There are large gaps in reading skills by family income among school-aged children in the United States. Correlational evidence suggests that reading skills are strongly related to the amount of reading students do outside of school. Experimental evidence testing whether this relationship is causal is lacking. We report the results from a…

Reading logs have become a practice in many elementary schools. Although lack of autonomy undermines intrinsic motivation (Lepper, Greene, & Nisbett, 1973), no study has examined the effect of logs. Second and third-grade students (N = 112) were assigned either a mandatory or voluntary log and surveyed about their motivation to read at…

Compares second grade and fifth grade students' recreational reading levels (when students self-select library books for recreation reading) in relation to independent, instructional, and frustration levels as determined with an informal reading inventory. Concludes that recreational reading levels should not be viewed as synonymous with…

The purposes of this study were to survey expressed reading interests of first and second grade children from different geographic areas of the United States, with differing racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds; to compare expressed reading interests of children in grades one and two in an attempt to determine if interests change; and to…

A study investigated the literary experiences and understanding of elementary school students by focusing on the literature children encounter in school and at home, literary instruction, and the differences between good and poor readers. Teachers and researchers traced the reading habits of eight second-grade students from two classrooms from…

A study was conducted to compare students' recreational reading levels to their independent, instructional, and frustrational levels determinable with an informal reading inventory. Subjects, 20 second grade and 20 fifth grade students, were administered the Basic Reading Inventory. In addition, the school's librarian recorded titles of four books…

Reports that while an intervention program increased children's library use, it did not affect their attitudes toward reading or their home reading habits. (FL)

The Children's Attitude toward Reading Test (CHART) is presented, as well as the first draft of a technical manual describing its use. The test booklet consists of 36 unsystematically ordered pictures. Each picture represents a reading situation (instructional, school recreational, home recreational, and outdoor recreational reading) that has…

This study investigated the reading preferences of American Indian and Anglo children with respect to ethnicity of main character, gender of main character, and setting in children's stories. The 160 subjects consisted of 80 American Indians and 80 Anglos from Grades 2 and 3, divided evenly by gender and grade level. The study yielded significant…