bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Automatic-Spreading Activation Effects following Children's Reading of Complete Sentences
Authors: Vitek Debra J. , Schwantes Frederick M.
Published: December 2009

Third-, sixth-, and college-grade level students participated in an on-line reading task that incorporated both a naming latency and a subsequent cued-recall memory requirement. Following reading of a complete sentence, latency for naming a target word was measured in which the target word was either (a) a repetition of a word in the previous sentence, (b) an associate of a word in the previous sentence, (c) inferable from the integrated meaning of words in the previous sentence, or (d) unrelated to words in the previous sentence. Increased speed was found for naming words presented in the repeated, associated, and inferred target conditions as compared to the unrelated word condition. In each case, the observed facilitation effect was of greater magnitude for the younger readers. In the cued-recall task, single-word cues resulted in better recall memory performance when the cue had been explicitly presented in a prior sentence as compared to cues which were only inferable from previously read material. Results were interpreted in terms of context effects which extend beyond sentence completion boundaries and in terms of developmental differences in automatic expectancy and semantic integration effects.
Author/Audience Interaction in the Preschool: The Role of Social Interaction in Literacy Learning
Authors: Rowe Deborah Wells
Published: December 2009

This study investigated the role of social interaction in the literacy learning of twenty-one 3- and 4-year-olds. Over a period of 8 months, data were collected at a classroom writing center using the ethnographic techniques of participant/observation, field notes, collection of written texts, audio and video tape. Patterns in the data indicated that author/audience conversation occurring as children completed self-selected literacy activities encouraged them to (a) activate, confirm/disconfirm, and revise their existing hypotheses about literacy; (b) form new literacy knowledge; (c) become audiences for their own texts; (d) internalize the audience's perspective and use this information to plan texts for absent audiences; (e) experience literacy activities beyond their independent abilities; and (f) with their teachers, build shared understandings about literacy. Overall, the findings indicate that children's self-selected literacy activities are rich contexts for literacy learning, and that social interaction, as part of these events, provides the predictable context and motivation for literacy learning, as well as influencing the kinds of literacy strategies children internalize and use independently.
Read Something Once, Why Read it Again?: Repetitive Reading and Recall
Authors: Barnett Jerrold E. , Seefeldt Richard W.
Published: December 2009

Seventy-two college students were instructed that they would be reading a text either once or twice. Then, half of each instruction group were allowed to read the text once, and half were required to read the text twice. All subjects were then tested for factual retention and for transfer. The instruction that a text could be read twice facilitated recall, even if the text was only read once. Reduced anxiety appears to be the simplest explanation for this. Reading a text twice increased factual retention, but on the transfer test, an interaction with ability was found. Only high ability students showed improvement with a second reading on the transfer test. Results are interpreted in terms of Mayer's processing strategies in that good readers benefit both qualitatively and quantitatively from repetition. Poor readers benefit only quantitatively from the opportunity to reread.
Reading-Level-Match Designs: Myths and Realities
Authors: Jackson Nancy Ewald , Butterfield Earl C.
Published: December 2009

Investigators of individual differences in reading acquisition sometimes compare groups of different ages matched on some aspect of reading performance level. These reading-level-match (RL-match) designs can provide a convenient, powerful, and appropriate way to study atypical performance. However, their usefulness has been diminished by researchers' acceptance of myths about the designs' characteristics. RL-match designs have been used as if they (a) were more similar to true experiments than other correlational designs, (b) required only informal sampling procedures, (c) were improved by case-by-case matching, (d) made unequal groups equal, (e) served unique theoretical purposes, (f) created equality between groups in underlying processes whenever a performance-level match existed, (g) yielded some patterns of results that always were interpretable and others that never were interpretable, and (h) were equally valid across all possible matching criteria. Examples from the reading literature are given to illustrate the hazards of accepting these myths and to suggest more realistic alternatives. Relevant statistical and design principles are summarized.
The Interpretation of Studies Using the Reading Level Design
Authors: Goswami Usha , Bryant Peter
Published: December 2009

Recent research in reading disability has been strengthened by the addition of a reading level (RL) control group to the more traditional chronological age (CA) control group. However, caution is required in interpreting results from these two kinds of control. Only positive results in a RL match and negative results in a CA match are interpretable; negative results in a CA match and positive results in a RL match are not. Furthermore, the RL control group cannot be used to unambiguously determine between specific deficit and developmental lag interpretations of reading disability. It is argued that the use of the RL control can only ever be a first step in research aimed at delineating the causal factors in reading backwardness.
Using a Writing Strategy to Enhance Sixth-Grade Students' Comprehension of Content Material
Authors: Konopak Bonnie C. , Martin Sarah H. , Martin Michael A.
Published: December 2009

