This article discusses young women's reading practices and the social uses of literature for enabling gender equality that are present in those practices. Through a digital ethnography study where six young women collaborated as participants, I asked the data: How is literature, precisely its capacity to be used, conceived by young women readers…

The purpose of this study was to explore how critical pedagogy, culturally relevant curriculum, and student centered instruction impacted student engagement in reading for struggling high school readers, including first- and second-generation immigrants. The researcher/practitioner (r/p) chose to highlight Latinas in the study to understand the…

Discusses the appeal of romance fiction for adolescent girls, particularly the "Sweet Valley High" series, and summarizes some research in the area. Topics addressed include reading preferences of teenage girls, sales and marketing of romances, literary criticisms, what readers gain from the books, and what constitutes good pleasure…

In an attempt to identify criteria used by readers to select science news, a homogeneous group of women in the Philadelphia area was asked to indicate which of 48 science-news statements they would be interested in reading in their newspapers. The statements were condensed from stories selected from Philadelphia newspapers over a…

States that teachers need to understand the appeal of novels that teenagers prefer to read and analyzes a popular romantic novel, "Flowers in the Attic." (DF)

Emphasizes that library media specialists, teachers, and administrators must create required reading lists that focus attention on girls' developmental needs. Gives one school's list as an example. Discusses the uses of literature; literary models; examples from literature; and suggested additions to a reading list. (AEF)

A study was conducted to discover if the stated reading attitudes and interests of sixth grade students were relevant to their self-selected reading materials. Fifty students completed questionnaires concerning their reading attitudes and interests and used log sheets to record information about their self-selected reading materials. The results…

This paper reports on an interview with a 10-year-old Black girl, in which she discusses her responses to books about strong, active Afro-American girls. The difficulty of obtaining such books is pointed out, as is the need for studies of the impact of culturally valid books for young readers. (PP)

A study examined the effects of sex-typed content and sex role preference on 87 fifth grade boys' and 64 fifth grade girls' reading material preferences. It also explored how high- and low-rated sex-typed reading content and students' sex and sex role preferences influenced reading comprehension. After reading the sex-typed content, which…

Describes observations of recreational reading material selection by kindergarten and first-grade boys and girls. Discussion covers gender-related preferences in choices of recreational library materials, fiction and non-fiction choices, flexibility in reading choices, and gender roles. Observations made in 1983 and 1984 are appended. Five sources…

A study used a Functions of Reading Scale to explore the reading activities of students in grades three, five, and eight in Ireland and the United States. Results showed the patterns of relationships between the variables in the Scale to be consistent across cultures and grade levels. (FL)

A questionnaire was sent to a number of elementary and secondary school English and reading teachers in Connecticut, asking them to survey one or two different classes to determine their students' reading interests. Questions dealt with such topics as favorite type of book, favorite books, more recently read title, favorite authors, sources of…

To determine if purposes in reading differ with sex, grade level, and nationality, a 16-item "Functions of Reading Scale" (developed from content analysis of student essays on why they like to read) was administered to 459 Irish (Dublin, Ireland) and American (Windham, Connecticut) students in grades three, five, and eight. Data…

The reading interests of 300 tenth, eleventh, and twelfth grade students were surveyed and compared to those revealed in previous research. The results indicated that the amount of time students reported reading outside of school per day has decreased slightly since a 1961 study by P. Witty, with females still reading more than males. As in the…

A study examined critical literacy and how texts, transactions, and talk enabled girls to examine their positions as readers and negotiate their identities in relation to novel characters and one another. Participants were eight sixth-grade girls of European American, African American, and Latina backgrounds and the participant researcher, a white…