Two papers examine how to promote literacy among high risk students by better utilizing literacy time blocks and providing faculty development. One explains that poor children with good decoding skills still can have vocabulary and comprehension deficiencies. The other describes how bringing reading research into the classroom requires giving…

Illustrates the findings of a survey of reading frequency and attitudes related to extensive reading in English. Finds a negative correlation between the number of years of past English study and reading attitude. Notes that these findings are useful for defining appropriate instructional actions and identifying areas for further research with…

Examines longitudinally how mothers structure shared book reading interactions with their children across the preschool period. Addresses consistency of individual maternal styles over time and comparability of storybook reading styles across familiar and unfamiliar stories. Finds three maternal stylistic groups: Describers, Comprehenders, and…

Investigates attitudes and cultural background of Israeli Arab students learning Hebrew and Israeli Jewish students learning English to reading comprehension in familiar/unfamiliar cultural stories. Compares contexts: Arabs as minority group learning the majority language and Jews as majority group learning a minority language. Indicates that…

Examines processes used when high school students were presented with documents about the Tonkin Gulf Incident. Finds that mental models created by students were more internally consistent after reading at least two documents, but did not become more consistent after that. Notes that students tended to ignore information in the texts when giving…

Interviews 18 eighth-graders about their experiences in rereading a book. Outlines what is distinctive about rereading as practiced by middle school students, and its benefits. Advocates rereading as a useful pedagogical tool in the middle grades. (SR)

Finds that at-risk first and second graders made statistically significant gains in instructional reading level that was attributable to tutoring by minimally trained America Reads Challenge college students. Finds that the greatest impact was in affecting children's ability to read words, and that most of their growth occurred during the second…

Finds that students with learning disabilities who received reading instruction in special-education resource rooms expressed reading attitudes that equaled or exceeded those expressed by low and average non-disabled students in another nationwide study, and that their attitudes remained more stable across grades 1 through 5 than those expressed…

Investigates the long-term effects of two training programs in kindergarten on reading development. Describes how the first program focused on the phonological structure of words, while a second group received a program focusing on morphology. Finds that significant interactions between the groups and the mother's educational level indicated that…

Presents evidence from the W. H. Smith Children's Reading Choices Project research in order to examine the relationship between achievement in English and the reading habits of 10- to 14-year-old children. Argues for the importance of recognizing and respecting the range of reading children engage in, and the popular reading cultures in which they…

Examines the quantity of informational literature found in six basal readers at grades two, four, and six. Identifies each genre in each basal at each grade level. Finds that 16% to 20% of selections and 18% to 22% of pages were devoted to informational literature across grade levels. Demonstrates the need for publishers to devote more attention…

First-language (L1) reading research has had a major impact on second language (L2) reading research. There was a substantial lag, however, before these L1 theories were adapted and proposed for L2 reading. This article introduces the L2 researcher to the relevant and current L1 test comprehension issues and theories to help close this gap.…

Describes how profiles of individual readers are valuable constructs in assessing independent word learning strategies and how such information can drive instruction. Describes the independent word learning strategies of three learners of varying ability, illustrating what information think-alouds can provide teachers. Discusses instructional…

Discusses how educators are increasingly recognizing the value of instruction that focuses on developing metacognitive skills, or comprehensive strategies for thinking and independent learning. Summarizes research on metacognitive reading skills and then describes two sample classroom exercises to teach these skills to developmental college…

Presents a conversation between two researchers and frequent collaborators on studies of policy for at-risk children. Discusses what they learned about teaching reading from studies conducted during the past century. Identifies themes significant at various points in time that have surfaced again. Discusses their views on school choice, teacher…