The purpose of this publication is to present methods designed to develop a greater awareness of the affective domain and to examine the way children's literature and poetry is used at school and at home. The 12 articles provide information about the following topics: developing an awareness of attitudes, examining approach-avoidance behaviors in…

MUCH OF LANGUAGE ARTS TEACHING IS BASED ON THE ASSUMPTION THAT WORDS ARE NATURAL UNITS OF LANGUAGE AND THAT PRINTED WORDS HAVE ONE-TO-ONE CORRESPONDENCES WITH WORDS IN SPEECH. THE OUTCOME OF THIS ASSUMPTION IS TO EMPHASIZE THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHILD'S SIGHT VOCABULARY AND WORD PERCEPTION, ESPECIALLY IN RELATION TO THE TEACHING OF READING.…

A statewide assessment study of reading programs in Rhode Island is described. Data concerning the history of the primary reading program of the 1965-66 fourth-grade class were gathered; a status study of the reading programs throughout the elementary grades for that year was conducted. Principals' and teachers' opinions on the requirements for a…

The general reading attainment realized by 44 college-bound senior high school students in a 12-week program was studied. The effects of intelligence, sex, race, high school attended, college board scores, age, college choice, and socioeconomic status on the criterion variables of reading rate, vocabulary, and comprehension were also studied. The…

Effects of school noise conditions on student written task performance were studied. Three noise levels were examined--(1) irregular interval noise, 75-90 decibels, (2) average or normal noise, and (3) quiet condition, 45-55 decibels. An attempt was made to reproduce noise conditions typical of the school environment. A second controlled…

The widely accepted 95 percent word recognition criterion used for designating the instructional reading level is re-evaluated. A survey of the original study of Betts and Killgallon indicated (1) that the 95 percent word recognition criterion was based on a 41-case sample at the fourth-grade level, (2) that repetition errors occurred most…

This report provides an overview of a series of studies testing the thesis that basic reading skill is a powerful mediating mechanism in social psychological explanations of pupil performances in a range of subject-matter outcomes of schooling. Basing analyses on the data base of the International Association outcomes of schooling. Basing analyses…

This paper proposes that phonics and meaning instruction in beginning reading programs can be designed to be mutually supportive. The first section outlines attempts to modify a commercially available reading program in order to provide useful phonics instruction strategies. Students showed strong gains on achievement tests after implementation of…

This report describes the rationale and procedures for a series of studies related to reading tasks and reading texts. Children's reading tasks are examined in five strands of investigation: ability to read for meaning, ability to read for doing, ability to read for remembering, comprehension difficulties in skilled readers, and classroom…

Some practical ways to improve reading skills in social studies classes without sacrificing content objectives and goals are presented. It is emphasized that social studies teachers are best suited to teach reading skills in their own subject field. Social studies teachers need to focus on three reading skills: vocabulary development and word…

Standardized reading tests exert a great influence on curriculum materials, teaching methods, and student perceptions of the nature of reading; these tests must reflect the best recent research findings. Passage dependency research has attempted to increase the accuracy of reading tests, and has focused on the following four areas: (1) reading…

It is difficult to account for the real and easily measured differences in verbal competence. Differential psychologists investigate basic traits from which observed behavior is thought to be generated, but if thinking is viewed as a problem in information handling, research will more profitably focus on the relationship between behavior in…

Instructors can use this inventory to prepare high school equivalency students for the reading skills test of the new form of the Test of General Educational Development (GED). It replaces the instrument previously recommended for that purpose, the Iowa Tests of Educational Development (ITED). Fifty multiple choice questions test the ability to…

Teachers can help students develop effective content reading/study skills by manipulating the presentation of reading materials in such a way that students can see and internalize model behaviors associated with those skills. For example, teachers can augment paragraphs of content materials with short exercises in using context clues to infer the…

The first segment of a two-part general report of a province-wide reading assessment program in British Columbia, this report describes and analyzes the reading test results of students in grades 8 and 12 in the domains of word meaning identification, comprehension of prose, applied reading, and study skills. The chapters of the report provide…