Stemming from the 1992 Integrated Reading Performance Record (IRPR), a study investigated the reading habits and practices and the classroom activities related to reading of a subgroup of students participating in the 1992 reading assessment conducted by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Subjects, 1,136 fourth graders, were audiotaped as they responded to a series of questions about habits and attitudes related to both instructional and recreational reading. Subjects also completed measures of fluency and comprehension. Major findings were that (1) much can be learned and documented about important aspects of reading development through literacy interviews; (2) an overwhelming majority of students reported reading storybooks or magazines, but significantly fewer of them reported reading information books; (3) subjects more frequently reported reading magazines, storybooks, and information books at home than at school or at the library; (4) students who said they spend time reading on their own had higher average reading proficiency than students who said they did not read on their own; (5) students were involved in many different types of activities as a part of reading instruction; and (6) commercially-prepared skills-oriented and short writing tasks were reported to be used more frequently in reading instruction than other types of work. (Contains 13 tables and six figures of data. Appendixes present the interview guide, and a description of the procedures and methods of the IRPR.) (RS)