Finds and describes five text characteristics that are most positively associated with interest in expository text, and three most negatively associated. Shows that interest and importance were highly correlated, and that information rated as both interesting and important was recalled best. (SR)

Examines individual literary-response styles of several first- or second-grade children by analyzing their talk about books. Finds five types of responses (analytical, intertextual, personalizing, transparent, and performative responses). Discusses the discernible differences and unique perspectives in at least some children's individual literary…

Compares the types of metacognitive reading strategies and comprehension problems that four Mexican-American, fourth-grade bilingual students demonstrated while reading expository and narrative texts in English and Spanish. Finds students successfully using code-mixing, code-switching, and paraphrased translating to enhance their comprehension.…

Examines how fifth-grade students at different stages of spelling approach open-word sorting activities with familiar words. Demonstrates the value of using open sorts as a means of assessing student thinking about words. Suggests that teachers should be careful using scaffolding techniques--they need to establish the nature and purpose of sorting…

Presents a case study chronicling the written, oral, and fine art responses of four transitional readers and writers (second- and third-grade students) to the picture books of Patricia Polacco and Gerald McDermott. Discusses their responses in three categories: descriptive responses, interpretive responses, and thematic trends. (SR)

Examines the development of reading skill during the first school year using preschool motivational orientation, coping tendencies, knowledge of alphabet, and phonemic awareness as predictors. Finds that preschool phonemic awareness and task orientation are associated with enhanced word-reading fluency. (DSK)

Describes the Alabama Reading Initiative (ARI), which bases teacher professional development designed to improve student reading achievement on reading research. Members of the ARI reviewed the research and called for a balanced approach to reading instruction that focuses on the individual needs of each child. Explains how the ARI Plan is being…

Uses case alteration (cAse ALteRaTiOn) to investigate effects of first-language (L1) orthographic characteristics on word recognition in English as a second language (ESL). Finds magnitude of case alteration effect for naming tasks was significantly larger for ESL participants whose L1 was not alphabetic. Suggests that L1 orthographic features…

Describes an action research project carried out by a kindergarten teacher as she incorporated phonemic awareness activities into the daily classroom routine. Discusses classroom activities, how she developed data collection processes, and how her data analysis showed systematic student growth in literacy and enthusiasm. (SR)

Compares the reading and comprehension ages of children who were in Reading Recovery at age 6 to those in a comparison group as they enter their fifth and sixth years in school. Reports that the ex-Reading Recovery children were 12 and 13 months superior in terms of reading and comprehension ages, respectively. (CMK)

Examines the use of systematic desensitization in a reading anxiety treatment program designed for preservice teachers. States that reading anxiety creates in teachers non-productive attitudes which can, and should, be altered to advance the literacy development of students. Measures reading anxiety of 23 preservice teachers before, during, and…

Outlines what reader response might look like in the classroom. Presents four basic assumptions of reader response theory. Discusses ways reader response approaches to literature help students grow both in the depth and breadth of their responses to literature, and as strategic readers. (SR)

Argues that learning to investigate students' language holds great promise as an avenue of assessment. Shows what the stories of three second-grade students reveal about their beliefs regarding both reading and language growth. Discusses how students define for themselves who readers are and what readers can do. (SR)

Integrates findings from qualitative and quantitative research in conceptual change that investigated text and text-based strategies. Emphasizes findings that have direct implications for instructional research and practice: (1) refutational text is not sufficient to produce conceptual change; (2) discussion of refutational text must be…

Examines reader and text variables related to conceptual change learning from science textbooks. Shows it is difficult to change readers' prior knowledge by reading texts that are inconsistent with that knowledge, but refutation text was shown to impact students' prior knowledge when that knowledge contained naive scientific conceptions. Addresses…