The Motivations for Reading Questionnaire (MRQ) contains 54 items that are posited to tap 11 dimensions of reading motivation. The structural validity of the MRQ was investigated with 2 samples: (a) 328 students in Grades 3-5 from 2 suburban mid-Atlantic elementary schools and (b) 735 students in Grades 3-5 in 2 suburban southwestern elementary…

Prosodic reading, or reading with expression, is considered one of the hallmarks of fluent reading. The major purpose of the study was to learn how reading prosody is related to decoding and reading comprehension skills. Suprasegmental features of oral reading were measured in 2nd- and 3rd-grade children (N = 123) and 24 adults. Reading…

The authors examined the views of parents and teachers regarding beginning reading instruction using the questionnaire Approaches to Beginning Reading and Reading Instruction (ABRRI). Parents also rated the importance of 9 developmental areas, including literacy, and the extent to which home and school were responsible for each. Two components…

The effect of bilingualism on the development of phonological awareness of Chinese children was investigated in 2 studies comparing bilingual speakers of both Cantonese and Mandarin with monolingual speakers of Mandarin. Cantonese-speaking children had developed more advanced onset and rime awareness by 2nd grade as they learned Mandarin in school…

The authors examined the developmental relations between language acquisition and emergence of reading prior to formal literacy instruction. Sixty-one Finnish-speaking children were followed up once a year from infancy to school start (1 year 0 months-7 years 3 months). Before entering first grade, 43% of the children were classified as emergent…

College students learned how to design the roots, stem, and leaves of plants to survive in five different virtual reality environments through an agent-based multimedia educational game. For each student, the agent used personalized speech (e.g., including I and you) or nonpersonalized speech (e.g., 3rd-person monologue), and the game was…

The relationship among Planning, Attention, Simultaneous, and Successive (PASS) processing scores of the Cognitive Assessment System (CAS) and the Woodcock-Johnson Revised Tests of Achievement (WJ-R) were examined with a sample of 1,559 students aged 5-17 years. Participants were part of the CAS standardization sample and closely represented the…

What role can emotions play in informing readers' interpretations of poems? This think-aloud study, with an experimental design, featured 10 college freshmen randomly assigned to 2 groups. The think-aloud (TA) group verbalized thoughts while reading 2 poems, and the think-and-feel-aloud (TFA) group voiced both thoughts and feelings. Participants…

In this 2-year longitudinal study (n=242), the authors examined relations of having a reciprocated friend and characteristics of a reciprocated friend to students' social and academic adjustment to middle school. With respect to having a friend, 6th-grade students without friends showed lower levels of prosocial behavior, academic achievement, and…

A cohort of 2nd-grade students provided comparisons of academic and social competence based on school retention/promotion decisions. Sample groups were (a) retained, (b) at risk for retention, (c) special education, and (d) promoted. Findings suggested most children with academic deficiencies are identified by schools early and are sorted into…

The objective of this study was to investigate how different components of achievement goal theory were related to each other and to students' motivation, cognitive engagement, and achievement in mathematics. Junior high school students (N=525) completed a self-report survey that assessed their perceived classroom goal structures; personal goal…

A portrait, using grounded theory qualitative methodologies, was constructed of a K-12 school serving urban, African American students, one producing high achievement. The primary data were observations complemented by questionnaire responses and document analyses. Consistent with conclusions in the effective schooling literature, this school has…

The purposes of this study were to examine the predictors and achievement consequences of academic self-handicapping and to explore cultural variations in the pursuit and effects of performance goals and perceived classroom performance goal structures. Data were collected in 2 consecutive academic years from a diverse sample of high school…

There is considerable focus in public policy on screening children for reading difficulties. Sixty years of research have not resolved questions of what constructs assessed in kindergarten best predict subsequent reading outcomes. This study assessed the relative importance of multiple measures obtained in a kindergarten sample for the prediction…

The effects of 2 rigorous strategic approaches to reading comprehension for 32 5th-grade students who struggle with reading were investigated. The first approach, TWA (Think before reading, think While reading, think After reading), was taught following explicit self-regulated strategy development instructional procedures (K. R. Harris & S.…