Promising Practices for Improving Reading Attitudes.

The research on the effect of attitudes on reading is reviewed in this paper to support the position that the affective part of learning is as important to learning to read well as are the cognitive skills. Suggestions for improving reading attitudes are given. Activities are suggested for five forms of creative reading: (1) model imitations, in which the reader is asked to find creative ways of doing the same thing as the author; (2) idea extension, elaboration, and augmentation; (3) visualization, the process of giving concrete form to the mental images resulting from reading; (4) incorporation, where the reader is producing his or her own ideas from fragments from the reading; and (5) contradictory or supporting reading, that is both critical and productive. On the premise that effective work with questions can help reading attitudes, 18 ideas for questioning games are described. (MKM)