Finds that students with learning disabilities who received reading instruction in special-education resource rooms expressed reading attitudes that equaled or exceeded those expressed by low and average non-disabled students in another nationwide study, and that their attitudes remained more stable across grades 1 through 5 than those expressed…

Describes how the authors establish the groundwork and the practice of literature circles in their primary classrooms. Describes how they redefine reading to allow all students to think of themselves as readers from the start. Describes the crucial role of talking and listening. Describes what shape literature circles take. Notes that this kind of…

Follows up the author's April 1999 article in this same journal, which described how her teaching improved when she decided not to focus on the minimal competency test for Texas. Quantifies ways her students became better readers and reports on the high pass rate of those very students on the reading section of the Texas Assessment of Academic…

Argues, based on ethnographic data, that students use their literacy practices to form their identities within, and sometimes in opposition to, the figured worlds of school, work and family. Concludes that many students look to school to provide formal literacy experiences, but find their reading and writing passions at odds with the demands of…

The authors examined the effects of choice, topic interest, and situational interest on reading engagement, attitude, and learning. The outcomes were measured using scores on a multiple-choice test, a content essay, and a personal reaction essay, and completion of an attitude checklist. Experiment 1 found a small negative effect for choice on the…

This article presents the results of qualitative research into how middle school students experience school reading. Students from grades 4 through 8 from four different schools were asked individually to draw and then to talk about specific times of their choice when they were and were not engaged in learning. The combined method of drawing and…

Maya K. David reports an interesting view of reading in Malaysia through the eyes of graduate student Mohd Nazri bin Hamid (2003), who conducted an exploratory study about the culture of reading in an academy of Islamic studies. The purposes of Nazri's investigation were (a) to examine undergraduate students' reading habits, (b) to offer a…

The results of the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS 2001) were published in 2003. In addition to data about the reading achievements of 10-year-olds in 35 countries, PIRLS 2001 also collected questionnaire information from children, their teachers, headteachers and parents. The results showed not just how well students can…

A study determined what variables in the home literary environments of ninth-grade students influenced their attitudes toward reading. Subjects, 316 students from 2 ninth-grade classes at 2 metropolitan high schools, were given the Estes Reading Attitude Scale and a researcher-developed, 30-question inventory of their home literary environment.…

A study investigated the literacy needs of adolescents staying in short-term crisis intervention centers--shelters for teens who have run away or are otherwise homeless. During a 6-month period, interviews were conducted in a non-threatening, informal environment; the adolescents responded to open-ended questions about their histories of reading…

A study surveyed 449 seniors and sophomores at North Ridgeville (Ohio) High School to determine their reading interests. The survey of 18 questions revealed the following findings: (1) favorite type of novel was horror; (2) favorite author was Stephen King; (3) favorite magazines were "Seventeen" and "Sports Illustrated"; (4)…

A study investigated the effect of writing on reading comprehension, vocabulary, and attitude of college freshmen enrolled in a reading course. Thirty-eight students were randomly assigned to either an experimental or a control group. Reading instruction varied only in the use of a writing component for the experimental group. Instruments used in…

To continue the monitoring of reading attitude development begun in an earlier study of 234 children in grades one through six, a second reading attitude inventory was administered in the same school district to 216 primary students and 293 intermediate students. Of particular significance to this study was a change in the basal reading series…

Thirty-one first grade students from four schools participated in an investigation of the attitudes toward beginning reading held by children from different socioeconomic backgrounds. Two of the schools were in inner-city, predominantly low-income, minority areas; one was in a middle-income area with approximately 27% minority enrollment, and one…

A three-school study suggests that more intensive teacher effort, more attention to contriving successful pupil reading experiences, and freer delivery of "payoffs" to pupils who are reading, offer the possibility of modifying pupil attitudes about reading. (Author/RL)