The assumption that readers understand best and respond most positively to writing and illustrations which reflect their own first-hand experience was tested. To elicit response from children, four books by Byrd Baylor were used in three classes of fifth graders, in urban, suburban, and rural schools. After the books were read and the pictures…

A study examined whether a group of eighth graders whose teacher read orally to them for 10 minutes daily would develop greater interest in reading for pleasure than similar students who did not experience the teacher reading orally to them. Subjects, 36 urban and suburban youngsters, were divided into an experimental and a control sample.…

A study was conducted to explore the ways in which instructional method and text quality influence the young reader's interpretation of inside view and character plans in fiction. Thirty-six third graders from a northeastern, suburban, public elementary school served as subjects. Twelve children were selected randomly from students rated as…

A study was conducted to show that there would be no difference between two samples' abilities to complete a hands-on science project when one is provided with advance organizers and the other is not. The sample of students were second, third, and fourth graders from the science program in Piscataway Township Schools in New Jersey. The…

This digest is intended to help and inform those teachers who are contemplating using children's literature to teach reading, and provides a brief review of material in the ERIC database on literature-based reading instruction. The digest includes sections on recent research, basic resources, assessing literature based reading, diverse methods…

Based on the premise that literacy research and instruction is becoming more focused on connections between reading and writing, this FAST Bib contains selected references from 1985 to 1989. The 31-item annotated bibliography is organized into four sections: (1) overview; (2) research; (3) integrating language arts; and (4) classroom applications.…

Intended to provide current sources of information about college reading selected from the many citations of material in the ERIC database, this 22-item bibliography offers research about college reading, the reading process, and strategies of instruction. The bibliography also includes references to discussions of specific content area study…

Prepared for teachers, school administrators, parents, and other members of the interested public, this summary of Marilyn Jager Adams'"Beginning to Read: Thinking and Learning about Print" selects from the complex and extensive body of research in the book to present a more direct but much less detailed account of useful, research-based…

A study examined whether the higher-order thinking patterns elicited by a reader response approach would carry over and become part of students' ways of thinking about literature, even in the absence of reader response prompts. Subjects were fourth-grade students (48 in all) in two intact, heterogeneously grouped classrooms in the same elementary…

A study examined the effect of using mapping as a mediating strategy to produce written summaries and improve comprehension of poor readers in the fifth grade. Twenty-three students from two Chapter 1 classrooms in northern Illinois, all classified as poor readers, were divided into experimental (13 children) and control (10 children) groups. The…

A practicum addressed the problem of a lack of reading motivation among middle grade students. An activity based program for middle grade students which integrated reading, book reports, book presentations, computer programs, and a library skills program was developed. Subjects, 32 fifth grade and 33 sixth grade students enrolled in a computer…

This pamphlet describes the new Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP) Essential Skills Reading Test which was given to every fourth, seventh, and tenth grader in Michigan in 1989. The questions addressed in the pamphlet include: (1) Why is a new MEAP reading test needed? (2) How has the teaching of reading changed? (3) How is the new MEAP…

This study was conducted to determine the effect that hands-on, creative activity using the Language Experience Approach would have on language usage in students' written stories. Twenty-five fifth grade students were randomly divided into three sample groups. Sample A received hands-on, creative stimulus and art materials; Sample B looked at and…

Because analogical reasoning plays a major role in content area reading comprehension, teachers should learn to teach analogy-solving skills and to identify the kinds of difficulties some elementary students will have in solving them. Analogies are statements of relationships wherein one term is similar to another term. Relationships in analogy…

In the interest of applying reader response theory to journalism this paper posits that readers of newspapers, like readers of literature, take an active role in making meaning from the articles they read, rather than passively accepting news as a finished, static product. Additionally, it proposes that journalism textbooks pay little attention to…