Examines changes in four young adolescent boys' awareness of how masculinity constructs and is constructed by texts. Questions how critical literacy activities within homeschooling setting sustain or transform the boys' awareness of gendered identities and inequities in texts. Highlights impact of power relations within and among local and…

Describes the home and school literacy experiences of a group of children with severe motor and speech disabilities in order to examine the relationship between these experiences and reading and spelling abilities in this population. Finds that home literacy experiences in the groups studied at best had a marginal influence on reading development.…

Suggests two models of how readers create bridging inferences to resolve signals to textual cohesion. Evaluates reading times, verification accuracy, verification latency, and regressive eye fixations to support the model which views bridges as the result of a form of deduction in which the reader tacitly establishes premises that provide rational…

This rejoinder to a critique of the authors' research on speech perception deficits in poor readers answers the specific criticisms and reaffirms their conclusion that the difficulty some poor readers have with rapid /ba/-/da/ discrimination does not stem from difficulty in discriminating the rapid spectral transitions at stop-vowel syllable…

Presents annotations from the ERIC database of nine journal articles, reports, and conference papers (published between 1991 and 1995) on computers and reading instruction. Notes that computers can be a useful tool, but warns teachers to be cautious in accepting the computer as the solution for all reading problems. Lists seven web sites. (RS)

Presents highlights of the life and work of scholar Jeanette Veatch, best known for her contributions in the field of reading, her challenge to basal readers, and her espousal of a literature-based, learner-centered approach called Individualized Reading. Covers her early years as an elementary teacher in Michigan, her graduate study, and her…

Finds that, in making "good reader" judgments, upper-elementary children mentioned 15 separate criterial categories, clustered into four major category groupings, most frequently referencing the "public performance/fluency" category (word recognition, word analysis, and reading rate), but also mentioning "teacher practices,""affect," and…

Finds a generalizable pattern that is learned and followed by most children when they select books. Suggests that refinements and elaborations are best demonstrated by "outlier" behaviors atypical to the basic book-selection routine. Shows children typically select books based upon the physical characteristics of the book and a holistic,…

Contends Great Britain's National Literacy Strategy is a deskilling initiative based on unsubstantiated claims that its proposals are more effective than previous methods. Examines evidence for the myth that teachers do not teach literacy effectively and need to be retrained; finds no valid research supporting it. Points to the real, inescapable…

Examines four "puzzling" results of the National Adult Literacy Survey: (1) the ability to use printed information effectively is unevenly distributed in the United States; (2) adults exhibited a large gap between performance and perception of literacy skills; (3) increased literacy did not always correspond with significant earnings…

Articulates the nature of the interactive/constructivist model, describes the role of the teacher in guiding and facilitating student growth, and derives principles of teaching that could serve as the basis for a systematic review of textbooks. Emphasizes the fact that teacher preparation programs must ready candidates to actively analyze,…

Investigates effects of paired reading on reading fluency and reading accuracy of four English-as-a-second-language (ESL) students with limited English proficiency. Shows that the students benefited from the paired reading intervention and demonstrated steady improvement in reading fluency and accuracy. Indicates that paired reading can serve as a…

Examines degree to which three types of tasks affect the selection of main points in instructional texts. Finds, on average, type of task did affect the number and kind of selected text fragments, but the variation between the students was large. Suggests findings provide more insight into three ways of identifying main points. (RS)

Investigates the reading of policy documents by Dutch legislators. Considers reading-to-assess processes using methods that address the limitations of previous studies. Analyzes the reading-to-assess processes of the legislators to extend existing models and theories of reading in professional contexts. Indicates that the legislators read…

Examines the relationship between general knowledge, skills in applying reading strategies, and reading comprehension for ninth-grade students in Israel at varying educational levels: academic, semi-academic, vocational and learning disabilities. Reveals differential contributions of general knowledge and strategy application to reading…