Addresses the relationship between four eye movement parameters and reading speed of 20 twelve-year-old children during silent and oral reading. Predicts reading speed by the following variables: recognition span, average fixation duration, and number of regressive saccades. Indicates that in terms of reading speed, significant interrelationships…

Discusses research the author undertook with a class of fifth graders, in which they read and discussed popular series books. Shares examples of their talk about the topic and what that talk reveals about the potential of the classroom as a space to reveal, complicate, and challenge gendered assumptions about what is desirable or appropriate…

Investigates development of vocabulary knowledge in fourth graders as a function of story reading for partially known and unknown words. Finds vocabulary growth was small but even for both partially known and unknown words; however, the characteristics of the words being learned themselves (particularly, part of speech and concreteness) were more…

Examines the nature of literacy in a technology-rich classroom. Notes that four literacy patterns emerged: the public, the semiotic, the transitory and the publishing nature of literacy. Focuses on what characteristics define literacy in a technology-rich classroom. Builds on other studies of literacy technology and provides an overarching…

Discusses research on the National Curriculum Key Stage Two reading tests for years 1998, 1999 and 2000. Shows that in 1999 and 2000 the reading tests were progressively easier: the number of questions requiring higher-order reading skills, particularly those of inference and deduction, decreased each year, while the number of questions requiring…

A study assessed dimensions of children's reading motivations by giving them a revised version of the Motivations for Reading Questionnaire (MRQ). The MRQ is designed to assess 11 possible dimensions of reading motivations, including reading efficacy, several intrinsic and several extrinsic reading motivations, social aspects of reading, and the…

A study investigated the relationship between locus of control and intrinsically motivated reading for children. The entire sixth grade, totalling 53 students, of a parochial school in San Francisco was administered the Children's Nowicki-Strickland Internal-External Control Scale. A free-choice paperback reading rack provided the measure for…

A study determined which approach for vocabulary development, context or definition, would yield the best results on a teacher-made content area vocabulary test. Two random samples (for a total of 45 students) of fourth graders from a central New Jersey elementary school were formed. One sample was taught 50 social studies vocabulary words using…

This study investigated parents' perceptions of their child's reading abilities. Parents of 92 fourth grade students completed questionnaires to measure the perception parents held of their child's reading ability in relation to the ability of their child based on standardized test scores. Correlations between the Terra Nova Standardized Test and…

A study was conducted to determine whether using the schema method for vocabulary instruction would be significantly greater than using the dictionary method for vocabulary instruction. Subjects were 12 sixth grade students who were divided into two sample groups and received different forms of vocabulary instruction for 10 weeks. Each sample was…

Fifty-nine fifth-grade students were asked to use an unfamiliar textbook on a familiar topic to locate the answers to three questions, all of which contained terms that could be found in the book's index. As an analysis of covariance indicated, those who were asked guiding questions before and during their search were more successful in locating…

Learning outcomes and reading behaviors of 171 sixth-graders were investigated while they read expository text and answered adjunct questions. The 2,400-word text was divided into four lessons, and students answered text explicit-, text implicit-, or no questions (a control group) as they read silently and were videotaped. In addition, the…

A study investigated whether the use of audio/visual aids had an effect upon comprehension recall. Thirty fourth-grade students from an urban public school were randomly divided into two equal samples of 15. One group was given a story to read (print only), while the other group viewed a filmstrip of the same story, thereby utilizing audio/visual…

Designed to increase sixth-grade students' leisure time reading, this practicum study investigated the effectiveness of a computerized independent reading contest. An existing word processing program was modified to encourage the sixth-grade students to read. A list of 25 books was developed. Students used the computer program to respond to…

A study investigated the effects of training in the use of graphic organizers on the summarization strategies of disabled readers. Subjects, 21 disabled readers (with a mean age of 13 years, 7 months) from a reading clinic, received 5 hours of training in the use of graphic organizers to map expository passages. Instruction included training in…