The present study investigated the effective use of a writing strategy for enhancing sixth graders' comprehension of a world history topic. Based on an integrated communication arts approach, the procedures included speaking, listening, and reading for all students, with writing the crucial variable of difference between experimental groups. Over 4 days, the treatment group was assigned writing tasks following class brainstorming and text reading activities; in contrast, the control group was given common identification and short-answer comprehension type tasks. Based on a written posttest, results indicated that the treatment group generated significantly higher quality ideas than the control group, including fewer text-based ideas and more class brainstorming ideas, and produced more coherent, integrated writing samples. In addition, within the treatment group students significantly improved their writing with regard to both overall writing ability and the quality of ideas across the 4-day period. Recommendations for a writing strategy to enhance content area learning are discussed.
The Influence of Prior Knowledge and Text Genre on Readers' Prediction Strategies
Authors: Afflerbach Peter
Published: December 2009

This study examined the influence of prior knowledge and text genre on readers' prediction strategies. Three groups of subjects read two genres of text (short stories and essays), and gave verbal reports of their prediction strategies while reading. Next, subjects rated the texts in terms of relative familiarity of text content. Quantitative analysis of the think-aloud protocols indicated statistically significant differences in frequency of reports of predictions for particular texts. Subjects reported making significantly more predictions on the essays rated more familiar, and on the story which was rated more familiar. There were no significant differences in frequency of reported predictions on the short story and essay which were rated most familiar. Results indicate that readers' prior knowledge for the content of the text may significantly influence the nature of readers' prediction strategies. Qualitative analysis of protocols allowed for examination of the variation in the types of predictions and prediction-related strategies which were used by readers in this study. Implications of findings for reading comprehension theory and educational practice are discussed.
A Call for an End to the Paradigm Wars in Reading Research
Authors: Stanovich Keith E.
Published: December 2009

Research on the reading process has been undertaken from a variety of perspectives. Too often progress in understanding reading is impeded when researchers working from different perspectives adopt a strong assumption of paradigm incompatibility: that a gain for one perspective is a loss for another. These paradigm wars in reading research mirror those that have taken place within the general educational research community during the last decade. It is argued that this assumption of paradigm incompatibility is false, and that progress toward a comprehensive understanding of the reading process would be hastened if we declared an end to the paradigm wars in the reading field and if investigators from all perspectives agreed to peaceful co-existence.
Effects of Reading Group Assignment on Reading Development in First and Second Grade
Authors: Juel Connie
Published: December 2009

Placement in a reading group determines: (a) the materials a child sees during reading instruction, (b) the pace at which a child proceeds through reading materials, and (c) the peers a child interacts with during reading instruction. The current study examined these effects of reading group placement upon the individual's growth in reading during first and second grade. The study also examined how children were initially placed in reading groups. A secondary analysis of data collected by Juel, Griffith, and Gough (1986) and Juel (1988) was performed. Initial first-grade placements were found to be primarily based on standardized reading readiness tests. Children rarely changed groups. The correlations between place in basal series at the end of first grade and place in series at both the beginning and end of second grade were .77. Children with low incoming readiness test scores developed better decoding skills when placed in a basal series with fewer unique words. Initial aptitude, growth during first grade in decoding skills, and a high success rate in learning basal words influenced first grade reading achievement considerably more than sheer basal coverage or certain peer group characteristics. Only after basic reading skill was acquired did group placement begin to adversely affect reading development—if it constrained exposure to text in second grade.
Effects of a Story Reading Program on the Literacy Development of At-Risk Kindergarten Children
Authors: Morrow Lesley Mandel , O'Connor Ellen M. , Smith Jeffrey K.
Published: December 2009

The present study investigated the effects of a storybook reading program as one means for literacy development with at-risk students in eight Chapter I, extended-day, urban kindergartens. Children in four experimental classes followed a daily program of literature experiences that included reading for pleasure, story retelling, repeated readings of favorite stories, interactive story reading, recreational reading periods, and others. During the same period of time, students in four control groups followed the prescribed reading readiness program used in the district that emphasized letter recognition and letter-sound correspondence. Based on the results of pretests in September and posttests in May, the experimental groups scored significantly better than the control groups on story retellings, attempted reading of favorite stories, comprehension tests, and other measures. There were no significant differences between the groups on standardized measures of reading readiness.
Young Children's Acquisition of Alphabet Knowledge
Authors: Worden Patricia E. , Boettcher Wendy
Published: December 2009

