Eighty-one fifth grade students from a suburban parochial school were randomly assigned to one of two treatment groups in a study designed to determine the effect of daily sustained silent reading (SSR) on student reading habits and attitudes toward reading. One teacher supervised 40 students in daily fifteen-minute periods of SSR, using…

Fifteen high school English teachers and 544 students in their classes participated in a study to determine how well teachers assess student reading habits and attitudes and to compare the accuracy of their judgments with those of student-peers. Each student was administered a measure of reading ability and of reading attitude; additional data…

Concludes that teachers' perceptions of reading enthusiasm do not always match those of young students, and many times may be based simply on reading achievement. Suggests that reading attitude and achievement may be two separate entities in the early stages of learning to read and that they should perhaps be treated as such by reading educators.…

Presents the annual list of reading choices of approximately 350 tenth through twelfth graders from among newly published books. Shows that the most popular category for reading was contemporary realism. (EL)

Discusses the effects of the grading standards of the National Criteria on Reading and stresses the importance of teaching children to enjoy reading and to appreciate literature. (DF)

Reveals (1) some sex differences in children's reading preferences, but indicates some overlap; (2) that minority and nonminority children differed to some extent in their preferences, but had more similarities than differences; and (3) that children's reading interests have changed little in two decades. (FL)

The Children's Literature Research Unit at the University of South Africa, Pretoria, implemented a research project examining what young people were reading at the end of the 20th century, similar to a research project which had been carried out at Roehampton Institute in London (1996). The research began with a pilot project. Its goals were to:…

Takes an integrative look at the correlates of newspaper school students from Dallas, Texas. Suggests that the most important predictor of nonreadership is perception of time and effort needed to read the newspaper, with nonreaders having neither time nor interest. (MG)

Compares reading interests of 8- to 11-year-old children from the United States and England. Finds that (1) American children showed greater interest than English children in science, poetry, and biographies; (2) categories of jokes, mystery, crafts, and adventure were popular in both countries; and (3) expected sex differences between reading…

Discusses "A Nation at Risk," the general state of education, and the necessity of promoting life-long learning. Kirk highlights several books that have shaped his own learning such as Browne's "Religio Medici" and "Christian Morals" and Picard's "The Flight from God." (GEA)

Describes a questionnaire study of Australian undergraduates and a community sample that investigated the reading of books as a recreational activity and considered individual characteristics. Topics include the amount and nature of reading, attitudes toward reading, measures of social resources, scores on the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire,…

Discusses text features that tended to engage boys, and describes their desire to use literacy to share and socialize. Finds that boys were more different than alike, and that very particular conditions in the social context were more important than preexisting interests. Offers brief descriptions of 11 books the author has found to be appealing…

Suggests that the real power of the childhood reading encounter is less in the specific elements of story or character and more in what is accomplished by the private interchange between child and book. Discusses the differences between reading and being read to and between reading and television watching. (AEF)

To examine the effect of structural factors on the development of story appreciation, a developmental model of story liking for suspense stories was tested by having second, fourth, and sixth grade children rate suspense stories on 10 affective scales. Specifically, the model predicted that (1) reader identification would increase with greater…

Designed to assess children's preferences for story settings, the instrument requires children to indicate their preference for a story setting in each of 36 pairs of contrasting pictures, 12 pairs in each of the following categories: (1) fantasy versus realism, (2) past versus contemporary, and (3) geographically remote versus the near-at-hand.…