Search

An after-school book club, led by the school librarian, was held to test the efficacy of the peritextual literacy framework (PLF) in teaching skills related to critical thinking, problem solving, information literacy, and media literacy. The PLF is an extension of paratext theory developed by Gérard Genette, which provides a typology of the functions of peritext; this extension results in a framework that can be used for research or as a scaffold for teaching. Twelve middle school students met once a month for five months to apply the PLF to an analysis of science, technology, engineering, art, and math (STEAM) texts. The participants enjoyed the club and were able to demonstrate their ability to use peritextual elements to think critically about STEAM-related nonfiction books. Students were able to discuss how the functions of peritext affected their motivation to read a text and their ability to retrieve information from a text, and how peritext functions might affect their opinion of the credibility of information presented in a book.

This study was conducted to explore teacher candidates' reactions and perceptions regarding their participation in inquiry circles and to discover how the experience influenced their comprehension of an informational text. The 98 teacher candidates involved in this study were enrolled in a children's literature course at a four-year university. The three instructors routinely employ literature circles using fictional texts to expose their students to reading response techniques, but were interested in finding out how teacher candidates would transfer this learning to an informational text. The results of the study indicated that many of the teacher candidates were unaware of their own strategy use in regard to reading comprehension in general, but found inquiry circles to be a beneficial vehicle to increase their own understanding of informational texts, as well as a positive teaching method to utilize in their future classrooms.

An inservice training session triggered a crisis of confidence for the author, a veteran teacher, but it also inspired the author to rethink their approach to teaching reading and writing. While the author attended a conference, the state presenter explained that the new curriculum represents "shifts" in philosophy about teaching language arts. The first shift was a new emphasis on nonfiction, which would now make up 60 percent of what students read. Also, there would be a shift to more rigorous fiction; the literature our students currently read was too easy. The more the author got into close readings of the nonfiction texts in the new curriculum, the more they began to appreciate the genre, the engaging topics and rhetorical strategies employed by speechwriters and essayists, deciding that powerful nonfiction writing can have just as much impact on making us better humans as fiction can.

This article describes a group of second and third graders who began the school year 83% below reading proficiency. On surveys given at the beginning of the year, parents/guardians stated reading was the biggest concern for their child, and students stated they enjoyed hands-on activities, especially during science. To increase comprehension and fluency, a combination of reading and engagement was the key. To capture the same passion and excitement students showed while engaging in science investigations and experiments in the classroom, the Reading Adventures program was created. Each take-home bag contains a nonfiction book along with a simple scientific investigation and math problem related to the book's topic (see NSTA Connection for an overview of the activities). The goal for the program was to increase student reading scores by including families in the learning process. After all, research on the best practices in education "suggests that parental involvement, not income or social status, is the most accurate predictor of scholastic achievement." Response to this program was overwhelming.

Objective: "The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down" by Anne Fadiman is a critically acclaimed book describing the importance of understanding cultural influence on health care and health outcomes. Although this book has been incorporated into standard curriculum in the university and medical school training settings, consideration of how "The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down" might change undergraduate student perceptions on health disparities, specifically among students at a minority-serving institution in the USA, has yet to be explored. Method: A qualitative, thematic analysis, using a pre-/post-test study design, assessed undergraduate students' perceptions of topics of health disparities, spirituality and trust in healthcare providers. A total of 43 student responses characterising their perceptions on these topics were used to define themes both before and after a course utilising Fadiman's book as a teaching tool. Results: Changes within the themes present in the post-test data showed that students had a deeper understanding of the need for communication with healthcare providers, as well as the need to build bridges between traditional spirituality and faith with modern medicine, in the context of respecting one's culture, to effectively promote health outcomes in a multicultural society. Conclusion: An undergraduate course with directed lesson plans taken from "The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down" afforded undergraduate students at a US minority-serving institution with a way to contextualise why and how cultural differences can lead to health disparities.

This manuscript explores the power of using inquiry in a second-grade classroom to make students' understanding of citizenship more complex. It describes an inquiry unit in which students studied primary sources, engaged with fiction and nonfiction children's literature, and participated in interdisciplinary learning to further understand the Civil Rights Movement and the Underground Railroad. Through their understanding of these powerful historic events they came to new conceptions of what it means to be a good citizen. The paper not only describes the unit and how it played out in the classroom it also explores the tensions between teacher directed and student directed inquiry, the ways in which teachers can, and often must integrate English Language Arts into their inquiry in order to find time for it, and the necessity of trusting both students and teachers in their ability to guide their own learning in community. In addition, it describes ways of discussing racism with young learners in both a historical and contemporary context.