This study documented children's acquisition of the following critical aspects of alphabet knowledge: letter recitation, naming, printing, and association of letters with sounds and words. These skills were tested for the entire set of upper- and lowercase letters in 188 children whose ages ranged from 2 1/2 to 7 1/2 years. Performance improved with age, at different rates for the different tasks, and the tasks were all highly correlated with one another. The children performed better on upper- than lowercase letters, and there were no sex differences in alphabet acquisition. Rank order correlations showed the degree to which letter difficulty was consistent across the age groups and across the various alphabet tasks.
What Does the Term Whole Language Mean? Constructing a Definition from the Literature
Authors: Bergeron Bette S.
Published: December 2009

The present study analyzed 64 articles pertaining to whole-language instruction in elementary classrooms in order to compile a definition for this term. Five questions are presented and explored: (a) How is whole langauge defined in the educational literature? (b) What types of instructional techniques/strategies are used in describing whole-language programs? (c) What trends can be drawn from comparisons made between publication dates of journal articles as well as between author categorizations? (d) What definition for whole language can be compiled as a result of an extensive review, analysis, and synthesis of the literature? and (e) What implications does the knowledge gained from the literature analysis have for elementary reading instruction? Review analysis found that definitions and descriptions of whole language vary widely throughout the literature and that differences exist between school- and university-based authors' perceptions of this concept.
Early Grade School Children's Liking of Script and Suspense Story Structures
Authors: Jose Paul E. , Brewer William F.
Published: December 2009

The structural-affect theory of stories was used to predict that young grade school children prefer narratives that involve suspense to those that fail to stimulate a pleasant affective response. Suspense stories, scripts (narratives that described a mundane event sequence), and scripts with added excitement (scripts with nonintegrated exciting events) were read to children of three ages: kindergarten, first grade, and second grade. Children indicated their liking of the stories in three ways: (a) a 7-point rating scale, (b) a ranking of the three types from most liked to least liked, and (c) choosing one of the three as the story they would most prefer to hear read to them at a later date. The prediction that suspense stories would be best liked was confirmed. For the rating scale measure, only second graders reliably liked suspense stories more than plain scripts. For the ranking measure, both first and second graders reliably liked suspense stories best. Finally, for the preference measure, all three age groups reliably liked the suspense stories best. These results support the structural-affect theory's contention that young children's story schemas begin to include the dimension of suspensefulness in story narratives.
A Comparative Study of English Oral Reading Skills in Differently Schooled Groups of Hispanic Students
Authors: Miramontes Ofelia B.
Published: December 2009

Bilingual Hispanic students whose English or Spanish dominance cannot be clearly determined, and who are not achieving at grade level, are particularly at risk for academic failure. This study examined the patterns of oral reading miscues, retelling, and fluency of such mixed dominant students in order to develop a better understanding of their reading strategy use. The scores and text of fourth- to sixth-grade Hispanic mixed dominant (MD) students were compared to those of two other distinct fourth- to sixth-grade Hispanic student groups: good English readers (GE) and good Spanish readers reading in English, their second language (GS-ESL). The data indicated MD students did not differ significantly from good English readers on several important categories including story retelling, where they got the highest mean scores. The ability to retain in-text grammatical function was low for both the GE and MD groups. The GE group was more fluent that either of the two groups, making significantly less miscues per words read. A factor analysis indicated that the MD group was distinctly different in strategy use from the GS-ESL group. Overall, these data suggested that MD students were not easily categorized into a homogeneous group, and that some of their strategies and skills may have been underutilized.
Spanish-English Bilingual Students' Use of Cognates in English Reading
Authors: Nagy William E. , García Georgia Earnest , Durgunoğlu Aydin Y. , Hancin-Bhatt Barbara
Published: December 2009

A study was conducted to determine how Hispanic bilingual students' knowledge of Spanish vocabulary and ability to identify Spanish-English cognates relate to their comprehension of English expository text. Subjects, 74 upper elementary Hispanic students able to read in both Spanish and English, were tested for Spanish and English vocabulary knowledge, and after reading each of four expository texts containing English words with Spanish cognates (e.g., English transform and Spanish transformar) were given a multiple-choice test on their understanding of key concepts from these texts. After a brief explanation of the concept cognate, they were asked to identify the words in these texts that had Spanish cognates. Performance on the multiple-choice test was found to be related to students' ability to recognize cognate relationships. The relationship between Spanish vocabulary knowledge and English reading comprehension also appeared to depend on students' ability to recognize cognates.
Information-Processing Differences of College-Age Readers Differing in Reading Comprehension and Speed
Authors: Rankin Joan L.
Published: December 2009

