Describes the work of Donald D. Durrell in reading research from the 1930s to the 1960s, explaining the theoretical base of his work (articles, texts, and monographs that he published over the years) and examining the research process at the Boston University School of Education (which focuses on primary and intermediate grades). (SM)

Presents a collection of tributes to Donald D. Durrell, a long-time reading research leader at Boston University, by his former students who considered him a mentor and a friend. (SM)

Finds layout of a list affects the way it is read and understood; recall for separately arranged lists in text was better than that for continuously arranged lists, and notes a difference in reading patterns between the two layouts; and a separated list allowed readers to reread the points selectively, while a continuous list made readers reread…

Determines the beneficial effects of integrating various Davis Learning Strategies, primarily Davis Symbol Mastery, on sight word skills. Indicates that children scored significantly higher than the control group for the mastery of 100 basic sight words for the first grade students. Gives suggestions for further assessment of the Davis method. (SG)

Presents an account of the literacy activities engaged in by the parents of 29 children around the time that the children were about to start school. Finds a considerable amount of literacy activity evident in the homes, regardless of whether the children were fluent readers or not. Argues that home environment is not enough to account for…

Challenges three basic claims about the scientific "database" concerning rhyme and analogy in reading made in another article in this journal: (1) the relationship between rhyme and reading remains controversial; (2) there is doubt about the relevance of children's ability to make orthographic analogies for classroom reading instruction; and (3)…

Reviews major issues in research on reading, including theories of word reading, cross-writing comparisons, comprehension, reading difficulties, learning how to read, and cognitive neuroscience studies of reading. (Author/VWL)

Examines existence and placement of main ideas in non-fiction best-sellers. Concludes that writers of popular non-fiction use main ideas and place these ideas in prominent positions. Offers support for teaching main idea in reading classes. (RS)

Examines whether children were able to maintain question answering skills the next school year with character-focused reading passages after receiving QAR (Question Answer Relationship) instruction. Finds good maintenance with two text-explicit questions but variable maintenance with text-implicit questions. Notes that students demonstrated the…

Examines the relationship among first-language (L1) reading, second-language (L2) knowledge, and L2 reading for 88 beginners and 43 upper-level French students at the Air Force Academy. Demonstrates the importance of L1 reading and L2 knowledge to L2 reading comprehension. (RS)

Investigates readers' perceptions of bias in a Colorado ballot booklet intended to explain a tax cut proposal. Finds that readers were more likely to perceive the ballot booklet to be biased in favor of the proposed tax measure than against it. (SC)

Reviews prominent reading theories in light of their accounts of how automatic and control processes combine to produce successful text comprehension, and the trade-offs between the two. Presents the Compensatory-Encoding Model of reading, which explicates how, when, and why automatic and control processes interact. Notes important educational…

Finds strong and consistent relationships between reading goals, reading strategy use, and grade point average. Finds that number of goals and reading strategies reliably discriminated between college students with higher and lower grade-point averages and with higher and lower ACT Reading and English scores. Reveals that strategies that…

Presents one theoretical perspective on balanced literacy instruction and two iterations of it in practice: one in a second-grade classroom and another in a sixth-grade classroom. Concludes that balanced reading instruction is much more complex than merely embedding the teaching of skills and strategies within the context of literature. (SC)

Investigates whether Brazilian Portuguese-speaking prereaders who have mastered letter names are capable of processing letter-sound relations to learn to read words in which the letters correspond to phonemes contained in the names of the letters. Suggests they can use their knowledge of the names of the letters to learn to read by processing and…