This study supports the premise that children's attitudes toward reading and concepts of themselves as readers reflect their classroom status as readers rather than their actual reading ability. Compared were six of the poorest readers from a high-achieving class and five of the best readers from a low-achieving class. (BF)

Describes three pairs of lessons in which the same skill taught to the same kinds of students by identically trained teachers result in noticeable differences in what students remember following instruction. Focuses on how student understanding of lesson content is influenced by relatively subtle differences in what a teacher says. (HOD)

The effects of daily training in visual memory and basal reader instruction were investigated. Training and tests on 295 first-graders indicated that visual memory training resulted in more growth in visual discrimination and higher levels of reading achievement than reading instruction alone. (SDH)

Examines elementary-school students' perceptions of teacher praise in relation to their classroom's social and academic status, participation in class discussions, and ethnicity. (MP)

Investigated school and classroom factors related to primary-grade reading achievement in schools with moderate to high numbers of students receiving subsidized lunch. Statistically significant factors included parent-school relationship, systematic assessment, small-group instruction, independent reading, student on-task behavior, strong home…

Assessment of early reading development is important for all stakeholders. It can identify children who need special instruction and provide useful information to parents as well as summative accounts of early achievement in schools. Researchers at the Center for Improvement of Early Reading Achievement (CIERA) investigated early reading…

Research data is presented to support special education approaches to personal and social development. Seventy-eight fourth- to sixth-grade handicapped students and 82 first-grade nonhandicapped students participated in the project. Promising research results suggest many questions to be addressed in future study. (JS)

Based upon teacher interviews and classroom observations, outlines a continuum of nine "points of progress" teachers seem to go through in learning to teach strategies to their lowest achieving students: confusion and rejection; teacher-controlled strategies; trying out; modeling process into content; "the wall"; "over the…

Developed and evaluated an explicit approach to teaching students to engage in elaborated help-giving during collaborative group work in reading. Found that grade level and treatment exerted statistically significant and practically sizable effects on the help that students provided their peers. (Author/LPP)

In this study we used spring-to-fall reading achievement data to measure summer gains and losses for a sample of over 300 early elementary school students from high-poverty schools. We combined evidence from a randomized experiment of an academically intensive community-based summer school program with parent telephone survey data regarding the…

Examined the nature and extent of the school principal's role in affecting student learning. Found no direct effects from the principal's instructional leadership, but did find an indirect influence on overall school effectiveness through actions that shape the school's learning environment. (ET)

A sample of 784 children with below-median literacy performance in kindergarten or at the beginning of grade 1 was assessed in 5 areas of psychological and social variables: academic competence, sociodemographic characteristics, social/emotional/behavioral characteristics, school context, and home environment. We examined the contribution of…

Examines evidence on error rate in classroom tasks. Claims the usual interpretation of a negative relationship between error rate (especially in oral reading errors) and reading achievement as meaning that low error rates lead to reading growth may be mistaken. Suggests oral errors cause tension, which increases attention and instigates deeper…

Examined effects of explicit teaching and peer tutoring on reading achievement of learning-disabled students and nondisabled, low-performing readers in academically integrated classrooms. Found that explicit-teaching students did not achieve reliably better than controls; students in the explicit teaching plus peer tutoring condition scored higher…

Examined self-assessment as a means of teacher learning that develops teachers' understanding and use of discourse strategies to support instructional conversation. Found that teachers' analyses did not grow more precise, but interpretations of talk revealed growing ability to treat discourse as an object of knowledge. Explored features of the…