Examines the reading preferences of young adults and their unsupervised responses to favored books. Compares these comments to those made by professional reviewers in an effort to determine the critical skills of adolescent readers. (HB)

Examines (from the perspective of developmental dialectics) the on-going debate between traditional instruction and whole-language advocates in reading. Provides an overview of the differences between the two camps. Outlines the reasons why whole-language approaches have increasingly been incorporated into classrooms. Speculates on how the debate…

Synthesizes research on the basic processes and instructional factors that influence literacy development. Points out patterns of agreement and disagreement among literacy scholars and practitioners. Presents an agenda for reading research of the future. (RS)

Explores what children know about finding and using information books and observes what these children actually did when involved in information finding tasks. Finds that schools and teaching do have an effect in this area but that there was a gap between what children said about how they would use information books and what they actually did. (RS)

Comparison of the individual reading strategies of 26 severely impaired developmental dyslexics and 26 nonhandicapped readers found a distribution of skills and strategies over a continuum in both groups. Dyslexic students were specifically impaired in phonological processing, and half of them employed more whole-word oriented strategies than the…

Discusses two studies conducted in the same classroom at overlapping times that contain apparent contradictions about the teacher's effectiveness and the nature of discussions in his classroom. Concludes that the forms and mechanisms for conducting this type of research are inadequate and that the inherent issues of subjectivity and objectivity…

Relates a teacher's observations of first graders in a whole language classroom enabling each other to read. Suggests reading techniques which foster this collaborative learning. (PRA)

Reviews research supporting the use of writing to develop reading ability, highlighting findings that writing exercises improve reading comprehension, recall, and retention of texts. (PAA)

Argues that the field of education has produced and absorbed a steady barrage of information about the threats and causes of illiteracy. Contends that the field has managed to demystify the wondrous and profound acts of reading and writing. Concludes that research on reader response has much to offer in the rehumanization of literacy. (RS)

Explores the types of responses of urban first graders when asked to predict a narrative ending and to determine whether there were differences in responses from fall to spring. Indicates that first graders are capable of responding with both convergent and divergent predictions at the beginning and end of first grade. (MG)

Investigates the effects of purpose for reading and frequency of encounters with unknown words in written context on learning from context tasks performed by 119 sixth grade good and poor reading comprehenders. Finds no significant interactions, resulting at least partial support for Robert Sternberg's model of verbal comprehension. (MG)

Focuses on the relationship between the development of segmental awareness and dyslexia. Finds that students in two training programs that taught the skills required to use phonemes performed as well as normal readers on phoneme segmentation tasks. Notes that the improvements were correlated in dictation but not in reading. (RS)

Finds greater interference for words than for single letters and letter-clusters in elementary students. Finds a developmental trend from relative skill in word-level orthographic-phonological correspondence in second graders to relative skill in subword-level correspondences in sixth graders. Notes that multiple orthographic codes were correlated…

Concludes children benefit from teacher training in integrating environmental print into the curriculum; logos selected for classroom use should come from children's immediate environment; instruction should include experiences with manuscript forms of the logos; and children who are encouraged to bring to class examples of environmental print…

Applies inverse Bayesian analyses to data from three large family studies of reading disability to estimate posterior probability that an offspring will be affected. Finds that offspring risk rates were significantly elevated if a parent reported a history of reading disability. Suggests the use of family history as a component in clinical…