Explores the connection between reading and writing implicit in children's creative writing and highlights the similarity between processes of reading and writing. (JC)

Points out some problems with the comparison of the Japanese and American education systems contained in "Japanese Education Today" and notes that its content seems carefully chosen to bolster the advice in another recent United States government publication, "What Works." Concludes that no educational system is perfect. (SKC)

Assesses the measurement qualities of a computer-managed test of children's reading vocabulary, and the resultant representational patterns of vocabulary knowledge. Describes the test's administration, and its high reliability. Reveals that it shows that children of all ability levels know a range of very common to very rare words. (SKC)

Investigates the effects of prediction strategies and predictable materials in teaching ethnic Chinese children in the United States to read in Chinese. Shows that the use of predictable materials and prediction strategies resulted in good responses by the beginning Chinese readers. (MM)

More than 1,500 high school foreign language students were tested for comprehension of authentic texts. First- through fifth-year French, German, and Spanish students read texts of the types mentioned in the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines at the intermediate and intermediate high levels. All students captured some meaning from each of the texts.…

Investigates the relationship of out-of-school activities to reading achievement. Finds a wide variation between children in amount of out-of-school reading. Concludes that reading books was the out-of-school activity that had the strongest association with reading proficiency, but that on most days most subjects did little or no book reading. (MM)

Investigates patterns in readers' ratings of imagery, affect, and story structure in selected short stories read in a college classroom. Concludes that texts constrain the renditions of individual readers when they read for enjoyment. Finds that imagery appears to mediate affective associations of text viewed as structurally important. (MM)

Indicates that use of two microcomputer word recognition programs led to substantial increases in word recognition/decoding skills and to substantial improvements in comprehension at the word and proposition/sentence level, but to no improvement at the passage level. (NKA)

Suggests that, in the majority of the aspects of the reading process examined, there was a statistically significant interaction between illustration and difficulty levels. Finds that reading performance in the illustrated conditions was superior to that in the unillustrated conditions at the lower level of difficulty. (JD)

Contends that children need to learn phonic skills, not necessarily through early direct teaching, but through reading experience. Suggests using Paired Reading, which is validated by psycholinguistic reading theory and provides opportunities to learn to read from context and use innate syntactic and semantic knowledge. (SKC)

Explains how to ask questions that will help students focus on structure and better understand expository text. Notes that because students must make both internal and external connections to text structure, teachers should ask questions which prompt students to identify the relationships among ideas in a text so that meaningful learning can…

Suggests that by using this chart, teachers can augment their reading program, and notes that the many publishers listed offer a wide range of materials according to difficulty level. (JC)

Suggests that reading educators need to change several pervasive attitudes in order to translate current reading research into more effective instruction. (JC)

This literature-based review examines the relationship between the acquisition of segmental awareness and the acquisition of alphabetic literacy. Cited studies show that the segmental analysis ability of most dyslexics is very poor and suggest one factor may be related to the conscious representation of speech on which the analytic capacity…

Examines evidence on error rate in classroom tasks. Claims the usual interpretation of a negative relationship between error rate (especially in oral reading errors) and reading achievement as meaning that low error rates lead to reading growth may be mistaken. Suggests oral errors cause tension, which increases attention and instigates deeper…