Perfetti's representational quality hypothesis suggests that orthographic learning in developing readers is associated with two important changes to the orthographic lexicon that drive continued word reading development, namely, addition of word-specific representations and acquisition of complex context-dependent decoding skills. Perfetti further…

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) establish a challenging text-complexity standard for all high school graduates to read at college and workplace text-complexity levels. We argue that implementation of the CCSS standard requires concurrent examination of historical student reading-growth trends. An example of a historical student average…

Common Core Reading Standard 10 not only prescribes the difficulty of texts students should become able to read, but also the difficulty diet of texts schools should ask their students to read across the school year. The use of quantitative text-assessment tools in the implementation of this standard warrants an examination into the validity of…

A sample of 141 Canadian children in grades 3 through 6 wrote to dictation 24 short sentences sampling 90 lexical items representing 10 inflectional morphological categories to study their relation to the written spelling of 40 sight words. The children were encouraged in 3, 30-minute teaching sessions to use multiple strategies of retrieval,…

Based on a sample of 480 academically at-risk first graders, we used a cluster analysis involving multimethod assessment (i.e., teacher-report, peer-evaluation, and self-report) of behavioral and psychological engagement to identify subtypes of academic engagement. Four theoretically and practically meaningful clusters were identified and labeled…

Investigated the effects on 4th graders of writing tasks that were based on a reading selection. Results indicated that good readers enjoyed the story more than poor readers and that the subjects as a whole enjoyed reading the story significantly more than they enjoyed writing about it. (JMB)

Argues that the term "reading potential," as it is now commonly used and computed by many reading personnel, needs to be delegitimatized. (Author/SDH)

The 1936 Dolch basic sight word list is still a useful tool for beginning readers, although it should be revised according to recent word-count studies. (CS)

Discusses five research areas offering guidance to people concerned about teaching problem solving in elementary schools. Areas are (1) components of problem difficulty; (2) the contribution of reading difficulties to problem-solving deficiencies; (3) characteristics of successful problem solvers; (4) children's use of problem-solving techniques…

Argues that differences in instruction influence differences in students' reading abilities as much as do variations in individual learning styles or aptitudes. Suggests ideas for enhancing instruction of poor readers. (RH)

Examines data collected on the connection between second-grade children's conceptions of reading, reading group experiences, and success in reading. Notes consistent differences in the perceptions of high and low achievement groups' conceptions of reading. Finds a direct, if qualified, correspondence between student conceptions and experiences.…

The level of assigned reading in textbooks is compared with the measured reading ability of pupils in the elementary grades 1-5. Results identify problem areas in the implementation of individualized instruction. (CS)

Homogeneous grouping does not necessarily provide a setting for greater gains in reading achievement. Teacher-use of informal reading inventories, such as cloze is os suggested for accurate placement of children in reading groups. (NH)

Examines the perceptions of elementary school students regarding who among their fellow students are "better readers." Particular attention is given to the effects of differences in classroom organization, student age, and student ability on student perception. (MP)