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…

Due in part to conflicting opinions and research results, the practice of sustained silent reading (SSR) in schools has been questioned. After a frustrating experience with SSR, the author of this article began a data-driven decision-making process to gain new insights on how to structure silent reading in a classroom, including a comparison…

Finds that two proficient middle-school readers (in initial encounters with self-selected, unknown words) employed multiple strategies to gain knowledge of new words, including making use of distant and local context, drawing on different types of content connections, doing word-level analysis, and using syntactically appropriate synonyms. They…

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between televiewing and the reading interests of seventh grade pupils using 300 television (TV) tie-ins comprised of 18 different titles. The subjects were 253 pupils representing four seventh grade classes from low, middle, and high socioeconomic backgrounds in a suburban setting. The…

This thesis explores some difficulties associated with the use of the cloze procedure, particularly in relation to the interpretation of an individual's score on a cloze test. Cloze tests were administered to 112 grade-six children in four schools. The results indicated that for the children in this study the easiest words to replace were those…

Students must develop self-monitoring abilities if they are to successfully transfer knowledge and strategies they are taught to their own reading. But first, teachers must know just what this knowledge and these strategies are and how they can be presented to students. Akin to model building, reading comprehension involves a variety of behaviors…

Share's "self-teaching" model proposes that readers acquire most knowledge about the orthographic structure of words incidentally while reading independently. In the current study, the self-teaching hypothesis was tested by simulating everyday reading through the use of real words, analyzing the effects of context, and considering the independent…

The purposes of this study were to investigate the status of nonfiction in the reading interests of second, third, and fourth graders and to determine the effectiveness of a personal reading record as a measure of reading interests. All students in the second, third, and fourth grades of a middle-class rural area in central New Jersey served as…

Investigates how a computer-based instructional intervention (creating multimedia reviews of books) might increase fourth and fifth graders' independent reading. Finds that the success of the intervention was related to the mediating effects of using technology, changes in the interactions among students and teachers, and students' engagement in…

Reports on a study that found that children who read, write, and discuss whole texts of their own choice show remarkable insights into literature and its making, and that the insights match those of experienced adult literary critics. (SKC)

A study investigated the effectiveness of a program for the development of literacy skills among low-achieving kindergarten students. The targeted population consisted of those identified as most at risk in the kindergarten classes at Willard Elementary School located in South Elgin, a village south of Elgin in northern Illinois. The problem of…

A six-phase management effectiveness strategy that can be employed by secondary classroom reading teachers to facilitate and improve the learning of students whose reading skill needs are severely deficient, is outlined in this document. The first phase, the inventory, requires teachers to list and group all reading materials available. In phase…

The Bradford Book Flood--an experiment in which large numbers of additional books were made available to middle school children in England to see whether easy access to books improved reading skills and developed a taste for reading--is detailed in this book. The first chapter discusses the purpose and methodology of the experiment, while the…

The questions investigated in this study concern the adequacy of the current comprehensive English as a Second Language (ESL) programs, the need for a separate but complementary reading program, the relative merits of a classroom-based or an independent reading laboratory method, and the relationship between native language reading proficiency and…