominant (BAT) or subordinate (DANCE) meaning of the homonym or control targets. Participants were also divided…