The purpose of "What Works in Reading?" was to identify the factors that contribute most strongly to achievement growth in reading. The study, which investigated fourth graders in 25 schools, was run jointly by the Philadelphia School District and the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, and the respect and understanding that developed…

The reading program developed at Niagara University in New York has undergone a number of changes in response to long term evaluation. In the early 1970s, the only program evaluation tools used were pretests and posttests. These were misleading, as they measured only short term gains, not retention after completion of the course. Based on ideas…

Recently there has been an increasing interest in the development of children's impressions of stories, partially due to the work of theorists who have proposed formal grammars representing structural characteristics of stories. In order to learn more about children's narrative competence, stories they produced were analyzed in three experiments.…

A study hypothesized that if prediction, clarification, question-generation, and summarization strategies were taught using scaffolded instruction, then poor comprehenders might be able to learn the strategies so that they could apply them to text on their own and thereby improve their performance on standardized comprehension measures. Subjects…

The purpose of this book is to provide teachers of literature with a sampling of a wide range of theoretical backgrounds and possible pedagogical applications for reading, writing, and interpreting literature in school classrooms, elementary through college. The book contains the following essays listed with their authors: (1) "Henny Penny to…

In an effort to predict whether field dependent readers would be adversely affected by postreading tasks involving high memory demands and requiring restructuring skills, a study assessed how the field dependent-independent cognitive style may be related to performance on reading comprehension question tasks for school-age learners. Subjects, 55…

A study investigated transfer effects of training below average high school readers in the use of graphic organizers and summary writing on their recognition of compare/contrast text structure. Subjects, 32 high school students with below-expectancy standardized test scores, were placed in two groups: an experimental group (five males and 11…

A study was conducted to examine motivation as a precursor of reading achievement in middle school students. The California Media and Education Librarians' Literature Reading Survey (1984) was used as the instrument for collection of data. Sixth graders (n=753) of varying ability were studied in six different settings. Data were coded in 10 ethnic…

A study focused on the effects of the Writing to Read program piloted at kindergarten and first grade levels in Community Consolidated School District 65. The report included measures of students' writing, performance on district-made and standardized reading tests, and a follow-up on second graders. Statistical techniques of group comparison and…

To help integrate reading and writing in grades K-8, this book presents teaching strategies that reflect the most recent classroom-based research. The book is divided into the following eight chapters: (1) "Why Integrate Reading and Writing Instruction? An Overview"; (2) "Making Early Connections: Promoting Emergent Literacy";…

A study examined the effect of sustained silent reading and writing on the reading achievement, writing, and reading attitude of students reading two or more years below grade level. Subjects, 97 seventh graders and 104 eighth graders enrolled in a semi-rural, predominantly black, lower socioeconomic status, Southeastern school district, were…

A three-part correlational study examined the explanatory power of the Lexile theory of reading comprehension, which was based on the semantic and syntactic components of prose. Correlations were performed between the item difficulties of nine nationally normed reading comprehension tests and computer generated difficulties which were reported in…

A study used Marie Clay's complete diagnostic survey (diagnostic survey and recovery procedures from "Early Detection of Reading Difficulty") in two first-grade classrooms in order to ascertain class profiles for January and April of 1983, the reactions of teachers, instructional changes, and changes in the children's reading behaviors…

A comparative analysis evaluated three studies that dealt with the differences among five-year-olds that should be considered before reading instruction is initiated in kindergarten. The premise of the comparison was that children from different countries (especially Israel, where these studies were conducted), have different abilities, react…

A pilot study (using the case study, or field research format) examined the acquisition of behaviors in infants who are read to and with on a consistent basis from their first day of life through the first year. Three parent/infant teams participated in a year-long course which consisted of reading "familiar" books to the infants,…