They don’t like to read. They don’t care about school. Many boys simply aren’t thriving academically in U.S. schools. It’s become an educational crisis that snares boys in an alarming cycle: they become disengaged in school because they don’t read; they don’t read because they don’t have positive literacy experiences in the early years of school or at home.

What is the solution? According to Debby Zambo and William G. Brozo, it begins with capturing young boys’ reading imaginations by discovering their entry point texts—books that boys will find immediately gratifying and that will propel them to seek and read more. In their new book, Bright Beginnings for Boys: Engaging Young Boys in Active Literacy, Zambo and Brozo give concrete ideas for using picture books with eight positive male values—cooperation, courage, generosity, honesty, perseverance, respectfulness, responsibility, and tolerance—to engage young boys as active readers while giving them a constructive view of what it means to be an honorable man.

For more strategies to help you tackle the “boy crisis” download Chapter 1 of Bright Beginnings for Boys:

Free Chapter: Nurturing Young Male Readers

To read more about the book or order online, click here.

“What is it that you do?” If you are a literacy coach, you probably are often challenged to clearly define your role to educational leaders, policymakers, and teachers. Use an “elevator speech” to develop a consistent way of describing your work. Practicing a speech that takes no longer than the time to ride an elevator from the ground floor to the tenth floor of an office building will help you develop a concise, on-the-mark description of what you do.

This is just a small gem in the wealth of resources available in Cathy A. Toll’s new book, Surviving but Not Yet Thriving: Essential Questions and Practical Answers for Experienced Literacy Coaches.

To learn more strategies download Chapter 1 of Surviving but Not Yet Thriving:

Free Chapter: How Do I Overcome Previous Mistakes?

To read more about the book or order online, click here.

As a teacher, comprehension modeling is a key component of your reading instruction. But too often comprehension strategies are taught one-at-a-time as part of the curriculum, which is inconsistent with how they will be used in real reading. Effective readers let the text and their own degree of understanding dictate when they must fall back on a strategy to make sense. Modeling reading comprehension strategies should be no less authentic. Effective modeling uses the text to guide which strategy to model at different points of the reading.

You can see effective modeling of comprehension strategies in action in a video clip from In a Reading State of Mind: Brain Research, Teacher Modeling, and Comprehension Instruction, a book and DVD package by Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey, and Diane Lapp.

VIDEO CLIP: Click here to view the video

To learn more about the role of modeling in reading comprehension, download Chapter 1 of In a Reading State of Mind:

Free Chapter: If You Show Me How, I Can Learn to Do It: The Role of Modeling

To hear the authors discuss modeling, go to this podcast:

PODCAST: IRA Insights: Fisher, Frey, and Lapp on modeling during shared reading

To read more about the book or order online, click here.

In today’s climate of high stakes testing and accountability, assessment is on everyone’s mind. Explore the broad array of assessments available and share views with colleagues on how assessment influences teaching with this affordably priced school-based professional development program.

Leading assessment expert Peter Afflerbach’s bestselling book Understanding and Using Reading Assessment, K–12 can be the basis of your group discussion with the help of a new PD edition. In addition to a copy of the book, this affordable professional development package includes a facilitator’s guide, a CD with handouts and forms, and the option to purchase additional books at a 10% discount.

Click here to learn more about this special PD edition and for pricing and ordering details.

To learn more about assessment:

Hear Peter Afflerbach’s comments on how classroom assessment, not NCLB-mandated testing, should influence teaching:

PODCAST: IRA Insights: Afflerbach on Assessment

To learn how teachers' questions can be a powerful means of reading assessment, download chapter 3 of Understanding and Using Reading Assessment:

Free Chapter: Teacher Questioning as Assessment

To read more about the book, Understanding and Using Reading Assessment, K–12, or to order online, click here.

Each year, thousands of children, young adults, teachers, and librarians around the United States select their favorite recently published books for the IRA “Choices” booklists. These lists are used in classrooms, libraries, and homes to help young readers find books they will enjoy.

Click here to read more about the Choices Booklists.



See which books children chose in the 2008 Children’s Choices Booklist:

Free Download: The Children’s Choices Booklist



Young adults voted for these favorites in the Young Adults’ Choices Booklist:

Free Download: The Young Adults’ Choices Booklist

Teachers’ picks can be found in the 2008 Teachers’ Choices Booklist:

Free Download: The Teachers’ Choices Booklist

IRA issues policy recommendations on reading

Website rates effectiveness of reading programs

National Center for Education Statistics releases report

Policymakers urged to give little ones more playtime

Members get 20% off the price of books featured here. Click here to join IRA and get the discount