Presents a set of arguments defending a humanist model of reading as opposed to students responding as individuals to literary works. (CRH)

This paper reports the early stages of a 3-year evaluation of the Early Intervention Programme in Scotland. The Early Intervention Programme is a high-profile government initiative which receives major government funding (60 million pounds sterling over 5 years) and is designed to improve standards of literacy and numeracy in the first 2 years of…

A study investigated whether Louisiana school districts and schools involved in the SPUR (Special Plan Upgrading Reading) program were implementing and maintaining essential elements of the project five years after termination of state funding and external support. Subjects were the 66 superintendents or their designee at the district level as…

A seven-credit-hour block course, which includes Public Speaking (three institutional credits), Basic Writing (three program credits), and Reading (one program credit) was created at Murray State University to give at-risk freshmen an opportunity to take a university credit course (Public Speaking) while strengthening their reading and writing…

The goal of this study was to describe and measure the effects of continuous, as-needed intervention in reading for 92 children in Grades 1-2, to determine whether the severity of reading disability (RD) could be significantly reduced in the catchment schools. The authors hoped that this kind of professional development would help to discriminate…

Standard operating procedures of the Reading Recovery program allow for students to be dropped from the program if they have not met the criterion for success after 20 weeks of participation. This paper follows the actions of over 600 first-grade Reading Recovery students in a medium-sized school district over the course of a complete year of…

The study evaluates the influence of time devoted to reading-related classroom experiences on reading achievement for first grade children with lower versus higher IQ scores. Initially, it was anticipated that lower IQ children in classrooms with more time allocated to reading-related activities would make greater gains in word decoding skill than…

This study compares average SAT 9 reading scores of second through fifth grade English-only children in schools using "Open Court" (a program for teaching young children to read) with the scores of comparable schools using non-scripted programs in one very large urban school district in California. Findings show that schools using…

In a basic-level writing course at the University of Minnesota, students were asked to read and engage in intelligent conservation about Keith Gilyard's "Voices of the Self." The book is about education but alternates autobiographical material with scholarly analysis. Literacy researchers expect students to read a text, understand what…

A study investigated whether the practice of repeated reading enables first-grade children participating in a heterogeneous grouping model (which requires them to read difficult text) to acquire the fluency, accuracy, and understanding necessary to become independent readers. Subjects were four children from a public first-grade classroom in a…

Concentrating on hearing reading rather than parents reading to children, this literature review examines research into parents' participation in their children's literacy development with the aim of providing information to assist school practice. The review focuses on attention to British studies involving systematic analysis of carefully…

Studied for its effects on the reading fluency of elementary school students, R. C. Heckleman's Neurological Impress Method has proved an inexpensive but effective method for motivating low achievement readers. Twenty-six subjects from grades 2 to 6 practiced reading in unison with a tutor during four 15-minute sessions a week. During the sessions…

The study investigated retention of gains in reading/language skills after one year by 378 eighth-grade students in 18 health studies classrooms. Six classrooms were assigned to each of three groups, two experimental and one control, taught by health science teachers who were: (1) trained in reading/language techniques; (2) not trained in…

Noting that role playing and writing as prereading activities have the potential to improve reading comprehension, a study tested the efficacy of a role playing method for improving reading comprehension. Students in three college developmental reading classes were asked to assume the role of author of a selection that they were about to read and…

Research on reading interests suggests (1) that interest leads to knowledge, which leads in turn to increased comprehension, and (2) that high interest materials are more easily comprehended than are low interest materials by virtue of the knowledge this interest has generated. The 3-D approach to classroom reading instruction and management…