A pilot study was conducted to contrast children's comprehension of inside view (where writers share the inner thoughts of characters with readers) and character plans in an original story and its basal reader adaptation prior to and following participation in a reading conference focused upon these aspects of character. Subjects were 12 students…

Two basic approaches to teaching children to appreciate literature at any level are the structural (traditional literary analysis) and the reader response approaches. Structural analysis provides the terms and concepts that help readers interpret and discuss literature, while reader response emphasizes the integrated experience an individual has…

A study was conducted to compare students' recreational reading levels to their independent, instructional, and frustrational levels determinable with an informal reading inventory. Subjects, 20 second grade and 20 fifth grade students, were administered the Basic Reading Inventory. In addition, the school's librarian recorded titles of four books…

The rights and responsibilities of boards of education in restricting the availability of certain materials through school libraries are considered in this report. The document first treats the relationship between the demands of the First Amendment and parents' expectations regarding the appropriateness of certain materials for their children.…

Presents ideas and guidelines to those who are involved in the difficult task of selecting a reading program for their school districts. Includes a checklist for evaluation of skill development. (Author/SDH)

Literary quality in children's books should be encouraged by stressing literary taste, discrimination and language awareness. (JH)

Beginning reading instruction is a challenge that teachers can meet successfully by using imagination, working hard, displaying enthusiasm, and expressing genuine concern for the young children that they teach. This paper offers guidelines for beginning reading teachers who base their programs on traditional basal readers. The guidelines are…

The two reading programs discussed in this paper, "Reading Unlimited" (RU) published by Scott Foresman and "New Primary Grades Reading Systems" (RS) by the University of Pittsburgh Learning Research and Development Center, provide maximal contrasts in materials and teaching strategies. The instructional strategies in RU are…

In describing the K-12 reading program in the North Bend (Oregon) School District, this report presents a brief history of the program, discusses key aspects, and lists the program's standards. The program history covers its start in 1974, the effect of an earlier Right to Read campaign, and the district's adoption of the Macmillan basal reading…

Stressing the importance of choosing either a child-centered or a subject-centered orientation in developing a children's literature program, this paper discusses the characteristics of child-centered and subject-centered approaches to literature and then focuses on the dominant literary theories of structuralism and revisionism. Maintaining that…

A study was conducted to discover if the stated reading attitudes and interests of sixth grade students were relevant to their self-selected reading materials. Fifty students completed questionnaires concerning their reading attitudes and interests and used log sheets to record information about their self-selected reading materials. The results…

Two types of adaptation can be conceptualized: the first dealing with the efforts of a child during the course of development to continuously improve the efficiency and economy of his or her intelligence, and the second dealing with responses to demands of the environment. This distinction is useful in conceptualizing the adaptive benefits of…

To assess whether black children comprehend more of high- than low-interest reading material, whether the performance discrepancy between white and black children is reduced under high-interest conditions, and to determine the degree of similarity of the interests of white and black children, a study involving 33 black and 33 white fifth graders…

The revised Spache Readability Formula and the Fry Readability Formula were applied to 20 selected reading materials designed for adolescents reading at second grade level. Three samples from each text were examined. The results using the Spache formula corresponded to the publisher's stated readability levels, with no significant variability…

This booklet shows teachers and administrators how their school districts can use the Reading Authority List of the Reading Information System I (I-RIS), an analytic process for making decisions about language arts curriculum materials. Following an outline of I-RIS, pages of the Reading Authority List are accompanied by guidelines for using the…