A study examined how, when, and under what conditions severe dyslexics developed high literacy skills, as well as the role of gender differences in literacy development and professional success. Subjects were 60 highly successful dyslexic adults (30 men and 30 women) and 10 nondyslexic male and female normative controls. Results indicated that…

Summarizes the presentations of Ginny Moore Kruse and Lois Lowry at a Master Class in the Teaching of Literature conducted at the 91st annual meeting of the National Council of Teachers of English (Baltimore, MD, November 17, 2001). Notes the class addressed censorship and intellectual freedom, challenge and choice, the right to read and the right…

Whether teachers are horror fans or not, part of a teacher's service to student readers is to recommend recent and good horror novels. Unlike the almost idiosyncratic horror market of years past, today a series of recognizable horror writer such as Christopher Pike, D. E. Atkins, R. L. Stine and others are turning out numerous titles specifically…

A study identified a list of trade books that educators selected for use in their own classrooms and a list of factors that they considered to be the most important when selecting those books. Subjects, 486 educators who taught in grades 4, 5, or 6 in 45 public school districts and 15 private schools in southeastern Pennsylvania, identified two…

A study investigated the contention that secondary school literature programs have offered, and continue to offer, what could be construed as a literary canon, a relatively small body of literary texts to which a majority of students have been and are continuing to be exposed. Several surveys of the literary works teachers assign, dating back to…

Noting the increase in the number of Hispanics in the United States and a parallel increase in the number of magazines for this segment of the population, a study analyzed readership patterns of a Spanish-language metropolitan magazine. Data were collected by means of a mail survey completed by 282 subscribers of the "Miami Mensual." Six…

A study tested the uses and gratifications theoretical perspective--that motivations affect media use which in turn influences the effects of that use. The American Student Dental Association targeted its publications to different subaudiences and provided a grant to the University of Texas at Austin to study (1) whether the differentiation…

A study was conducted to test the validity of a media exposure model that posits that editorial tone, communication potential, and utility determine the linkage between an individual's medium assessments and choices. A personal interview readership survey of Nigerian elites who read two high quality magazines distributed by the United States…

This paper discusses two conferences that focus on readership and authorship in an attempt to make reading and writing more significant in the lives of young people. The Arizona Young Authors Conference provides a wide range of opportunities for students to write and to begin to realize their potential as young writers. Participating children,…

Many reasons may be offered to explain why the disadvantaged have little interest in reading. Among these are: attitudes inherent in the family, an inability to afford reading material, a failure to perceive practical value in reading, a limited experiential background that limits understanding, and a lack of interesting and meaningful reading…

The value of reading ability lies in its use rather than its possession; therefore, how students feel about reading may be as important as whether or not they are able to read. Helping children develop positive attitudes toward reading, learning the reading interests of children, and helping children develop positive self-concepts through…

Educators have focused their literacy education efforts on teaching children to code and decode words. In spite of all the efforts to teach literacy, the various report cards indicate that, perhaps, a new way of doing teaching literacy should be investigated. Today's media-centric youths could benefit from using mediated programs to help motivate…

Since the concepts of surveillance (international information and keeping up with the job that the government is doing), diversion (being entertained and killing time), and interaction (people learning more about themselves) have been developed for newspaper and television but not necessarily for magazines, a study applied 14…

This paper suggests that reading offers a partial solution to the adaptation problems that older adults must face. Reading materials provide a means of disseminating information among older adults, and offer a source for consumer services information and basic education in living for those adjusting to retirement or old age. In addition, reading…

Specialists in the field of children's literature, who publish research and decide on awards for individual books, should give serious study to what children themselves choose to read. Among the children's books that were not originally awarded top honors by critics but that have proved extremely popular with children are the Oz books by L. Frank…