The author compared preschool teachers' and students' responses to informational texts (nonfiction) as they read together in small groups. Drawing from reader response theory, similarities and differences were found in teachers' and students' reading behaviors. Teachers took a predominantly efferent stance toward the texts because the teachers' primary purposes were to provide students with information on topics of interest and to expose students to academic vocabulary and content. Conversely, students moved fluidly along the efferent-aesthetic continuum as they sought information, engaged in perspective taking, and responded with strong emotions and through dramatic interpretation. Based on these findings, teachers might reflect on their past experiences and reactions to informational texts so they can widen their own repertoires of response and encourage students to respond in a wide variety of ways during read-alouds.

Common Core State Standards emphasize the importance of informational writing in primary grades. In such writing, importance is placed on the writing being scholarly and scientific. However, such writing can be rote and dry, with little voice. The purpose of this article was to propose a working definition of voice in science writing for first grades. To do this, we identified specific elements of voice within informational texts. A total of 18 quality informational texts were examined for examples of rich voice. Seven elements of voice surfaced: descriptive words, placement of text and picture, creative punctuation, conversational tone, comparisons, imagery, and repeated text. Using these elements, we identified 33 additional children's books to verify the existence of these elements of voice. Lists of these books are included in the article, as are implications for teachers, researchers, and publishers.

"Barracoon: The Story of the Last 'Black Cargo,'" a nonfiction book by Zora Neale Hurston, was completed in 1931 but only published in 2018. Hurston's data were analyzed with race critical discourse analysis, using practice of race theory (PRT) to answer the following: How did Kossula conceptualize race over his lifetime? Inquiry concluded that Kossula (ca. 1841-1935) did not practice race, or rarely did so, until taken from his West African home, the kingdom of "Takkoi," in 1860. After taken, Kossula used genres of race (e.g., labeling) and evidenced at least three conceptualizations of race: race as meaningless, race as social adjective, and race as unreasonable, lived difference. Results show PRT is a viable alternative account of race.

Dr. William Alexander, a noted curriculum authority and a central founder of the middle school movement, shared in a presentation in 1963 that teachers must have a goal of stimulating a "love for learning, an attitude of inquiry, a passion for truth and beauty, a questioning of mind." He asserted, "Learning the right answers is not enough, beyond answers alone, we must help children ask the right questions, and discover their answers through creative thinking, reasoning, judging, and understanding." Alexander's ideals have been influential in the development of the Association for Middle Level Education (AMLE) position paper, "This We Believe." This article responds to "This We Believe" by describing one attempt to develop a challenging and integrated curriculum. It also responds to the Common Core State Standards by describing how authentic literature can be used with instructional strategies to support learning across the curriculum. A brief review of related literature is shared. Next, instructional strategies to use with authentic literature are presented. The article concludes with final thoughts about using authentic literature to develop challenging and integrated curriculum. The hope is that this article will help teachers and students create new passions for authentic literature because when students have passion to read, they have passion to learn. Figure 1 provides examplars of authentic literature.

"Impressing Heaven" is the title of my collection of short stories about career decisions and experience interacting in English on the part of actual young adult learners of English as a foreign language in South Korea. (See "Impressing Heaven" by Barbara Waldern, July 2012 Smashwords ISBN: 9781476467023). While I was first settling in Korea, I got acquainted with a few students and other young adults who liked to talk with and assist English speaking foreigners. They made such a strong impression that I remembered them and thought about our conversations over the years. I ended up writing about them, imagining their real life situations as they had confided in me, or envisioned how their lives would proceed thereafter. I interwove their narrations with my narration of my experience with them to put myself in the shoes of others. This collection thereby serves as a journalistic reflection of some of my first encounters with such students of English as well as a preservation of memories. Given the artistic approach to this work, it is not standard social science although it is a useful exploratory activity, and can be used as one tool of reflective practice in educating, understanding, or relating to a particular cultural group as an outsider. I conclude that this form of creatively written journal keeping serves reflective practice and could contribute to sound methodological and anthropological study as an additional tool of ethnographic research and pedagogical research.

One focus of "Invitational Theory and Practice" is creating positive environments that summon each individual to "develop intellectually, socially, physically, emotionally, and morally" (Purkey & Novak, 2008). Children's literature is a rich resource for teachers and parents to focus on emotional and moral development. This article provides background information on the nature of literary response and the characteristics of literature that engender responses related to character and moral development. Examples and related activities teachers can use to help children process the stories are provided.

