This article reviews Margaret Meek Spencer's body of work in relation to the various policies that she critiqued from the Bullock Report in 1974 to the National Literacy Strategy in 2004. She analysed increasingly conservative moves to promote a dominant, elitist version of school literacy. A Critical Realist perspective aligns with Margaret Meek…

Since Emmett Betts first devised a framework of independent, instructional, and frustration reading levels in the 1940s, these levels have played a large role in classroom assessment and instruction. It is important for teachers to have a deep understanding of the research that supports the reading level framework. This article identifies four key…

Many teachers and administrators are caught between opposing forces in education. Often, they're forced into compliance with scientifically based reading research (SBRR) requiring methods and materials that run counter to their own beliefs. Or, teachers are forced to eliminate reading methods that their own experience has shown to be effective.…

This research synthesis examines whether the association between print exposure and components of reading grows stronger across development. We meta-analyzed 99 studies (N = 7,669) that focused on leisure time reading of (a) preschoolers and kindergartners, (b) children attending Grades 1-12, and (c) college and university students. For all…

Published in partnership with WestEd, this significantly updated second edition of the bestselling book contains strategies for helping students in middle school through community college gain the reading independence to master subject area textbooks and other material. Features of this book include: (1) Based on the Reading Apprenticeship…

This study examined orthographic learning in oral and silent reading conditions. Dutch third graders read, either aloud or silently, short texts containing novel target (pseudo) words. The acquisition of new word-specific orthographic knowledge was assessed several days later by comparing target spellings with homophonic spellings in tasks…

The authors address the "whys" and "hows" of encouraging independent reading at home. Practical tips that teachers can give to parents are provided.

To explore whether different balances of fiction/non-fiction reading and challenge might help explain differences in reading achievement between genders, data on 45,670 pupils who independently read over 3 million books were analysed. Moderate (rather than high or low) levels of challenge were positively associated with achievement gain, but…

Incentive programs in the form of token economies (the granting of points or counters which can later be exchanged for tangible rewards such as free time, listening to records, or candy) are widely used in schools today. The Pizza Hut restaurant chain promotes a motivation plan called "Book It" with free pizza as the reward for increased…

A recent study on the free selection of library books for recreational silent reading periods focused on the difficulty of material chosen and on the relationship between the students' reading ability and the readability of a book. Three groups of 24 students completed an interest inventory form, and their reading ability, sex, and reading…

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of independent reading on reading ability. The study, conducted in an East Tennessee middle school, consisted of 21 randomly selected students who read a book of their choice at least 20 minutes every day at school and 22 students that did not. The study lasted for 12 weeks. The students were…

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…

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE DIFFICULTY OF READING MATERIAL CHOSEN AND ATTITUDE TOWARD READING WAS EXAMINED. SUBJECTS WERE 40 SECOND GRADERS. ONE-HALF OF THE SUBJECTS EXHIBTED A FAVORABLE ATTITUDE TOWARD READING, AND ONE-HALF EXHIBITED AN UNFAVORABLE ATTITUDE. THE ACTIVITY PREFERENCE TEST WAS ADAPTED FOR THE STUDY AND ADMINISTERED. AN INTERVIEW,…

A study examined the acquisition of a reading vocabulary for abstract and concrete words in 62 second-grade children. Words had been learned as part of a basal reader program or as part of outside reading. Word recognition speed and reading accuracy were examined for abstract and concrete words using lexical decision and word naming tasks. Results…

A study compared the choices of Charlottesville area children with those from Children's Choice lists, published annually in "The Reading Teacher." Subjects, 62 third- to sixth-grade students, were interviewed before they checked books out of the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library Main Branch in Charlottesville, Virginia. Children were…