Resource Topics

Teaching Reading

NWP Collaborates to Publish Early Literacy Activity Book—Our Book By Us!/Nuestro Libro ¡Hecho Por Nosotros!

June 2008
A new hands-on book for preschoolers provides parents and caregivers with a resource in English and Spanish that engages young children in reading and writing to support their early literacy development. More ›

The ‘Book Whisperer’ Answers Questions about Teaching Reading

January 2008
Paul Oh
Donalyn Miller, teacher-consultant with the North Star of Texas Writing Project, teaches her students to love reading—and they read 50 to 60 books a year. More ›

A Cognitive Strategies Approach to Reading and Writing Instruction for English Language Learners

Research in the Teaching of English , 2007
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Boys’ Literacy Camp Sets a Standard

July 2007
When adolescent readers can read, but won't read, how can teachers get them engaged? Teacher-consultants in Maine created a summer wilderness camp where students must read in order to do things they want to do. More ›

For Your Bookshelf: Considering the Teaching of Reading

November 2007
Too many books, too little time! Writing project teachers review recent and classic publications in reading and adolescent literacy that you might consider for your bookshelf. More ›

National Reading Initiative Keywords Project

November 2007
Marcie Wolfe
Created by participants in the National Reading Initiative Lead Sites Project, this resource describes a process for involving educators in identifying and questioning a shared vocabulary for the study of reading. More ›

Reading Comprehension and Informational Texts—Annotated Working Bibliography

November 2007
Judith Rodby
This bibliography was developed with the National Reading Initiative Leadership Team as a resource for site leaders who are expanding their site's work to include the teaching of reading as a companion to their work with writing. More ›

Reading Researcher Advocates Strengthening Literacy Programs Through Reading-Writing Synergy

Fall 2007
P. David Pearson
Reading researcher P. David Pearson shares his thoughts about how the synergy between reading and writing holds implications for developing literacy in classrooms. More ›

The Pathway Project Demonstrates Success with Cognitive Strategies for Reading and Writing for English Language Learners

November 2007
Carol Booth Olson, Robert Land
Can sustained writing project professional development in cognitive strategies for reading and writing lead to improved academic literacy outcomes for English language learners? The Pathway Project demonstrates that it can. More ›

Book Review: Lifers: Learning from At-Risk Adolescent Readers, by Pamela Mueller

The Quarterly, 2005
Emily Noble
This book describes the experience—in their own words—of several at-risk students who have been struggling with reading for years. Noble describes Mueller's model for a reading workshop for ninth grade students. More ›

An Offer They Cannot Refuse

The Voice, 2004
Rosemary Eismann
Rosemary Eismann contends that the challenge for parents and educators is to find a way to make students want to read. She offers a variety of tactics that have helped her students become avid readers. More ›

Book Review: “Reading Don't Fix No Chevys”: Literacy in the Lives of Young Men, by Michael Smith and Jeffrey Wilhelm

The Quarterly, 2004
Bob Sizoo
Bob Sizoo reviews "Reading Don't Fix No Chevys": Literacy in the Lives of Young Men, which examines how to engage boys in school literacy. More ›

Book Review: Action Strategies for Deepening Comprehension, by Jeffrey D. Wilhelm

The Quarterly, 2004
Pamela Fong
Pamela Fong reviews Action Strategies for Deepening Comprehension, which challenges teachers to consider untraditional ways to support student comprehension and engage otherwise unmotivated students into becoming independent learners. More ›

Reading is Nuts

The Voice, 2004
Philip Ireland
In this personal reflection, Philip Ireland weaves together a 15-year-old's current struggle with The Old Man and the Sea and his memory of learning to crack open "The Lottery" in the fifth grade. The lesson he learned from his teacher 20 years ago was that in order to crack the shell of great literature, one must pay attention. More ›

Walking in Our Students' Shoes: Reading Teachers and the Writing Project Model

The Quarterly, 2004
Peter Kittle
Kittle explains his experience with reading teachers—in all disciplines—who are learning and practicing new reading strategies to advance learning in their classrooms. More ›

When Was the Last Time Someone Read to You?

