Researchers and practitioners have identified the ability to read scientific literature effectively as a core competency in undergraduate STEM education, but comparatively little research has been conducted on how students engage, both cognitively and affectively, with advanced scientific research. This mixed-methods study assesses the process…

Investigates the relative contribution and trade-off effects of children's knowledge and reading skill in text comprehension. Finds that domain knowledge and reading skill can be traded in order to achieve similar levels of comprehension. Suggests that reading skill compensates for deficient knowledge and specific knowledge compensates for…

"The Critical Word Factor," based on word recognition demands of texts, is a measure of text difficulty designed specifically for texts used by beginning readers. The measure is a function of the number of new, unique words per 100 running words of text that fall outside a designated curriculum. The authors investigated the validity of the…

Extends an earlier study by using different materials, ratings for familiarity, and more stringent experimental controls. Finds concreteness effects in two experiments using undergraduate students. Suggests that familiarity and concreteness contribute separately to recall. Supports a dual coding theory. Discusses implications for text design. (RS)

Explores aesthetic responses to literature by examining the responses of fifth graders to a variety of books and films. Finds three main characteristics of students' responses: picturing a story in their minds; extending a story or hypothesize about it while reading; and relating associations and feelings evoked while reading and responding.…

Analyzes think-aloud protocols generated during reading to locate sources referred to when students made links reaching beyond what they read. Finds proportion of links to sources located within the text decreased and proportion of links outside the context increased over time. Notes students who increased use of sources located outside the task…

Suggests that further explication of the notion of "importance" will benefit the reading field, at both practical and theoretical levels. (ARH)

Studies word learning in predictable text by investigating three important factors in facilitating young children's word learning: the reader, the text, and the task. Offers specific suggestions for teaching. (SR)

Longitudinal study investigated the relationship between print awareness and reading during the reading acquisition process of children from kindergarten through first grade. Results indicate that while print awareness plays a role in children's transition towards literacy, that role is entwined with the role of other reading knowledge and skills.…

Asserts that teachers should help students move beyond an information-exchange view of reading to a more complex rhetorical model of constructing meaning. Reports on a study which investigated meaning constructions and compares the more traditional function/feature strategies of constructing meaning with rhetorical strategies, which construct…

Concludes that poor readers' comprehension of stories was improved by instruction that focused on causal structure, but that a few learners still struggling with basic decoding were too preoccupied to attend to story structure. (FL)

Uses a survey to determine how adult, adolescent, and elementary age students remember what they read. Finds that, for all three groups studied, adjunct (during reading) strategies were reported as being used more often than pre- and posttype strategies. Finds that adolescent readers believed teachers taught them to remember, but adults believe…

Illuminates patterns in responses to literature by analyzing one sixth grader's entries written in her literature response journal. Finds that the student's responses reveal her as an active reader and writer with unique thoughts, feelings. and opinions generated by quality children's literature. (MG)

The purpose of this book is to introduce the research on readability, defined here as reading ease. The first part of the book covers how people read. A series of national literacy surveys show that the average person in the U.S. and most other countries are adults of limited reading skills. For example, the average adult in the U.S. reads at the…

This article discusses three major reasons why children who can decode the stories in their basal readers may still have problems reading content area textbooks. The reasons include: (1) lack of prerequisite knowledge (including content, discourse, and strategic knowledge); (2) poorly written textbooks; and (3) negative classroom experiences in…