Richard Allington reviews the nature of the reading achievement gap between students from low-income and high-income families, concluding that the limited access to children's books experienced by children from low-income families lies at the base of the problem. The fact that children from low-income families lose reading achievement every summer…

This paper examines the perspectives of children in two East London primary schools on what influences their independent choice of text, in the context of developing reading for pleasure in schools. All children in three selected year groups (ages approximately 6, 8 and 10) were invited to take part in the research, and from those that…

Background/Context: Both correlational and experimental evidence suggests that having access to books can be a key resource for accelerating the literacy outcomes for children. Results from a 20-year study across 27 nations by Evans, Kelley, Sikora, and Treiman (2010), suggest that children growing up in homes with many books obtain 3 years more…

Because reading comprehension is an important skill that many students struggle with, there is an urgent need to foster it. Few studies have investigated effective comprehension practices within a response-to-intervention design. Therefore, this study investigated the impact of a Tier 1 intervention implemented for 10 weeks on 491 Flemish fifth…

Recreational reading is in a decline for upper elementary aged readers, and along with this decline comes consequent declines in students' ability to make meaning from what they read and their acquisition of different language forms, including the acquisition of new vocabulary words. However, one reading format is increasing in popularity: graphic…

Previous research has evidenced a strong positive relationship between leisure print reading habits and reading comprehension across the lifespan. The rapid evolution of new forms of leisure digital reading could modify such a relationship. This meta-analysis extends previous research by analyzing the relationship between leisure digital reading…

Fiction, more than expository text, nurtures intimate connections between text and the reader's life experiences. This dimension of reader response is underexplored in relation to children. Adapting methods from Empirical Literary Studies to educational research objectives, the authors employed the concept of 'remindings', i.e. reminiscing…

The extent to which children's reading experiences influence their writing production is not well understood. It is imperative that the connections between these literacy practices are elucidated in order to inform the development of stimulating curricula and to support children's development. This paper presents new data and key findings from a…

This paper examines the perspectives of Year 5 pupils from a school in East London on reading for pleasure. Sixty children initially completed a questionnaire and their responses were used to identify two groups: children whose responses suggested a positive attitude towards reading for pleasure and those who did not. Two focus group interviews…

This research report, produced for National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa (National Library), focused on a Putoi Rito Communities of Readers project carried out in Dargaville in 2023-24. Putoi Rito is a National Library initiative that works with communities to design, develop, and deliver support for reading engagement…

Because dual-language books (DLBs) print the entire text in two languages nearby on the page, they have great potential for supporting children's biliteracy development by providing contexts to compare/contrast languages. However, little is known about how children read DLBs independently and how they may/may not use such characteristics to…

Children's early literacy experiences are critical, yet it remains unclear whether memories of early reading instruction continue to be associated with reading habits into adulthood. We examined the association between recollections of reading experiences and present-day reading habits in an adult population. University students responded in…

Today's teachers are required to spend most of their English/Language Arts time in teacher-directed instruction with required text, which is primarily informational. Little, if any, time is allocated to self-selected independent reading (Garan & DeVoogd, 2008). In addition, some teachers do not understand the importance of independent reading…

This paper's objective is to give a thorough summary of research on the reading behavior of Chinese primary and secondary school students. The majority of existing research in this field focuses on the importance of extensive reading, the status quo of reading practices among Chinese students, factors that influence student reading behavior, and…

Background: In many educational systems internationally, promoting reading for pleasure (RfP) is embedded within curricula and practice. Primary school teachers regularly and routinely engage in activities designed to encourage and sustain children's reading enjoyment. However, what are children's perspectives and experiences of these different…