The present study examined information-processing differences among four types of readers, specifically high comprehension–high speed, high comprehension–low speed, low comprehension–high speed, and low comprehension–low speed college-age readers. Performance was compared on a variety of information-processing tasks, including letter reordering, word reordering, reading span, verification of real words and nonwords, and verification of real sentences and nonsense sentences. Tasks were categorized as lower order tasks involving reaction time and/or elementary-word tasks, or higher order tasks requiring access of word meanings or semantic decision-making. Results indicated that good comprehenders tended to outperform poor comprehenders on all types of tasks. Although high-and low-speed readers performed differentially on some tasks, the pattern of results is less clear. Performance on tasks was discussed in light of speed and comprehension variables and type of information-processing task. Differences in working memory were proposed as a source of individual differences in reading performance.
Incorporating Strategy Instruction Within the Writing Process in the Regular Classroom: Effects on the Writing of Students with and without Learning Disabilities
Authors: Danoff Barbara , Harris Karen R. , Graham Steve
Published: December 2009

This study examined the effectiveness of embedding strategy instruction in the context of a process approach to writing in inclusive classrooms. Through a series of extended mini-lessons during writers' workshop, both students with and without a learning disability were taught a previously validated writing strategy and procedures for regulating the strategy and the writing process. The strategy instructional procedures had a positive effect on the participating fourth- and fifth-grade students' writing. The schematic structure of their stories improved substantially following instruction and remained improved over time and with a different teacher. The quality of what was written also improved for all but two of the students following instruction. Overall, improvements in story quality were maintained and generalized by all of the students, except for the younger fourth graders and one fifth-grade student who failed to maintain quality gains on a generalization probe. In addition, one of the students who had not evidenced quality gains immediately following instruction, wrote qualitatively better stories on the generalization and maintenance probes. Finally, data collected during instruction demonstrated that the best results were obtained when all stages and components of instruction were enacted. Implications for instruction and research were examined.
Low-Ses Children's Success and Failure at Early Literacy Learning in Skills-Based Classrooms
Authors: Purcell-Gates Victoria , Dahl Karin L.
Published: December 2009

This study examined low-SES, urban children's ways of interpreting traditional skills-based literacy instruction in kindergarten and first grade. Thirty-five randomly selected children from three inner-city schools were tested for entering and end-of-first-grade knowledge of six domains of written language. Their scores on two standardized achievement tests were also collected. Twelve children were randomly selected from this sample for close observation over 2 years in their classrooms. Qualitative and quantitative analyses revealed four patterns of success/ nonsuccess in literacy development within the classroom context: (a) the Independent Explorer children who began kindergarten with the big picture of written language and successfully interpreted the skills-based instruction while engaging in numerous self-directed explorations of print, (b) the Curriculum Dependent children who did not have a big picture of written language from the start and exhibited major mismatches between their understandings and those required by the curriculum, (c) the Passive Nonweavers who failed to actively construct relationships between the many skill activities required of them, and (d) the Deferring Learners who moved from a knowledgeable active stance to a passive one after confronting mismatches between their knowledge of print and the curriculum.
Reading and Questioning in Content Area Lessons
Authors: Armbruster Bonnie B. , Anderson Thomas H. , Armstrong James O. , Wise Marsha A. , Janisch Carole , Meyer Linda A.
Published: December 2009

This paper reports the results of an analysis of 12 fourth-grade science and social studies lessons in which a textbook was used as a focus of instruction. The purpose was to determine how the textbook was used by teachers and students and, in particular, what kinds of questions the teachers asked during the textbook-based lessons. The results replicate and extend several findings from previous research. First, even when textbooks were used during instruction, students did not do very much reading, and the reading they did was round robin oral reading. Second, the teachers asked a large number of questions. Third, very few of these questions came from textbooks; rather, the teachers made up about 90% of their own questions. Finally, only about one-fourth of the questions asked were about the text segments currently being read and, of those questions, text explicit questions outnumbered text implicit questions two to one. Also of interest were the large number of question repetitions and rhetorical questions (questions that did not appear to elicit a response).
The Effects of Stance and Age Level on Children's Literary Responses
Authors: Many Joyce E.
Published: December 2009

