Analyzes the content of stories in several basal reading systems widely used in primary grade reading instruction, in terms of the relative frequency of main characters who are elderly, the quality of characterizations of elderly characters, the incidence of aging themes, and incidental references to aging or the elderly. Indicates few positive…

Reviews the research on the harmful effects of reading from a horizontal surface. Urges educators to teach children proper body-book position and, where possible, to supply book holders. (ARH)

Examines the validity of oral reading accuracy and comprehension as indicators of difficulty for functionally illiterate adults and the feasibility of using four less commonly measured variables as additional indicators of difficulty. Indicates that accuracy and comprehension are valid indicators of difficulty. Rate and miscue quality are strong…

Determined the strategies adults used as they read. Results revealed two stages of reading development: (1) a reliance equally on print and language based strategies with no integration of the two, and (2) increased ability to use language knowledge to integrate and predict as they read. (SRT)

Grounded in schema and generative theories, this research suggests a theoretical framework and a task-specific procedure for integrating reading and writing. Fourth grade students were given a text-related generative writing task and reading recall test. Results support the notion of using writing as an orienting task prior to reading. (DST)

Describes the construction of a nonreading instrument (Preschool Reading Attitudes Scale) designed to assess attitudes toward reading in young children, aged three through five years. Demonstrates the scale to be valid and reliable with these age groups. (HOD)

Shows that sixth-grade students did not use as much oral language for forecasting and reasoning as did third-grade students or students in kindergarten when their language was recorded under similar conditions. Suggests that perhaps the very process of schooling inhibits students' need to think creatively and to reason. (FL)

Reviews recent research on metacognition and presents some implications for its use in the classroom. (FL)

There is an explosion of new research describing writing stages and how young children learn about reading by learning to write first. Teachers can develop environments in which students can freely explore writing in no-fail situations. By being guided by childrens' spontaneous learning efforts many inapropriate teaching techniques can be avoided.…

Investigates the effects of structural cueing (color or no color) and decision level (rote or semantic) on students' verbatim retention of technical prose and concludes that the results support the distinctiveness of encoding hypothesis for learning via the microcomputer. (DF)

Investigates the transfer effects of graphic organizer instruction on fourth graders' ability to use top-level structure as an aid in comprehending and retaining content reading materials and concludes that there were no discernable effects. (DF)

Concludes that vocabulary knowledge can produce effects on reading comprehension, but that the nature of the effects depends on the method used to present the knowledge and the manner used to measure reading comprehension. (FL)

Reports on a study using teaching strategies for content reading material that focus on the difference between literal and inferential questions. Results indicated that the strategy helped to improve students' responses to questions. (SRT)

Investigates the reading development of six preschool children who learned to read at home without systematic instruction. Attempts (1) to find out whether there was an identifiable process by which these children learned to read and (2) to study th role of the parents in these children's early reading acquisition. (HOD)

Offers a proposal for an integrated reading and writing curriculum that emphasizes essay and other informational writing. (HOD)