Educational policies and initiatives significantly influence instruction in classrooms across the nation. This article presents data from a larger critical ethnographic study in an urban school in the United States during the school's first year implementing the Common Core State Standards. In this article, the author shares data from three teachers. The findings indicate a significant reliance of teachers on outside factors--in this case, the Common Core Standards and related Publishers' Criteria--for planning and instruction in literacy. The teachers' own professional knowledge base became eroded in the process of "policy cascades," and as a result, the teachers developed a learned dependency on outside influences for instructional decision making in the classroom.

Almost seven thousand students drop out of high school every day. Without strong literacy skills, students are less likely to experience academic success and more likely to drop out. This has a negative impact not only on those students, but on the economy. If the dropouts from the Class of 2011 had graduated, the nation's economy would have gained nearly $154 billion in additional income over their lifetimes. Therefore, a high school diploma is considered the "best economic stimulus package." The requirements of the Common Core State Standards will help address the literacy needs of students to be successful in school and become college and career ready.

In this paper, the authors present findings from a yearlong ethnographic research study that examines the development of critical literacy within two urban fourth grade classrooms in Tennessee. This study examines how young second language learners in English-dominant classrooms learn to read critically, write, and construct multimodal perspectives through global (texts focused upon world issues) and informational texts.

Learning with informational texts doesn't need to be restricted to the recall of information and facts; instead, challenging students to interpret and present their findings in the form of readers theatre performances requires the application of synthesis and analysis skills. This article frames informational texts and readers theatre as complimentary approaches that, when used together, address the demands of the reading, presenting, and writing standards of 21st century English language arts classrooms while also providing opportunities for students to write creativity. Through an example based on a student-directed inquiry of the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, the authors present an in-depth discussion exploring how teachers can invite students to critically informational text sets, synthesize findings, and write their own expository and narrative readers theatre scripts that convey their findings. Using informational texts to explore questions associated with literature and inviting students to present their ideas through readers theatre productions offers a new and innovative way to engage students in critical analysis of informational texts as well as the kinds of writing demanded by the standards.

I was interested in reviewing Susan Cain's (2013) "Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking" for two reasons. First, as an introvert I wanted to learn more about myself. Second, I wanted to explore Cain and others' criticism that group activities in the workplace and in education are unfair to introverts. This book review contains two parts. The first part elaborates the general concept of introversion, borrowing heavily from the impressive amount of research and practical experience presented in Cain (2013). The second part addresses the criticism that teachers who use Cooperative Learning (CL) are being unfair to their introvert students. Links to "Online Instruments Measuring Introversion/Extroversion" are appended.

To the consternation and dismay of its critics, the 12-year basic education program is now in full swing in the Philippines. The concerns over the implementation of this purportedly neoliberal educational policy have included the displacement of education workers, the perennial shortage of school facilities (especially in the public schools), and financial impact on low-income families. There has also been a concern over the ostensibly western orientation of the country's educational system because of colonialism. However, as this paper argues, there are also spaces for an empowering and critical pedagogy as defined by Paulo Freire. The principles of critical pedagogy, for instance, can be deployed through the inclusion of non-canonical and insurgent literature in at least two new courses in the curriculum--21st Century Literature from the Philippines and the World and Creative Nonfiction. One particular example of such literature is the testimonial narrative or testimonio, a first-person narrative about experiences of abuse and other forms of injustice. The paper includes a survey of studies that foreground the use of testimonios in education, and argues that the same strategy can be used in the Philippines' new curriculum. The use of testimonios in literature and other disciplines may constitute an attempt at locating alternative knowledges and cultural modalities while surfacing the narratives of Philippine society's marginalized sectors.

Research indicates that history-based curricula--specifically textbooks and trade books--about Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement (CRM) are problematic and limited. If race relations are arguably America's long, unsettled tension, then Dr. King was one of its most impactful figures. Using the relevant historical research as a framework and the theoretical concepts of Master Narratives, anti-racism, and non-racism, the authors explored how trade books depict Dr. King's experiences and accomplishments. Qualitative content analysis research methods were used to answer two questions. First, how do non-fiction trade books historically represent Dr. King? Second, how does the grade level of the intended reader impact the books' historical representations? The grade ranges of Primary (K-2), Intermediate (3-5), and Middle Level (6-8) were used to provide distinction for students' disparate schemas and classroom experiences. The randomly selected data sample included only non-fiction trade books centering on Dr. King. When viewed cumulatively, trade books constructed a simplistic, sanitized narrative about a man who challenged social segregation, faced resistance from government, and was celebrated after death with near-unanimity. Most books about Dr. King engaged in fable-making. Most were non-racist--as opposed to anti-racist--as they relegated Dr. King and his legacy to the turbulent 1960s, even though it is rooted in slavery a century prior and reverberations emerge today. While Dr. King was a decidedly exceptional citizen worthy of special distinction, all the books can be viewed as constructing a Master Narrative about Dr. King. This does not mean the books should not be used in the classroom. Teachers, though, should be aware of what is included, how it is included, and what is omitted in order to plan purposefully.

