Concerned with the need to stimulate reading pleasure for older adolescents, this document outlines a high school reading unit that capitalizes on the perennial popularity of series books such as Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, and Tom Swift. Suggested activities include having students reflect on their personal reading and write a fictional sketch…

The reading interests of a group of older adults were examined. Subjects were 16 adults between the ages of 50 and 85 who read five stories from "Readers' Digest" short story collections and who responded to a questionnaire about their preferences for the stories, their reading habits and interests, and the appealing elements of the stories. The…

One hundred eleventh and twelfth grade students were grouped according to their knowledge of and interest in baseball and were then tested for their recall of information presented with varying levels and amounts of background information and analogy. The information was presented in the following ways: (1) analogy embedded in text, (2) analogy…

Magazines and comic strips are two readily available cultural artifacts that can be used by expository writing teachers. Magazines are a particularly rich source of referential material for the composition classroom, offering examples of various prose styles and formal structures. One possibility for using magazines in writing classes is a…

Highlights from the 16th annual Reading Conference of Lehigh University are organized under the following major headings: The Voice of Theory, The Voice of Practice, and The Words of Reform. Some of the papers presented deal with the following: (1) the use of films, records, and filmstrips as a way of introducing picture books to children in…

This monograph reports the results of a national study conducted to determine the names of the novels students are most commonly required to read in their high school English courses and the names of their favorite novels, and to recommend methods for teaching novels. The sample for the survey was drawn from the membership of the Conference of…

A 6-year research project which investigated sex differences in beginning reading in the Los Angeles City Schools is reported. In 1962-63 approximately 550 first-grade children were taught reading in sex-segregated groups. It was found that boys grouped together did not gain significantly more than those in heterogeneous sex groups and that girls'…

If for no other reason, junior high exists for the exceptional reading opportunity it provides; intensification and diversification of skills, some ease and stability in dealing with varying content structures, and enrichment of personal reading. The adolescent, at his peak period of personal reading, is still not fully determined as to his…

The purposes of this study were to investigate the status of nonfiction in the reading interests of second, third, and fourth graders and to determine the effectiveness of a personal reading record as a measure of reading interests. All students in the second, third, and fourth grades of a middle-class rural area in central New Jersey served as…

Two studies are discussed in this research report, which was presented at the 1973 American Educational Research Association meeting. The first study investigated whether black children would evaluate Black English selections more favorably than standard English selections and whether favorable evaluation would lead to greater comprehension of the…

Data for this study were gathered as part of a national survey of reading activities of adults. The study was conducted by the Response Analysis Corporation of Princeton, N.J. A national probability sample of 5,067 adults, age 16 or older, were interviewed in their homes and asked about all the printed matter they had read or looked at the…

ASPECTS OF READING RELATED TO CULTURALLY DISADVANTAGED ADULTS AND CHILDREN ARE SURVEYED. THE MAIN TOPICS OF DISCUSSION BASED ON RESEARCH AND LITERATURE ARE READING ABILITY OF DISADVANTAGED ADULTS, READING ABILITY OF DISADVANTAGED CHILDREN, CAUSES OF READING PROBLEMS AMONT THE DISADVANTAGED, READING INTERESTS, LIBRARY USE BY DISADVANTAGED ADULTS,…

Shows how regularly scheduled activities with books and well designed library corners can increase children's interest in reading, using a study of four summer recreational daycare centers to illustrate. (JC)

Research into the reading preferences of boys and girls has shown that there is a difference between the two sexes regarding the type of literature they enjoy reading. These preferences begin at an early age and continue on throughout their school careers. The purpose of this study was to determine if high school teachers are aware of these…

Concludes that the reading interests of Mexican-American students differ little from those of other American students. (FL)