Recent research investigating the effects of sexism in elementary school textbooks on readers is reviewed to determine children's responses in terms of reading preferences, sex-role attitudes and behaviors, and comprehension abilities. The degree of sexism in textbooks was determined by the proportion of female main characters, the presentation of…

Focusing on new frontiers in college and adult reading, the papers in this volume were drawn from the fifteenth annual meeting of the National Reading Conference held in 1965. Among the topics covered in the 26 papers are the following: reading in the Guatemalan environment, the use of instrumentation in reading, correlates of concentration, the…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 16 titles deal with the following topics: the effects of teacher-directed lessons on fourth and fifth grade students; self-concept and the comprehension of scientific reading; the readability of junior college textbooks; the…

Twenty-seven summaries of first-grade reading studies sponsored by the United States Office of Education are included. The studies, done in the 1964-65 school year, were made in different localities, and each was concerned with a different problem. More than one-half of the directors were full-time college professors; a few were senior authors of…

This study attempted to assess the effect of behavior modification techniques on community college open enrollment students with severe educational deficits. Of 30 suburban New York members of a reading class, half were exposed to direct teaching, instructor praise, peer partners, self and peer ratings, role playing, Premack contracts,…

An overall view of the Initial Teaching Alphabet (i.t.a.) and its use with various groups of people are presented. The first part contains five addresses in which the historical background for i.t.a. is reviewed and insight into the man who invented it is given. Part 2 presents research reports of prefirst-grade and first-grade beginning reading…

This single volume constitutes the third and fourth yearbooks of the North Central Reading Association and consists of most of the papers presented at the 1963 and 1964 annual meetings of the NCRA. The papers are grouped into four sections: Discrimination, Information Theory, Skill Therapy and Skill Training, and The Visual Process. Among the…

Two hypotheses were tested in this study: that second grade students who receive instruction and practice in nonsubstantive test taking techniques will achieve higher standardized reading test scores than second grade students who do not receive this instruction and practice both immediately following treatment and four months after treatment. The…

Examines a program in Denmark that uses metalinguistic games and exercises to stimulate preschool children's discovery of the phonological structure of language. Concludes that phonological awareness can be developed outside the context of the acquisition of an alphabetic writing system, and that this awareness facilitates subsequent reading and…

Evaluates and compares English graphophonic and word knowledge of anglophone children in French immersion (FI) programs with those of children in regular English (ENG) classrooms. Reveals no differences between the FI and ENG children in kindergarten, but ENG students scored higher at the end of Grades 1 and 2 on most measures. (NKA)

Analyzes how two groups of eighth graders and their teacher create literary texts during small group discussion, and suggests the importance of talk as a means of constructing meaning. (NKA)

While more research needs to be done in the area of adolescent literacy, there is growing agreement about some of the characteristics successful literacy intervention programs share. The purpose of this brief is to provide information to help policymakers, educators, parents, and others concerned with adolescent literacy make informed decisions…

How do some students extract complex information from advanced reading materials while others struggle to find the meaning of even simple passages? What characteristics do strategic readers exhibit that others don't possess? Unlocking the cognitive strategies of exceptional readers means finding ways to teach every student to read strategically,…

This study describes a program designed to improve student reading fluency. The targeted population consisted of first and third grade students in a growing urban community in the Midwest. Evidence for the existence of the problem included standardized test scores and independent computer reports that measured academic achievement, phonic…

Junior high school students involved in a reading/current events program developed by Visual Education Consultants got higher scores on a current affairs test, reported increases in reading newspapers, listened to more news on radio and television, and read more about national and world news. (RL)