This is a study of how and why secondary and postsecondary educators use professionally produced narrative nonfiction podcasts in class activities and assignments. Survey and interview data indicated that educators use such podcasts in the following ways: as prompts for student responses, as exemplars of how to compose texts or engage in processes, as vehicles for conveying disciplinary content knowledge, as primary texts for literary analysis, and as materials for practicing listening literacy skills. Additionally, educators indicated that they use these podcasts for the following reasons: to affectively engage students in course material; to build a bridge from the classroom to "real life"; to present counterpoints and add diverse views to traditional course materials; to expose students to podcasts that might enrich their lives outside of the classroom; and for pragmatic accessibility. Using narrative nonfiction podcasts in these ways supports a Multiliteracies pedagogy of situated practice, overt instruction, critical framing, and transformed practice.

Relevant, non-fiction texts became primary teaching materials for second grade English Learners in a poor urban school in the Midwest United States. Politics, news and other current events captured children's attention, helping to engage, explore and extend their literacy confidence in the real world. The Principal Investigator employed the participatory approach (Freire, 1970) as an essential pedagogy to model and share literacy strategies with students and their families. Subscriptions to Time for Kids[TM] & Scholastic News[TM] became the teaching platforms in the classroom, then were sent home to be shared with siblings and parents. This study provided participants with physical texts and reading materials, as they did not have the financial means to use technology in their homes. Results showed that ELs' literacy skills improved measurably without the online tools, and that parents/guardians demonstrated high-level collaboration with their children using literate behaviors (Heath, 1990).

Teachers of literature often have students read works of fiction to learn important truths about the world. But, it is not clear how looking at a work of fiction can tell us about the actual world. This article examines whether and how this can be done.

Dyad reading is a modified version of the Neurological Impress Method in which a lead reader and an assisted reader sit side by side and read aloud a shared text in unison. This cooperative peer-assisted reading strategy has been shown to be effective in helping English-proficient and English-learning children. What is unclear is how dyad reading is applied and experienced by children and if and how it varies with different genres. The purpose of this qualitative study was to describe the experiences of two second-grade English Learners (ELs) as they participated in dyad reading with English-proficient partners using both fiction and nonfiction texts. Adaptations made during the study that improved the experience included holding daily class discussions about dyad reading, implementing book logs to increase student accountability, refreshing the classroom library often, and encouraging more discussion between partners about texts. Results indicated that participant attitudes and relationships improved and their self-perceptions were positive. ELs evidenced confidence as readers and a sense of satisfaction and success. The participants, who had limited exposure to nonfiction texts prior to the study, indicated a clear understanding of and appreciation for both fiction and nonfiction. Of these two major genres, nonfiction provided more opportunities for partners to interact and have discussions during dyad reading.

It is well known that children who read more tend to achieve higher scores in academic reading tests. Much less is known, however, about the link between reading different types of text and young people's reading performance. We investigate this issue using the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2009 database, exploring the association between the frequency with which teenagers read five different types of text (magazines, non-fiction, fiction, newspapers and comics) and their PISA reading scores. Analysing data from more than 250,000 teenagers from across 35 industrialised countries, we find evidence of a sizeable 'fiction effect'; young people who read this type of text frequently have significantly stronger reading skills than their peers who do not. In contrast, the same does not hold true for the four other text types. We therefore conclude that encouraging young people to read fiction may be particularly beneficial for their reading skills. Interventions encouraging fiction reading may be especially important for boys from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds, who are less likely to read this text type.

Narrowing of the curriculum because of standardised testing has caused creativity to be neglected in many schools; integration into reading instruction may provide a solution. This repeated measures study incorporated figural transformation drawings after a read-aloud of a book highlighting nutrition information as a way to both review book comprehension and integrate creativity. Nineteen second graders, aged 7-9 years from Iowa, USA, participated in 16 weekly trials, alternating between a nonfiction nutrition book and a fantasy book presenting true nutrition concepts. Results showed significantly greater creativity generally and in specific creative skill areas under the fantasy condition.

