A study investigated the reading achievement of participants in the Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library's incentive-based summer reading program. Subjects, 44 first, second, and third grade students from 23 different local public schools who had participated in the summer reading program at 4 inner-city brances of the public library,…

This yearbook contains 59 selected articles from the National Reading Conference for 1988 which represent a diversity of topics explored through a variety of research paradigms designed to increase understanding of the critical issues of language and literacy. Included in the collection are "Political and Economic Dimensions of Literacy:…

A study investigated whether there is a difference in the self-concept of retarded readers and achieving readers at the high school level. Subjects, 30 retarded readers in a special education program and 30 normal or above achieving readers from two suburban high schools in Staten Island, New York, completed the Piers-Harris Children's…

A study was conducted to determine if pregnant women read to their unborn child. A randomly selected sample of 47 pregnant women in the Toms River, New Jersey area between the ages of 20 and 35, visiting their obstetricians' offices for monthly checkups were chosen for the study. A questionnaire was administered to mothers in the waiting room…

A study examined the influence of discussion questions with a dual focus on important and implied text ideas in children's story understanding. Subjects, 106 third-grade children from 2 middle-sized Illinois cities were randomly assigned to 4 experimental groups and 1 control group. Their comprehension was measured with free and probed story…

A study examined the effect of gender, age, and cognitive task on three types of reading recall. Subjects, 40 boys and girls in the second grade and 40 in the fifth grade from a suburban Northeast school system, all reading at or above grade level, performed cued or free recall on four high-interest short stories. Reading recall was assessed via…

Much debate is concerned with providing quality reading instruction to students who experience difficulty. This bulletin explores the various approaches advocated for teaching reading instruction to at-risk students, discusses the research underpinnings of these approaches, and examines the practical implications of the models. Two approaches…

A study investigated whether a correlation exists between the degree and nature of left-brain laterality and specific reading and spelling difficulties. Subjects, 50 normal readers and 50 reading disabled persons native to the island of Bornholm, had their auditory laterality screened using pure-tone audiometry and dichotic listening. Results…

This yearbook contains papers which relate to issues in administering, supervising, researching, teaching, implementing, assessing, and strengthening programs and approaches in reading. The 22 papers and their authors are as follows: "Reading in Early America" (Ruskin Teeter); "Looking Back for the Future: Amish Literacy and Its…

A 3-year project developed a procedure to achieve the objectives of using miscue analysis in the reading program in a way that is economical in time, applicable to more than one student at once, and usable as a teaching tool as well as a diagnostic tool. Three separate trials, in 1975, 1976, and 1977, refined and developed the procedure until it…

A study investigated differences in reading rate and comprehension scores of 8th grade students on a cloze reading exercise involving the reading of a cloze passage from 10 different modes of text presentation (8 different computer screen formats and 2 different paper formats). Subjects, 300 students in computer literacy classes from 7 schools in…

A study examined whether sustained silent reading produced positive attitudes toward reading. Subjects, 583 intermediate grade students and 26 teachers in the 5 elementary schools in the Pulaski, Wisconsin School District, were questioned about reading on a broad basis and about their attitudes toward Sustained Silent Reading (SSR) in particular.…

An analysis of the literature helps bring greater clarity to educators concerning the theory and practice of literature-based instruction. There are two common threads in all the interpretations of literature-based instruction: (1) the use of literature as the primary material for reading instruction; and (2) the elimination of the structural…

Using a newly developed 6-week course, a study examined the effect of children's literature on the reading attitude and fluency of secondary remedial students. Subjects were 10 tenth- through twelfth-grade students enrolled in a central Washington State alternative high school for students who dropped out of regular high school but who still…

Summarizing approximately 800 reports of reading research identified between July 1, 1988 and June 30, 1989, this book categorizes the research studies into six major areas, five of which have been further subcategorized, with the majority of studies classified into the physiology and psychology of reading area. The major areas are as follows: (1)…