The Quarterly, 2004
Grace Hoffman
Grace Hoffman recounts her experiences of being read to as a child, reading to her own children, and listening to books on tape as she argues for the pleasures of listening to the written word. More ›

Book Review: The Reading/Writing Connection, by Carol Booth Olson

The Quarterly, 2003
Harry Noden
Harry Noden reviews The Reading/Writing Connection: Strategies for Teaching and Learning in the Secondary Classroom by Carol Booth Olson. More ›

TR 24. Exploring the Cognition of Reading-to-Write

National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy Technical Report, May 2003
Victoria Stein
This report describes how a comparison of the think-aloud protocols of 36 students showed differences in ways students monitored their comprehension, elaborated, structured the reading, and planned their texts. More ›

Book Review: Strategic Reading, by Jeff Wilhelm, Tanya Baker and Julie Dube

The Quarterly, Spring 2002
Marean Jordan
Marean Jordan reviews Strategic Reading: Guiding Students to Lifelong Literacy 6-12 by Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Tanya N. Baker, and Julie Dube. More ›

Story of SCORE: The MS Writing/Thinking Institute Takes on a Statewide Reading Initiative

National Writing Project At Work, November 2002
Cassandria Hansbrough, Lynette Herring-Harris
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Thinking About the Reading/Writing Connection with David Pearson

The Voice, March-April 2002
David Pearson, a speaker at the upcoming NWP Spring Meeting, shares some thoughts on the synergy of the reading-writing connection. More ›

Zach's Story

The Voice, November-December 2002
Denise Rambach
How one student found himself on a poster celebrating literacy after years of being a self-admitted non-reader. More ›

Author to Author: How Text Influences Young Writers

The Quarterly, Spring 2001
Dina Sechio DeCristofaro
Fifth grade teacher Dina Sechio Decristofaro examines the relationship between what students read and what they write. More ›

Book Review: Reading Reminders, by Jim Burke

The Quarterly, Spring 2001
Jane Braunger
Jane Braunger reviews Reading Reminders: Tools, Tips, and Techniques by Jim Burke. More ›

Book Review: Teaching Reading in the Middle School, by Laura Robb

The Quarterly, Summer 2001
Suzanne Cherry
Suzanne Cherry reviews Teaching Reading in Middle School: A Strategic Approach to Teaching Reading That Improves Comprehension and Thinking by Laura Robb. More ›

Experiments in Reading and Writing

The Quarterly, Winter 2001
Nancy Wilson
Wilson documents a collaboration between the New York City Writing Project and an overcrowded inner city high school. The model makes use of an on–site teacher–consultant. More ›

Matching Reading Models and Strategies

The Quarterly, Fall 2001
Mary Frances Landenwich
Primary school teacher Mary Frances Landenwich discovered that skill-and-drill reading activities did very little for her students' reading comprehension, so she instituted a meaning-centered teaching style that lead to some productive pairings of reading models and strategies. More ›

Book Review: Mosaic of Thought, by Ellin Oliver Keene and Susan Zimmerman

The Quarterly, Spring 2000
Sheryl Lain
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Book Review: Reading for Understanding, by Schoenbach, Greenleaf, Cziko and Hurwitz

The Quarterly, Summer 2000
Bob Fecho
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Discovering New Ways to Support Student Readers

The Voice, May-June 2000
Nancy Mintz
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Survivor in the Library

The Voice, November-December 2000
Carol Jago
Carol Jago proposes a new reality television show: "Survivor in the Library," in which a dozen readers are marooned in a public library and are challenged to persuade others of the intrinsic merits of books. More ›

What Is Reading? An Excerpt from Reading for Understanding

The Quarterly, Summer 2000
Christine Cziko, Cynthia Greenleaf, Lori Hurwitz, Ruth Schoenbach
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Book Review: The Literacy Crisis: False Claims, Real Solutions, by Jeff McQuillan