Children's picture book biographies on composers and musicians can prompt powerful music learning experiences. Biography breaks are the reading aloud of a picture book biography and the questions or activities the teacher engages students in while and after reading the book. In the music classroom, biography breaks can be used with children of all ages to introduce students to composers, musicians, music elements and concepts, music vocabulary, music genres and styles. Biography breaks provide a groundwork for discussing the historical, social, and cultural context of music, as well as a catalyst for engaging students in meaningful music experiences creating, performing, responding to, and connecting with music.

The category of nonfiction picture books has changed in the past few decades, putting more emphasis on engaging writing styles, attention to accuracy, and using synergic relations between images and texts. As a result of this shift, the strategies taught to students for reading nonfiction picture books must change. The author presents five strategies that readers navigating new nonfiction picture books can use to comprehend all of the information provided by authors and illustrators: reading the pictures, tracking the words, focusing on the medium, analyzing the back matter, and highlighting the text in visual elements. When readers use these strategies, new nonfiction picture books encourage them to think critically, engage in their own research, and dive deeply into the content they are reading about.

To craft engaging nonfiction prose, young writers should focus on a specific idea or concept of interest and use acclaimed children's books as mentor texts to help them understand options for developing their ideas. In this article, the authors provide examples of high-quality children's nonfiction for exploring various formats and text structures and for developing effective expressive voice and rich language--all craft techniques associated with excellent expository informational writing and consistent with the Common Core State Standards. Specific discussion questions and activities are included.

Across grade levels, teachers and students are encouraged to engage in inquiry-based practices. The College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) "Framework" (National Council for the Social Studies, 2013) and the Common Core State "Standards" (Council of Chief State School Officers and the National Governors Association, 2010), as well as recent state-level standards documents, provide guidelines for inquiry; but there are varying degrees of experience and comfort with the inquiry process. One -- often untapped -- way to build understanding and comfort with inquiry, notably the C3 Inquiry Arc, is through the use of mentor texts. In this article, I describe the inquiry process in "Ain't Nothing But a Man: My Quest to Find the Real John Henry" (2008) by Scott Reynolds Nelson with Marc Aronson, which the authors make transparent throughout the text.

Based on the relevant research that highlights the impact of pairing fiction and nonfiction texts around a specific theme or a topic for enhanced motivation and reading comprehension for English learners (ELs), this article describes ways to combine texts of various genres to promote ELs' language and literacy development. A middle school example of a lesson on chocolate exemplifies how pairing a number of fiction and nonfiction texts supports differentiation and multiple opportunities for writing.

In an age of increased accountability and high-stakes testing, educators continuously seek to locate quality reading intervention curricula intended to improve students' reading performances. Yet, the basics-first emphasis commonly associated with reading intervention curricula may result in districts assigning reading intervention that helps students develop foundational literacy skills through interacting with materials that perpetuate oppressive ideologies. Relying on critical curriculum and critical race theories as an analytic lens, this critical content analysis examines the ways in which twenty books and accompanying lesson scripts in Level U of the Fountas and Pinnell Leveled Literacy intervention (F&P LLI), a widely used intervention curriculum, present racialized representations to students. Iterative layers of inductive coding reveal that 70% of fiction and 20% of nonfiction F&P LLI books present people of Colour as inferior, deviant, and helpless, while 30% of fiction and 100% of nonfiction F&P LLI books present Whites as heroic, determined, innovative, and successful. Implications for inservice teachers, including the importance of recognizing the hidden curriculum of reading intervention selections, are discussed.

Nonfiction children's literature has changed in recent years, including an increase in organizational, design, and text features. The authors conducted a content analysis of 112 nonfiction award-winning and honor books from 2000 to 2018 to examine how the books have changed over time. The authors discuss the patterns, changes, and complexities found in nonfiction children's literature and provide text sets and guiding questions for classroom instruction and exploration of three features that appear in books in a variety of ways and may be challenging for students: atypical text, graphics with information, and supplemental expository information.

The authors document work in a fifth-grade classroom investigating informational texts. Students investigated a range of informational texts and their potential forms. In the spirit of challenging a given curriculum and conventional understandings of informational texts, texts in the Science Comics series were invited into this learning space. Along with other texts, the science comics were positioned as exemplar informational texts and graphic nonfiction. Additionally, these comics supported students in questioning what nonfiction is and can be. Fifth graders went on to draw from these comics as mentor texts, composing their own nonfiction comics. Students were positioned as investigators and creators, becoming creative experts on informational texts. Working with and creating multiple forms of informational texts supported students in being critical consumers and producers of information.

