To improve students' reading abilities, an elementary school staff decided to supplement the regular curriculum with a free Internet reading program. To promote student participation in the supplemental program, the media specialist designed the Gumball Reading Program, which included student requirements and rewards. The requirements…

E-readers like the Amazon Kindle and the Barnes and Noble Nook are beginning to make their way into school libraries and classrooms. It's about time. E-readers have tremendous potential to entice reluctant readers to read more. A study that the authors recently conducted among low-reading-ability middle school students demonstrated that potential.…

Success in the study of literature depends on the student's ability to establish connections between word and object, between words and phrases, and between memorable experiences in all fields of learning and the reading of literature, which is interdisciplinary by nature. In understanding a literary work, a reader must make affective memory…

THE THREE LEVELS NECESSARY FOR SKILL IN CRITICAL READING ARE (1) LITERAL MEANING, (2) INTERPRETATION, AND (3) ASSIMILATION AND PSYCHOLOGICAL INTEGRATION. TO RENDER JUDGMENTS AND EVALUATIONS OF VARIOUS READINGS, THE CRITICAL READER MUST DETERMINE THE WORTH, VALIDITY, AND QUALITY OF THE TEXT. HE TRIES TO MAINTAIN OBJECTIVITY, ATTEMPTS TO FIND THE…

A SMALL SAMPLE PILOT PROJECT WHICH DEMONSTRATED A TREATMENT EFFECTIVENESS AND SUGGESTED FUTURE LINES FOR RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT OF PARENT TRAINING PROGRAMS IS DESCRIBED. THE MAJOR HYPOTHESIS TESTED WAS THAT PUPILS WHOSE PARENTS WERE INVOLVED IN A TRAINING PROGRAM WOULD SHOW GREATER REGRESSED GAINS IN READING SKILLS THAN PUPILS WITH PARENTS NOT…

Once a year, all children in grades two through four in the schools of a suburb of Copenhagen, Denmark, are administered silent reading tests. The test scores become the basis for an hour-long dialogue between the respective classroom teacher and a reading specialist. The focus of the dialogue is the improvement of instruction for each child, and…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 17 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) the effects of an experimental program for reluctant readers on reading ability, writing ability, and self-concept; (2) the effects of a cross-age tutoring…