Strong reading and literacy skills are essential for students' success in K-12 and beyond by providing the foundation for understanding the world and communicating effectively. This Spotlight will help readers learn how classroom conversations can boost reading proficiency; identify research on how to get students absorbed in reading; examine…

With todays' students spending increasing amounts of time involved in online activities, there is a growing need to study their online reading habits. Indeed, it is not only students' out-of-class engagement with electronic media that calls for increased attention to the reading skill, in general, and online reading, in particular, but it is also…

The purpose of the current study was to examine the mindless reading behavior of children. Across two studies, 2nd-grade students read passages while their eye movements were monitored. Trained raters then identified mindless reading behaviors from the eye movement records. Several important findings emerged. We were able to reliably identify…

Google, in cooperation with several dozen research libraries worldwide, is digitizing books at the rate of 3,000 a day. The noncommercial Open Content Alliance is scanning at a more modest pace but gaining ground, especially among institutions who chafe at some of the restrictions imposed by Google and its competitors. LibraryThing, an online book…

Interviews 1124 Danish adults about reading habits/skills, and tests 445 individually at home using six common texts covering types of everyday reading. Finds that 3% of participants have severe functional reading difficulties; another 9% have moderate difficulties. Pinpoints several predictors of reading difficulties: age, limited basic…

This report contains the best national data available to provide a reliable and comprehensive overview of American reading today. While it incorporates some statistics from the National Endowment for the Arts' 2004 report, "Reading at Risk," this new study contains vastly more data from numerous sources. Although most of this information is…

Concludes that a structured approach to students' private reading is vital to their reading progress, that children need access to books that will increase their enthusiasm, that they need time for reading each day, and that careful monitoring of all aspects of their reading is essential. (FL)

A study investigated the relationship between the amount students read and reading achievement. Subjects, 2,185 first- through eighth-grade students enrolled in a Chapter 1 program during the 1990-91 school year in a large southeastern school district, kept reading logs. Teachers informally assessed comprehension of each text read, and they…

Describes a survey of 340 high school students to determine their interest and involvement in books and other media. (DD)

Reports on research studies into the role that reading volume plays in shaping the mind. It is possible to outline the reciprocal influence of early reading acquisition and reading volume as determinants of later reading comprehension and other cognitive abilities. Early success at reading unlocks a lifetime of reading habits, as research shows.…

This book provides educators, parents and caretakers with a variety of instructional strategies for engaging K-8 students. These approaches are designed to enable all students to read easily and enjoyably by utilizing different styles and approaches. The techniques are not generally found in conventional classrooms, but are specifically targeted…

A group of 106 elderly adults in the Chicago, Illinois, area participated in a study undertaken to identify the reading attitudes of older adults or their difficulties in reading. Each was administered the Survey of Elderly Reading Attitudes (SERA) consisting of 75 items designed to elicit attitudes, recognition and comprehension problems,…

This study is concerned with the measurement of reading flexibility. The contents include: "Review of Literature," which discusses the different concepts of reading flexibility and presents several definitions followed by a summary of variables revealed in these definitions; "Synthesis of Strengths and Weaknesses," which looks…

Suggests that slowing down the pace of reading instruction may help to make students lifetime readers. (DD)