Despite a heightened focus on information literacy, students and adults alike struggle to assess online information. In this article, the authors argue that the K-12 information literacy curriculum needs to focus on supporting students to develop identities as expert information seekers to address complex and mutable modern literacy needs. The authors explore commonalities and themes within three different expert information-seeking professions: academic librarians, journalists, and nonfiction children's book authors. From semistructured interviews emerged distinct themes of doing, knowing, and being that expert information seekers employed when encountering information. The authors believe that these identity practices could form the basis of an information-seeking curriculum that can help address the challenges of the current online information environment.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the ways in which preservice elementary teacher candidates designed integrated reading and science lessons that evoked the use of similar cognitive skills in both subjects, such as sequencing, predicting, classifying, or noting cause and effect. The authors provided the candidates with a lesson plan template focused on making meaning for hands-on science activities along with appropriate fiction or nonfiction texts. We used qualitative content analysis to determine the candidates' (a) general approaches to integrated lesson planning, (b) use of pedagogical moves to promote science understanding and reading comprehension, and (c) use of essential elements of inquiry-based teaching. Results indicated most candidates demonstrated proficiency and creativity in identifying specific pedagogical moves to highlight students' cognition and metacognition of similar thinking skills and to drive home the science concepts. We discuss the possibilities for using science to leverage reading comprehension and reading to leverage science understandings in elementary classrooms.

Teaching a senior seminar on creative nonfiction led author Sarah Gompers to consider how she might help her students understand the concept of writing with vulnerability. All stages of the writing process must be explicitly taught, and this extends to something as basic as topic selection. When students are taught about vulnerability--what it is, what it looks like, and how to use it--a world of new, interesting material becomes accessible, and it is material they are unafraid to access.

This paper evaluates the potential efficacy of using life writing to address mental health disparities and to promote health and well-being among young LGBTIQA+ persons. It examines the potential benefits of young LGBTIQA+ people engaging with life writing including memoir, autobiography, creative nonfiction, journaling and digital storytelling. These benefits include exploring identity and making sense of one's experiences, unifying and empowering marginalised communities, providing people with agency, illuminating common experiences, and facilitating the exchange of resources and support. It evaluates current developments in literacy and English education and identifies an increasing trend towards neo-liberalism and economic discourses, potentially at the expense of providing opportunities for young people to develop creativity and engage in self-exploration. It discusses the author's experiences in running life writing workshops with groups of LGBTIQA+ young people and offers suggestions on how to run similar workshops in educational and wider community settings, including possible prompts, modes of working and debriefing the participants. Overall, the findings suggest that life writing can be used to improve the health and well-being of LGBTIQA+ young people; however, the paper concludes that this sort of intervention needs to be run respectfully, strategically and with full awareness of how sensitive and traumatic the content may be that can emerge for young people. For this reason, the paper presents guidelines and recommendations to provide structure and support.

The struggles of students in the United States to comprehend non-fiction science text are well documented. Middle school students, in particular, have minimal instruction in comprehending nonfiction and flounder on assessments. This article describes the development process of the Readorium software, an interactive web-based program being developed to assist students with comprehension of science text. The program incorporates research-based recommendations for effective reading comprehension suggested by the Institute of Education Science (IES). Efforts to turn the IES recommendations into a coherent software product that motivates learners are described, as is the process of incorporating student and teacher feedback to improve the usability of the product. Preliminary results suggest that the program operates efficiently, motivates students, and may substantially impact student comprehension of science text.

This article evaluates a writing assignment in which students read a non-fiction book that they chose from a list provided by their instructor, identified examples of social psychological phenomena, and fully explained how those examples fit social psychology concepts. This novel twist on a traditional assignment yielded surprisingly robust benefits. Across four samples from two universities and two instructors, students indicated that the assignment furthered their learning beyond other aspects of the course by helping them apply social psychology to "real life" situations that were beyond their own particular experiences. The results suggested that allowing students to choose the book that they would read promoted enjoyment of the assignment. Informal discussion with students, including those who rarely read books for pleasure, indicated that many students took pride in reading a book of their own choosing that they actually enjoyed. Almost all students recommended the continued use of the assignment for future courses. Variations on the assignment that could be utilized by instructors in other psychology courses and other academic disciplines are discussed. (Contains 3 tables and 8 footnotes.)