Describes a reader response study indicating (1) a high degree of agreement on reader beliefs and text events and (2) that students who empathized with a particular character identified the story conflict as pertaining to that character. Suggests specific reader-based and text-based factors that produce convergence and divergence in reader…

A study determined what variables in the home literary environments of ninth-grade students influenced their attitudes toward reading. Subjects, 316 students from 2 ninth-grade classes at 2 metropolitan high schools, were given the Estes Reading Attitude Scale and a researcher-developed, 30-question inventory of their home literary environment.…

Describes a sustained silent reading program in a 9th-grade reading class of 60 students, most of them at-risk students. Finds that, on average, students improved 3.9 grade levels in their reading. (SR)

A study compared the effects of two instructional strategies on ninth grade students' reading comprehension, retention, and attitude. Students in 15 ninth-grade classes were randomly assigned to one of three treatments: summary writing (SW), writing short answers to questions (QA), and rereading (RR), (control). The dependent measures were good…