The primary purpose of this study was to explore the effects of the use of aesthetic and efferent stances in response to literature. Subjects included 43 fourth graders, 47 sixth graders, and 40 eighth graders who were reading on-grade level or above. All subjects read the same three short stories and completed written free responses to each. Responses were analyzed for reader stance and level of understanding reached. Two-way analyses of variance revealed significant main effects for stance and grade on level of understanding for all three stories. The use of an aesthetic stance, where readers focused on the lived-through experience of the work, was associated with higher levels of personal understanding. Level of understanding was also found to increase with grade level. No interaction effects were found, indicating students' grade levels do not influence the relationship between the aesthetic stance and higher levels of personal understanding.
Children's Learning from Informational Text: The Relationship between Prior Knowledge and Text Structure
Authors: Yochum Nina
Published: December 2009

The focus of this study was on the role of prior knowledge and text structure in children's comprehension of informational text. It examined the effects of two levels of prior knowledge (High Prior Knowledge and Low Prior Knowledge) and two types of text structure (Attribution and Comparison) on the recall and question performance of fifth graders who were average readers. The 90 subjects in the study were selected on the basis of a pretest of their knowledge about two cities in their home state and two cities in another state. All selected subjects had high knowledge of the cities in their home state and low knowledge of the cities in the other state. Each subject read one of two passages (high prior knowledge passage or low prior knowledge passage) that was organized in one of two ways (attribution version or comparison version). Measures of written free recall and comprehension questions were the dependent variables. The measures were designed so that both qualitative and quantitative effects could be examined regarding children's recall and comprehension of three subsections of the text information. Prior knowledge had a greater effect on question performance than on recall performance. In addition, it only enhanced the recall of one section of the text information. There was a facilitative effect for the comparison structure on children's recall of one section of the text information. Finally, there was no demonstrated effect for the text structure on question performance. The research results suggest that the effect of prior knowledge and text structure on children's comprehension performance may vary depending upon the task, the information to be learned, and other reader factors such as ability.
Toward a Meaningful Definition of Vocabulary Size
Authors: D'Anna Catherine A. , Zechmeister Eugene B. , Hall James W.
Published: December 2009

Studies using dictionary-sampling methods to estimate vocabulary size have left a bewildering trail of widely differing estimates. We argue that many estimates are misleading (generally too high) principally because the definition of a word is too liberal. For practical purposes (e.g., planning vocabulary instruction), it makes sense to define a word as a base form, resembling what linguists call a lemma, and to disregard certain word forms from estimates of vocabulary size (e.g., proper names and archaic words). By providing a clear rationale for the word source which was sampled, and by using clearly defined operational criteria for what constitutes a word as well as for the procedures used in the estimation task, we found that the average number of different words known by a college student is 16,785. We suggest that vocabulary size, and corresponding rates of vocabulary growth, may not be as great, nor attempts to directly teach vocabulary as futile, as some would suggest.
Children's Concepts of the Nature and Purpose of Reading in Different Instructional Settings
Authors: Freppon Penny A.
Published: December 2009

This study investigated the influence that both instruction and the developmental stage of learning to read have on the reading concepts of 24 first graders randomly selected from two skill-based and two literature-based classrooms. A multi-step process providing quantitative and qualitative data was used in identifying the two skill-based and two literature-based classrooms. Controls were provided for variables known to impact children's reading concepts such as grade level, reading ability, socioeconomic status, and gender. Three measures producing quantitative and qualitative data were used to examine the children's reading concepts. Results indicated that the two groups of children were similar in some reading concepts. Both the skill-based and literature-based students exhibited a high interest in learning and knowing words and in phonics or decoding. Findings also indicated that the two groups were different. The literature group differed from the skill group in their heightened metacognitive understandings, their knowledge and use of varied reading strategies, and their view of reading as a meaning-making, language-like process. Statistically significant differences were also found for the literature group in their more frequent rejection of passages of incomprehensible print and in their use of a balance of cues in oral reading. Additionally, although the literature group attempted to sound out words less often, they achieved a success rate of correctly sounding out words of 53% compared to 32% by the skill group.
Domain Knowledge and Analogic Reasoning Ability as Predictors of Expository Text Comprehension
Authors: Alexander Patricia A. , Kulikowich Jonna M.
Published: December 2009

In this investigation, we analyzed the role domain knowledge, analogic reasoning ability, and interactive knowledge play in the comprehension of scientific exposition. Data from three experiments involving sixth graders, high-school students, and college undergraduates are examined via regression and discriminant analysis procedures. The dependent variables in these analyses were student scores on expository passages on topics in human biology/immunology each prepared in two versions: with and without supporting analogy. The independent variables were subjects' performance on: (a) multiple-choice tests of human biology/immunology terminology (domain knowledge test), (b) figural analogy items from the Advanced Progressive Matrices (analogic reasoning test), and (c) A:B::C:? analogy problems composed of human biology/human immunology terms (interactive knowledge test). Results showed that the variables predicting performance on the nonanalogic and analogic versions and the variables discriminating between above-average and below-average performers differed across the grade levels with less integration of content knowledge and analogic reasoning ability occurring for college students. Implications of these results for theory and practice are discussed.
The Relationship between Parental Literacy Level and Perceptions of Emergent Literacy
Authors: Fitzgerald Jill , Spiegel Dixie Lee , Cunningham James W.
Published: December 2009

