The best way for students to learn to read and to come to love reading
is - surprise, surprise - by reading in quantity. Unfortunately, many of
today's students read far too little. This lack of time spent reading is
particularly unfortunate, as reading constitutes a bedrock skill,
essential in all subject areas. Thus, we teachers need to devote
curriculum time to not only teaching students how to read but also to
encouraging them to read extensively. This is what Extensive Reading is
all about. Teachers Sourcebook for Extensive Reading provides hundreds
of teacher tested ideas on how to do Extensive Reading. The book begins
with an introduction to 'the what' and 'the why' of Extensive Reading.
Thereafter, the book consists of three parts. Part 1 discusses finding
materials for Extensive Reading. Part 2 offers ideas for motivating
students to read and for activities that students might do after they
read or while they are reading, including cooperative learning
activities. Part 3 looks at how teachers can serve as advocates for
Extensive Reading. Among the book's distinctive features are breaks for
reflection, first person accounts from teachers, and ideas for doing
Action Research and other forms of teacher investigation and research on
Extensive Reading. We hope that you will find the Teachers Sourcebook
for Extensive Reading to be a practical book, but also informed by
theory and researh. We also hope this book will make a difference for
your students in their test scores and, even more, in their attitude
toward reading, now and in the future.
