The Reading Teacher articles from October 2003

The Reading Teacher archives from October 2003

Questions teachers ask about struggling readers and writers.
October 1, 2003... In this informal U.S. study, 191 practicing teachers completed a survey requiring them to list their three most pressing questions about working with struggling readers and writers. Over the past several years there has been a surge of...

Preparing preservice teachers to integrate technology with the elementary literacy program: the experiences of three beginning teachers raise important issues for teacher educators.
October 1, 2003... Information and communication technologies (ICT) such as word processors, e-mail, CD-ROMs, digital video, and the Internet have changed the landscape of skills and competencies needed for workplace literacy in profound ways (Leu, 2000). In...

The motivating power of comic books: insights from Archie comic readers.
October 1, 2003... This study, conducted in an elementary school suggests that the sense of ownership that children have over comic books accounts for the vibrant debate, discussion, and critique of them. Such insights may help teachers reclaim literacy as a...

Stepping inside the story world: the subtext strategy--a tool for connecting and comprehending.
October 1, 2003... Teachers can enrich students' literacy learning by inviting them to combine visual literacy with drama to imagine what characters are thinking. ********** Acting out stories is a perennial favorite with children. But what happens...

Children's choices for 2003: a project of the International Reading Association and The Children's Book Council.
October 1, 2003... What is the Children's Choices project? Each year 10,000 school children from different regions of the United States read and vote on the newly published children's and young adults' trade books that they like best. The Children's...

Paraphrasing for comprehension.(Teaching Tips)
October 1, 2003... The middle school classroom is humming with conversation. Students are paired off around the room, reading each other's papers and comparing their ideas. They are genuinely engaged, and their conversation is thoughtful. "I thought he sounded...

Decodable text--where to find it.(Teaching Tips)
October 1, 2003... In designing reading instruction for beginning readers, one of the first decisions teachers face is whether to supplement phonics instruction with practice in decodable texts. That decision is complicated by the challenge of finding texts...

Literacy activities for Spanish-English bilingual children.(Teaching Tips)
October 1, 2003... In spite of an increasing number of bilingual students in U.S. schools and the growing interest in the teaching of foreign languages to young children, it is still difficult to find commercially published K--12 English-Spanish bilingual...

Create a Traveling Literacy Trunk.(Teaching Tips)
October 1, 2003... Take an old cardboard box, an idea, a lesson plan based on U.S. literacy standards, one eager room of children, and a teacher who enjoys sharing; put them all together and you have a Traveling Literacy Trunk. The concept developed from...

Teacher "capacity-building" helps urban children succeed in reading.(Issues in Urban Literacy)
October 1, 2003... Reading failure is at epidemic proportions in many urban school districts. Rescue efforts appear to fail in such districts largely for one (or both) of two reasons: an overreliance on scripted reading programs as a singular solution and...

Instruction for struggling readers contains multiple features.(Struggling Readers)
October 1, 2003... Social interactions, scaffolding, a focus on meaning, and the use of individual differences support struggling readers as they learn to read. According to Vygotsky (1978), learning is a social process where individuals construct...