The Quarterly, Summer 1998
Jan Isenhour
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Book Review: If Not Now: Developmental Readers in the College Classroom, by Jeanne Henry

The Quarterly, Spring 1996
Barbara Bass
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OP 29. Mining Texts in Reading to Write

National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy Occasional Paper, 1991
Stuart Greene
Greene proposes a set of strategies for connecting reading and writing, discussing ways writers read and select information from source texts when they have a sense of authorship. More ›

TR 47. Transforming Texts: Constructive Processes in Reading and Writing

National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy Technical Report, 1991
Nancy Nelson Spivey
This paper focuses on the complex processes involved when writers compose from sources—processes in which writing influences reading and reading influences writing. More ›

TR 40. Reading, Writing, and Knowing: The Role of Disciplinary Knowledge in Comprehension and Composing

National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy Technical Report, March 1990
John Ackerman
To explore how experienced writers use both knowledge of a specific discipline and knowledge of general rhetorical skills, Ackerman analyses 40 synthesis essays written by graduate students in psychology and business. More ›

TR 45. Effects of Controlled, Primerese Language on the Reading Process

National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy Technical Report, 1990
Herbert D. Simons, Paul Ammon, Charles Elster
The authors rewrote four primerese stories from basal readers to use more natural language. They then compared the effects of the two versions on the reading process and comprehension of first-graders. More ›

OP 07. The Problem-Solving Processes of Writers and Readers

National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy Occasional Paper, 1989
Betsey Bowen, Bertram C. Bruce, Linda Flower, Margaret Kantz, Ann M. Penrose, Ann S. Rosebery
The authors focus on writing and reading as forms of problem solving that are shaped by communicative purpose, for example problems incurred in writing for a specific audience or reading to interpret text. More ›

OP 12. Construing Constructivism: Reading Research in the United States

National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy Occasional Paper, 1989
Nancy Nelson Spivey
Constructivism portrays the reader as building a mental representation from textual cues. This paper reviews research on these aspects of reading and assesses the impact of constructivism on reading-related issues. More ›

TR 18. Readers as Writers Composing from Sources

National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy Technical Report, February 1989
James R. King, Nancy Nelson Spivey
This study examines the report-writing of sixth-, eighth-, and tenth-graders, showing how accomplished and less accomplished readers work with source texts and compose their own new texts. More ›

TR 21. Studying Cognition in Context: Introduction to the Study

National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy Technical Report, May 1989
Linda Flower
This report introduces the Reading-to-Write project, which examined the cognitive processes of reading-to-write as they were embedded in the social context of a college course. More ›

Collective Survival: Using Question Journals in the Classroom

The Quarterly, October 1988
Valerie Hobbs
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OP 05. Writing and Reading Working Together

National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy Occasional Paper, 1988
Rebekah Caplan, Linnea C. Ehri, Mary K. Healy, Mary Hurdlow, Robert J. Tierney
Drawing on their teaching experience and research perspectives, the authors discuss specific classroom practices in which writing and reading work together. More ›

TR 07. A Sisyphean Task: Historical Perspectives on the Relationship Between Writing and Reading Instruction

National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy Technical Report, September 1987
Geraldine Joncich Clifford
Using perspectives drawn from American educational and social history, Clifford identifies historical forces that have influenced English education. More ›

TR 08. Writing and Reading in the Classroom

National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy Technical Report, August 1987
James Britton
Britton discusses strategies teachers have developed for encouraging children to learn to write-and-read—activities that together create a literacy learning environment. More ›

TR 10. Movement into Word Reading and Spelling: How Spelling Contributes to Reading

National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy Technical Report, September 1987
Linnea C. Ehri
Drawing on studies of the role of spelling in the reading process, Ehri discusses ways in which spelling contributes to the development of reading and, conversely, how reading contributes to spelling development. More ›