In trying to understand the origin of gender differences favoring girls in reading skills, analysts have examined mainly the performance of students who are in the same grade, with samples pooled across socioeconomic status (SES). Using a longitudinal sample in Baltimore, where all students in a randomly selected panel are the same age and are…

A long-awaited federal study of reading and math software found no significant differences in standardized-test scores between students who used the technology in their classrooms and those who used other methods. The study compared classes overseen by teachers who used the technology-based products with those of other teachers who used different…

An extensive research base on beginning reading acquisition and reading difficulties, developed over the past few decades, has important implications for the teaching of reading. Unfortunately, much of this research does not appear to be reaching teachers, whose knowledge is essential for scientific findings about reading to benefit children. This…

Investigates how preschool children gain understanding about the functions of print in order to determine if there are trends in children's processing of print functions that can be identified and used to gain insight into the process. (FL)

With the results of a forthcoming federal study of educational software still under wraps, questions are arising about how it has been conducted--particularly the government's decision not to disclose individual performance results for the 15 computerized curriculum packages being studied. The companies involved will receive results for their own…

Determines the potential benefits of using literature webbing in books with predictable narratives. Finds webbing to be an effective means for improving comprehension, reading ability, and story structure knowledge. (RS)

This paper discusses some of the issues in early reading instruction to be presented at Institute X. The issues discussed include sight word lists for beginning readers, choosing instructional methods in reading that complement individuals' learning styles, a pragmatic approach to teaching reading comprehension, literal reading comprehension, the…

Investigated relationships among complex memory span, simple memory span, and phonological awareness tasks and their predictive importance for reading accuracy, reading comprehension, and arithmetic ability. Eleven tests were administered in three sessions to seven-year olds. Results suggested that phonological awareness and complex span tasks…

The authors present the results of a 2-year longitudinal study of 90 British children beginning at school entry when they were 4 years 9 months old (range = 4 years 2 months to 5 years 2 months). The relationships among early phonological skills, letter knowledge, grammatical skills, and vocabulary knowledge were investigated as predictors of word…

Presents the ideas of three people highly visible in the field of reading, each of whom holds different views about reading and reading instruction, in an effort to help teachers clarify their own thoughts. (FL)

The following modules are contained in this module cluster on the advanced teaching of reading developed for the Camden Teacher Corps project: a) Examining Readiness Materials, Observation of Readiness Programs and Practices, b) Teaching a Reading Readiness Lesson, c) Examining Materials for Beginning Reading Instruction, d) Observation of…

Investigates whether early reading comprehension is holistic or comprises different separate subskills. Finds that reading comprehension of early readers is holistic, closely related to general intelligence and verbal problem solving. (RS)

This study uses latent transition analysis to examine reading development across the kindergarten and 1st-grade year. Data include poverty status and dichotomous measures of reading at 4 time points for a large sample of children within the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study. In each of 4 waves of the study, 5 latent classes were represented in…

A 9-month naturalistic study of 16 preschoolers' classroom literacy behaviors and a related study of one student's literacy activities at home examined book-related dramatic play as an important part of the children's literacy interactions. Analyses of instances where play was related to the meanings of the books the children had read indicated…

Outlines how contemporary reading theorists conceptualize reading fluency, discussing why it is a good indicator of reading process efficiency. Suggests ways to foster development of reading fluency. Children must acquire the automatic word and phrase processing that enables fluent reading and lets them allocate cognitive capacity to…