Adolescence is a critical time period when it comes to fostering lifelong interest and practices in reading, yet a decreasing number of middle school students are performing at Proficient and Advanced levels in reading. The purpose of this study was to examine whether providing middle school students with an increased level of choice in their…

Technology has become a catalyst influencing not only the medium, but also the variety of texts that adolescents encounter. It blurs the standard distinction between in-school and out-of-school literacies and fosters an interplay of reading for recreational and academic purposes. How students feel about reading remains an important question, to be…

Although the relationship between attitudes toward reading and reading achievement has been well documented, the causal relationship between these constructs remains unclear. Using longitudinal covariance structure modeling, this study tested the hypothesis that 3 reading-related constructs in the primary grades (2nd-3rd grade) - reading attitude,…

The RAVE-O (Retrieval, Automaticity, Vocabulary Elaboration, Orthography) program is an experimental, fluency-based approach to reading intervention that is designed to accompany a phonological analysis program for children with developmental reading disabilities. The goals, theoretical principles, and applied activities of the RAVE-O curriculum…

The reading habits of 49 elderly adults were surveyed, using the SERA inventory, to examine two hypotheses: there is no difference among elderly adults' perceptions of their reading habits as related to factors of reading skill, preference, physical functioning, attention span/concentration, and emotional well-being, and there are no significant…

In his ethnographic study of junior high school literacy activities, David Bloome found support for four theoretical constructs of the student-text interaction: (1) education is a process of cultural transmission; (2) reading is defined in terms of the sociocultural context in which it occurs; (3) the interpretation of behavior and of signs occurs…

Matching teaching strategies and classroom environment to students' learning preferences has been found to be related to students' self-concept and achievement. By identifying the learning and reading style of each student, the teacher will increase the youngster's chances of being successful, thus having a positive effect on the child's…

Describes the construction of a nonreading instrument (Preschool Reading Attitudes Scale) designed to assess attitudes toward reading in young children, aged three through five years. Demonstrates the scale to be valid and reliable with these age groups. (HOD)

Papers presented at a roundtable session at the 1986 International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) conference consider current research in reading. They include: (1) "Bibliopsychology--The Contribution of a Study of Temperament" (R. O. Linden, Japan), which examines research on the impact of communication media on the…

Reports on a study of preferred reading instruction approaches among 121 British reading teachers. Finds that most do not use a single approach, but a blend of approaches determined by individual differences. Maintains that most perceive their role as encouraging students to enjoy reading. (CFR)

To examine the effect of structural factors on the development of story appreciation, a developmental model of story liking for suspense stories was tested by having second, fourth, and sixth grade children rate suspense stories on 10 affective scales. Specifically, the model predicted that (1) reader identification would increase with greater…

Designed to assess children's preferences for story settings, the instrument requires children to indicate their preference for a story setting in each of 36 pairs of contrasting pictures, 12 pairs in each of the following categories: (1) fantasy versus realism, (2) past versus contemporary, and (3) geographically remote versus the near-at-hand.…

This study examined the effectiveness of booktalks for high school students by measuring their attitudes toward reading and book circulation. A reading attitude survey used as a pretest and posttest showed no significant differences overall, although specific teachers did affect their students' attitudes toward reading. Circulation showed a…

The impact of a parent-school partnership program on elementary school children's reading achievement and attitudes is being evaluated over five years. The program involves the parents in children's reading activities and allows them to influence their children's attitudes toward school achievement. Participating parents agree to support seven…

Race and socioeconomic class differences in children's reading performance are influenced by social and motivational factors. For example, children from poverty backgrounds are more likely to attribute success to conditions outside personal control, and thus do not experience as much pride in achievement as middle class students who have learned…