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Canine-assisted reading programs show promise as an innovative method for engaging reluctant readers and motivating them to practice. In such programs, specially trained dogs visit classrooms and libraries, and children read to them. Children who struggle with reading may be motivated to read more because they find dogs to be calming and non-judgmental. This paper outlines the research that supports the use of canine-assisted reading programs and provides examples of successful implementation in schools and public libraries. Steps for implementing a canine-assisted reading program are provided, along with resources for teachers or others who are interested in starting their own program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explains how the speaking and listening practice of yarning circles can be used in the literacy classroom. The article opens with an account of a live enactment of yarning circles with elementary students in a mainstream classroom in Australia. It explains the purpose and origin of yarning circles in Indigenous communities, and provides steps for establishing and implementing the practice in classrooms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The primary focus of this piece is the fundamental need to read to children to set the scene for their literacy development. It is asserted, reading to all children should happen daily for the first three years of their schooling. The reasons for this assertion are explored and explained: a vast vocabulary is gleaned, learned and used; the simple and complex grammar of language is absorbed, understood, and later used correctly; the ideas embedded in every story, every sentence and every phrase become familiar and comfortable; and all these aspects of hearing language lead to a heightened ability to predict what comes next, thereby assisting children to learn to read far more easily, quickly and happily. The secondary focus of the article is an expression of dismay that so many educators regard reading to children as an expendable part of the literacy curriculum. Nothing could be further from the truth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We now have an evidence base that documents that we could teach every child by the end of first grade. However, most schools have almost none of the key aspects of instruction that have been available in the research to ensure we achieve this goal. In this paper I argue that this failure is not the result of inadequate funding but rather primarily results from an aged system of beliefs about the inevitability that some students will always fail to learn to read. That belief system along with a lack of familiarity with what researchers have demonstrated in the past decade perpetuate schooling where far too many children fail to thrive as readers. In the end, it is up to us, the adults in the school system, to alter our efforts such that every child becomes a reader. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]