The study examined parental perceptions of young children's literacy development and explored the relationship between parental literacy level and perceptions of the importance of literacy artifacts and events/experiences in preschoolers' literacy development. One-hundred-eight parents of beginning kindergartners were interviewed and given a test of literacy level. The interview had two open-ended items asking about why some children are successful in reading and writing in school and others are not and about what parents of preschoolers might do to help them learn to read and write better later in school. Likert items gauged views of the importance of literacy artifacts and events and interactions in the home during preschool years for later success in reading and writing. Statistical as well as interpretive analyses were used. On the whole, parents were very positive about the notion that literacy learning can begin during the preschool years. There was, however, a significant negative relationship between parental literacy level and perceptions of the importance of literacy artifacts and events; parents with lower literacy levels thought literacy artifacts and events were even more important than did parents with higher literacy levels. Further, low-literacy and high-literacy parents tended to have different perceptions of what is important for early literacy development.
Phonemic Awareness Helps First Graders Invent Spellings and Third Graders Remember Correct Spellings
Authors: Griffith Priscilla L.
Published: December 2009

The current study investigated the direct effects of phonemic awareness on spelling development and the relationship between phonemic awareness and the acquisition of orthographic representations of equivocal phonemes (i.e., phonemes with more than one rule-governed spelling), referred to as word-specific information. Phonemic awareness and word-specific information accounted for 54% of the variance in first-grade spelling scores and 70% of the variance in third-grade scores. The relationship between phonemic awareness changed from first grade to third grade, indicating that in first grade spelling is primarily a sequential encoding process whereas in third grade spelling relies more upon the use of memorized orthographic units. Scattergrams in both first and third grade supported the notion of phonemic awareness as a foundation for the development of word-specific information. Analyses of the spellings of children high and low in phonemic awareness also supported this finding.
Evocation and Reflection in the Reading Transaction: A Comparison of Proficient and Less Proficient Readers
Authors: Garrison Brigitte M. , Hynds Susan
Published: December 2009

This study sought to identify differences between proficient and less proficient readers in their use of personal evocations and reflections in the reading transaction. Informants were six college freshmen who wrote open-ended responses to each of four short stories. Readers in this study typically engaged in a process of evoking or reflecting upon personal and textual experience. In their evocative or reader bound responses, proficient readers seemed to summon emotional and personal experience as an invitation into the world of the text, whereas less proficient readers appeared to use their evocations of experience to withdraw from the text. Informants' reader-focused reflections focused on characters and on the story as a whole. Although proficient readers integrated textual cues and prior knowledge in a process of reflecting about stories and characters, less proficient readers seemed to approach the texts in a rather linear way, often neglecting to synthesize personal and textual experience in their reflections. These findings demonstrate that teachers and researchers must move beyond general categories of response to explore how readers evoke and reflect upon personal and textual experience in response to literary texts.
Children's Use of Semantic and Syntactic Information for Word Recognition and Determination of Sentence Meaningfulness
Authors: Schwantes Frederick M.
Published: December 2009

Third-, sixth-, and college-grade students were presented with entire sentences for silent reading and were asked to monitor these sentences either for the presence of nonwords or for meaningfulness. The sentence forms were of three types: semantically coherent, syntactically intact (but nonmeaningful), and incoherent (nonmeaningful, nongrammatical). Three developmental differences were obtained in the speed of analyzing these sentences for words/nonwords versus meaningfulness/nonmeaningfulness. First, facilitation produced by the addition of semantic information (semantically coherent sentence condition) to syntactic information (syntactically intact condition) during word level analysis was greater for children as compared to adults. Second, the addition of syntactic information to nongrammatical incoherent strings of words again facilitated word level analysis for the children. Third, the difference in decision speed between monitoring sentences for words versus meaningfulness was negligible for adults, but was very robust for children. These results are consistent with the notion that sentential (syntactic as well as semantic) information is relied upon to a relatively greater extent by children, as compared to adults, for word level analyses. Adult readers, on the other hand, appear to utilize syntactic and semantic information as much at the level of sentential analysis as at the level of word recognition.
Learning Goals and Progress Feedback during Reading Comprehension Instruction
Authors: Schunk Dale H. , Rice Jo Mary
Published: December 2009

