Everyone agrees that reading is important, but kids today tend to lose interest in reading before adolescence. In "Raising Kids Who Read", bestselling author and psychology professor Daniel T. Willingham explains this phenomenon and provides practical solutions for engendering a love of reading that lasts into adulthood. Like…

This research synthesis examines whether the association between print exposure and components of reading grows stronger across development. We meta-analyzed 99 studies (N = 7,669) that focused on leisure time reading of (a) preschoolers and kindergartners, (b) children attending Grades 1-12, and (c) college and university students. For all…

This report contains the best national data available to provide a reliable and comprehensive overview of American reading today. While it incorporates some statistics from the National Endowment for the Arts' 2004 report, "Reading at Risk," this new study contains vastly more data from numerous sources. Although most of this information is…

Presents information regarding frequently occurring reading tasks both at work and in leisure settings. Concludes that (1) competencies exist that can be measured independently, (2) these competencies are distinguishable in terms of goals and procedures of reader, and (3) activity as measured by time spent with material for a specific task is…

This study investigated the relationship between a reader's attitude toward his instructional climate and his diversity of reading interests. The sample for the study consisted of three classes of fourth grade students chosen from a randomly selected elementary school in Greenwich, Connecticut. All subjects were administered (1) the Affective…

Readability formulas estimate how difficult text is to read. The resulting "readability level" helps teachers and school librarians match students to appropriate books. Guiding students to appropriate-level books is now easier and more accurate with the ATOS (Advantage-TASA Open Standard) Readability Formula for Books, the new…

Recreational reading habits of grade six students were investigated in relation to certain teacher factors and personal factors of students. (JH)

The purpose of this study was to study recreational reading in third, fourth, and fifth grade urban students in a school district in Southeastern Virginia. The widely-used Accelerated Reader (AR) was the tool examined in the promotion of recreational reading. The major research questions determined if recreational reading, using Accelerated…

In 2004, the National Endowment for the Arts published "Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America." This detailed study showed that Americans in almost every demographic group were reading fiction, poetry, and drama--and books in general--at significantly lower rates than 10 or 20 years earlier. The declines were steepest among…

Four readers, ranging in age from 62 to 82, were selected for intensive analysis of their reading strategies, habits, and interests. Interviewing provided demographic information and reading habits and interests. Each person read orally an unfamiliar expository selection rated at ninth-grade-level difficulty by the Dale-Chall Readability Formula…

A study examined how regular listening to oral reading by teachers affected fourth and sixth grade students' reading comprehension, attitudes towards reading, and time spent doing independent reading. Subjects, 221 students from six diverse school systems in Connecticut, were read to for 20 minutes, three times per week, for 12 weeks. Pre- and…

Two studies focused on children's reading but employed very different procedures and techniques. The first study examined the link between the levels of children's reading comprehension and the quantity of reading they did. Subjects, 198 children chosen at random from years 5, 6, and 7 of a single elementary school in Adelaide, Australia,…

Investigates the relationship of out-of-school activities to reading achievement. Finds a wide variation between children in amount of out-of-school reading. Concludes that reading books was the out-of-school activity that had the strongest association with reading proficiency, but that on most days most subjects did little or no book reading. (MM)

Explores the validity of the reading comprehension skills distinctiveness hypothesis. Finds that results argue for a unitary or holistic view of reading comprehension and suggest increasing the time students spend in sustained reading of self-selected materials as a means for improving students' reading comprehension. (MG)

Examines the content of the pamphlet "What Works: Research about Teaching and Learning." Asks (1) what it means to say it is "drawn from""Becoming a Nation of Readers"; and (2) whether the editors are guilty of political chicanery with reading research, as some have argued. (RS)