A study examined the predictive validity of two methods of prior knowledge assessment: free association and prediction. Subjects, 72 sixth graders from suburban public and private schools, were divided into four groups: standard free association; standard free association plus prediction; definitional free association; and definitional free…

A case study explored issues related to the self-selection of literature in a literature-based reading program. Lori, the student whose selection behaviors are highlighted, was one of 14 students who participated in a 5-month qualitative study in a sixth-grade classroom where the students were able to self-select their reading material. Lori, a…

A study determined if there would be any significant difference in comprehension test scores when learning disabled students were instructed with and without graphic organizers while reading novels. Subjects were five male fifth-grade learning disabled students reading on the fourth-grade level, who came from the same middle-class suburban school…

A study examined a proposed family process model that links family financial resources to academic competence and socioemotional adjustment during early adolescence. Subjects were 90 9-to-12-year-old African American youths and their married parents, all of whom lived in the rural southeastern United States. The theoretical constructs in the model…

Stemming from the 1992 Integrated Reading Performance Record (IRPR), a study investigated the reading habits and practices and the classroom activities related to reading of a subgroup of students participating in the 1992 reading assessment conducted by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Subjects, 1,136 fourth graders, were…

A study investigated the reading interests of sixth-grade students in a rural Virginia county. Twenty-three children (10 girls and 13 boys) participated. The instrument used was a four-page-long reading interest survey, which contained "yes/no," rating, and open-ended questions. Results of the survey indicated that this group of students…

The hypothesis of this study was that the use of the public library has a positive effect on students' reading achievement. Thirty-three fourth grade students in the below and above average reading classes and their parents were asked several questions about their public library use. The participants were asked about how frequently they went to…

The study reported in this paper responds to the current movement toward literature-based reading instruction. Five fifth-graders attending a Midwest, urban school participated in the 10-week study in a classroom in which the teacher initiated a literature-based reading program. Data sets included observational field notes, audiotaped lessons,…

A study examined the effectiveness of a pilot literature-based reading program. Subjects, sixth grade students at Galveston Elementary School, were grouped into high, middle, and low ability groups containing 20, 25, and 13 students respectively. Reading instruction was provided during 45-minute class periods 5 times each week. Instruction…

A study conducted during a training program, in which students were learning to find main ideas, investigated how different kinds of strategy value information influenced children's reading comprehension. Subjects, 15 fourth-grade and 15 fifth-grade students who regularly received remedial reading comprehension instruction, were divided into three…

A study was conducted to determine how effective webbing--schematic representation of main ideas and supporting details--would be in helping students build bridges between their reading of a text and outlining the material in it. Subjects were 21 sixth grade students, who had been working on outlining and were familiar with its purpose and form.…

A study was conducted to determine the effectiveness of self-directed questioning on comprehension. The self-directed questioning strategy involved making predictions, defining evidence that generates the predictions, evaluating subsequent clues, and reformulating predictions when necessary or devising new ones when previous ones are confirmed.…

Research on text organization has demonstrated that reading is responsive to the number and complexity of idea units or propositions in a text, and that the capacity of children to recall information is responsive to the relative importance of the idea units. A study was undertaken to examine an extension of these propositions: namely, that…

As part of a larger study of developmental deficits in the skills of automaticity of name retrieval, phonological awareness, and memory span and their role in reading disabilities, a study tested 13 average and 14 poor fourth-grade readers for digit and letter naming speed, phonological awareness, and digit span. Among the reading skills assessed…

Three experiments using the same materials and methodology investigated the development of sex role stereotype schemata through the analysis of children's inferences of gender of protagonists in stories and through their preference for the protagonists. Thirteen sex role stereotypes whose validity was confirmed by five expert jurors were embedded…