This experiment investigated the effects of goals and goal progress feedback on reading comprehension self-efficacy and skill. Remedial readers received comprehension strategy instruction on finding main ideas. Some subjects were provided a product goal of answering questions, others were given a process goal of learning to use the strategy, and subjects in a third condition received process goals combined with feedback on goal progress. The condition receiving process goals and progress feedback demonstrated significantly higher performance on the self-efficacy and skill tests than the process goal and product goal conditions, which did not differ. Subjects assigned to the process goal and process goal plus feedback conditions judged perceived progress in strategy learning higher than product goal subjects. These results show that remedial readers benefit from explicit feedback on their mastery of a comprehension strategy and have implications for comprehension instruction.
Students as Literary Critics: The Interpretive Experiences, Beliefs, and Processes of Ninth-Grade Students
Authors: Rogers Theresa
Published: December 2009

The interpretive beliefs, processes, and instructional experiences of 8 ninth-grade students were studied as they participated in instructional subcommunities within their existing English classes. An observational analysis of the instructional communities was undertaken, and the students' interpretive processes were analyzed as intertextual transactions, which include reasoning operations and inference sources. Overall results revealed that students reasoned about literary works at an interpretive level, and that their inferences were largely textual focussing on characters and events, reflecting the type of literary instruction they receive. After participating in an alternative response-centered instructional unit, students were more intertextual in terms of their preferences related to the interpretive process and more interpretive in their reasoning about literary works. The shift in the range of inference sources students drew on—the intertextuality of their transactions—varied by individual. Individual students were profiled to reveal the relationship of beliefs, experiences, and processes that form their critical interpretive stances toward literary works.
Criterion-Related Validity of Interpretations of Children's Performance on Emergent Literacy Tasks
Authors: Barnhart June E.
Published: December 2009

Researchers in emergent literacy have described an array of reading and writing behaviors and concepts exhibited by children prior to entry into formal instruction in school. Although these descriptions suggest that children's early literacy behaviors are legitimate aspects of literacy development which ultimately develop into conventional reading and writing, the validity of these assumptions has not been examined. The present paper reports the findings from two studies in which the emergent literacy behaviors of 5-year-olds were described and correlated with scores on a standardized reading readiness test in kindergarten and scores on a reading achievement test in third grade. In Study 1, 39 children from two kindergarten classrooms from one school district were presented with four emergent literacy tasks and the Metropolitan Readiness Test. In Study 2, the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills was administered to 34 children from Study 1. Results showed a wide range of behaviors across emergent literacy tasks in Study 1. Further, significant correlations were found between all four emergent literacy tasks and the readiness test in kindergarten, as well as between all five measures of early literacy development in kindergarten and literacy achievement in third grade. These findings present two forms of criterion-related evidence to support the validity of literacy-related interpretations arising from these emergent literacy tasks.
Defining the Role of Prior Knowledge and Vocabulary in Reading Comprehension: The Retiring of Number 41
Authors: Stahl Steven A. , Hare Victoria Chou , Sinatra Richard , Gregory James F.
Published: December 2009

Although both prior topic knowledge and vocabulary knowledge have been known to affect comprehension in general, less is known about the specifics of the interactions between these factors. Using a magazine article about a ceremony marking the retirement of a baseball player's jersey number, this study examines the effects of knowledge of baseball in general and of the career of Tom Seaver in specific and of knowledge of word meanings in general and of words used in the passage specifically on tenth graders' recall of different aspects of passage content. Vocabulary knowledge tended to affect the number of units recalled overall; prior knowledge influenced which units were recalled. Prior topic knowledge influenced whether subjects produced a gist statement in their recall and how well they recalled numbers relevant to Seaver's career. High knowledge subjects also tended to focus more on information given about his career than low knowledge subjects. Specific and general domain knowledge were so closely related that their effects could not be disentangled. A qualitative analysis of the protocols confirmed the general trends in the quantitative analysis. Results suggest both that domain knowledge and vocabulary have independent effects on comprehension and that these effects are on what is comprehended as well as how much is comprehended.
Locating Discrete Information in Text: Effects of Computer Presentation and Menu Formatting
Authors: McGoldrick Jacqueline A. , Bergering Anthony J. , Martin Jack , Symons Sonya
Published: December 2009

