Reflects on the 30th anniversary of the publication of the "First-Grade Studies." States that what can be learned is that "It all depends" is the most effective approach to teaching reading and that pretty much any alternative method was superior to the "look-say" basals popular in the early 1960s. (PA)

Reviews the "First-Grade Studies." Finds the studies represent a particular ideological and power relationship within the academy; cooperative research efforts can be a powerful force in shaping understanding of reading research and instruction; there is no best way to teach beginning reading; race, class, and language are important variables in…

Reviews the primary characteristics of eye movements during reading and summarizes four areas: (1) the span of effective vision; (2) integration of information across eye movements; (3) the decision of where to fixate next; and (4) the decision of when to move the eyes. Discusses some current controversies about eye movements and reading. (RS)

Assesses students' detection of lexical problems, falsehoods, and inconsistent textual information. Relates students' academic ranking to their evaluation performance for lexical and external consistency standards--not for internal consistency standards. Finds that alerting students to the necessity of using three standards to detect errors…

Examines whether the spatial configuration of two adjunct pictures influences processing of accompanying text as has already been found in other types of graphic displays. Reveals, through analysis of variance of performance, no effect for configuration. Notes significant differences in achievement for questions derived from paraphrased parts of…

Reports on a study in which 43 students in a precollege program received metacognitive skill instruction promoting an increase in metacognitive awareness for reading and writing. Indicates that instruction in metacognitive skill development can increase metacognitive awareness. Suggests that more integrative approaches to literacy education may…

Examines the extent to which preschool children are aware of and acquire the phonemic structure of the spoken word. Tests 4-year-old nonreaders, assessing product name reading ability, knowledge of the alphabet, rhyme skills, and explicit phonemic awareness ability. Finds subjects acquired knowledge of the alphabet before they showed explicit…

Posits that alphabet books might be one connection between success in phonemic awareness tasks and high levels of alphabet knowledge. Gives three treatments to different groups of prekindergartners. Finds that all groups gained in print concept and letter knowledge, but the conventional alphabet group gained most in phoneme awareness. (PA)

Builds up a profile of causal development in 10-year-olds based on their recall of history and science texts in which the amount of causal connectivity differed. Finds that causal connections play an important role in expository text recall, and that subjects who have a strong causal profile also, generally, perform well in English. (PA)

Examines background knowledge and strategy knowledge from a broad view to better understand how they contribute to elementary-age students' reading comprehension of both narrative and expository texts. Indicates that background knowledge specific to the content of the text being read begins to diminish in importance at about grade 4, when strategy…

Reports on a study testing the validity of the Names Test, an individually administered phonics assessment. Provides support for the Names Test's validity by showing it to be significantly correlated with established tests of word recognition and decoding ability. (SR)

Examines growth of word reading skills in first- and second-grade Italian children by analyzing the pattern of reading errors. Tailors the selection of reading material to permit a meaningful cross-language comparison with pre-existing findings on English-speaking children. Finds that, in English and Italian, spatially related errors constituted a…

Tests three groups of dyslexic children (mean ages 8, 13, 17 years) and three groups of normal achievers (matched for age/IQ) for sound categorization and phoneme deletion, which allows comparison across chronological age and reading age. Finds that children with dyslexia performed significantly worse than their reading age controls on both tasks.…

Examines the reading habits of middle school and high school students, presenting two case studies conducted by two new teachers. Shows that students read more than they are generally believed to read but their reading interests are not often tapped in school. (TB)

Describes the multidisciplinary nature of children's literature as a field of study. Suggests research in children's literature encompasses a diverse set of methodologies and theoretical perspectives. Discusses research on text, research on child readers, contexts that support engagement, and research needs. (RS)