Locating information is a major component of student and adult reading. Dreher and Guthrie (1987) examined locating information in a text chapter presented via a microcomputer. The present experiment attempted to determine if there were differences in locating discrete information in printed versus computerized text. Possible differences may have been caused by method of presentation (computer vs. printed page) or the presence or absence of a menu at the front of the text. This menu presented areas of the text that could be searched (e.g., table of contents, text, glossary, and index). Eighty undergraduate students enrolled in an introductory psychology course attempted to find answers to six factual questions in text presented via either medium. Computer search tended to be more time consuming and less efficient than printed text search. No differences were found between computer and text conditions in total number of correct answers located. Computer groups searched the glossary more often than printed text groups. Possible explanations for these results are discussed and implications for future research are drawn.
Variation in Writing Conference Influence on Revision: Two Cases
Authors: Fitzgerald Jill , Stamm Carol
Published: December 2009

The purpose of the study was to describe the influence of conferences on revision knowledge and revision activity for an initially knowledgeable first-grade reviser and a relatively naive one. Using both quantitative and descriptive analyses, data from three baseline points and seven conference points were summarized. At conference information collection points, the children wrote, groups conferenced, children were interviewed about potential revisions, and students revised. At baseline points, there were no conferences. For analyses, we (a) read all of the writing and transcripts of interviews and conferences; (b) determined quality of first and last draft of each composition; (c) coded conference talk; (d) traced comments between conferences, interviews, and revisions carried out; (e) calculated counts of revisions the children talked about in interviews and revisions they carried out; and (f) reviewed the teacher's observations about the two children's behavior in the classroom. Conference influence was variable, both within and across children. Further, dramatic differences were noted between the two children in conference influence, with only the initially naive writer profiting significantly from conferences and evidencing clear developmental progress in revision.
The Teacher, the Author, and the Text: Variations in form and Content of Writing Conferences
Authors: McCarthey Sarah J.
Published: December 2009

This study investigated the changing practices of two teachers in conducting writing conferences with elementary students. Drawing from observational data of conferences and interview data with the teachers, the paper presents the cases of Erica, a fifth-grade teacher, and Emily, a first-grade teacher, as they incorporated the Teachers College Writing Project philosophy in their teaching. Erica's conferences at the beginning of the school year reflected her technical orientation toward writing as she focused on mechanics. At the end of the year, Erica's conferences with students focused much more on ideas, reflecting her changing orientation towards students taking more control of their writing. Like Erica's conferences, the content of Emily's conferences shifted from an emphasis upon logistics and mechanics to focusing on students' ideas. In contrast to Erica, however, Emily provided complete support to students initially and moved towards providing more intervention in the writing of students at the end of the year. The study provides contrasting examples of two teachers learning to alter classroom norms and responding to students in authentic ways. It also suggests the possibilities of teachers changing their roles within the writing conference.
Effect of Think-Aloud Instruction on Elementary Students' Comprehension Monitoring Abilities
Authors: Baumann James F. , Seifert-Kessell Nancy , Jones Leah A.
Published: December 2009

This study investigated the effectiveness of explicit instruction in think aloud as a means to promote elementary students' comprehension monitoring abilities. Sixty-six fourth-grade students were randomly assigned to one of three experimental groups: (a) a Think-Aloud (TA) group, in which students were taught various comprehension monitoring strategies for reading stories (e.g., self-questioning, prediction, retelling, rereading) through the medium of thinking aloud; (b) a Directed Reading-Thinking Activity (DRTA) group, in which students were taught a predict-verify strategy for reading and responding to stories; or (c) a Directed Reading Activity (DRA) group, an instructed control, in which students engaged in a noninteractive, guided reading of stories. The primary quantitative analyses involved two planned orthogonal contrasts—effect of instruction (TA + DRTA vs. 2 x DRA) and intensity of instruction (TA vs. DRTA)—for three whole-sample dependent measures: (a) an error detection test, (b) a comprehension monitoring questionnaire, and (c) a modified cloze test. Results of effect of instruction contrasts revealed that TA and DRTA students were more skillful at comprehension monitoring than DRA students (TA + DRTA>DRA for all three measures). Results of intensity of instruction contrasts indicated that although TA-trained students had greater awareness of comprehension monitoring abilities (TA>DRTA for the questionnaire), DRTA students' performance equaled (TA = DRTA for the cloze test) or exceeded (TA<DRTA for the error detection test) that of the TA students. Qualitative data from student interviews, however, revealed that TA students both reported and demonstrated using a greater depth and breadth of comprehension monitoring abilities than either DRTA or DRA students. It was concluded that both TA and DRTA strategies are effective for enhancing elementary students' comprehension monitoring abilities but that additional research is needed to determine the relative effectiveness of TA and DRTA approaches.