Looks at literature discussion groups from the student's perspective. Finds three major themes: (1) students have a clear notion of the conditions that are conducive to effective discussions; (2) students perceived the gender make-up of their group to influence how they participated in and experienced their discussions; and (3) students found the…

Finds an immediate and delayed effect of morphemic and contextual analysis instruction for lesson words; an immediate effect of the instruction for transfer words; no evidence the instruction enhanced students' text comprehension; and students were generally just as effective at inferring word meanings when the instruction was provided in…

Considers if it is possible for fourth-grade teachers and their students to implement Collaborative Reasoning, an instructional frame that transfers much of the control over discourse to students, during their reading lessons. Shows that the teachers and students were generally successful at implementing the new instructional frame. (SG)

Examines the manner in which more and less proficient fourth-grade peer discussion groups managed topics and group process across time. Finds that coherence is a key to conversational competence. Suggests that large amounts of metatalk and teacher intrusion cause disjuncture to peer discussion and impair the group's ability to manage topics. (RS)

Explores the role of literacy and curriculum in identity construction among fifth graders. Suggests: (1) there was a coherence of perspectives about six of the students while there was less agreement for the other six students; (2) literacy was a more important feature of some students' identities than others; and (3) the literacy curriculum…

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…

Examines how dimensions of reading motivation related to students' reading activity and achievement. Finds that the strength of the relations between reading motivation and reading achievement was greater for girls and for white students. Demonstrates that reading motivation is multidimensional and should be regarded as such in research and in…

Reveals that the reading performance and dispositions towards reading of three adolescent readers (a successful, a moderately successful, and a struggling reader) observed in day-to-day classroom reading over five months varied according to the context of their reading, the materials they read, and their reading purpose. None, however, could be…

Investigates reading preferences of an ethnically and economically diverse group of sixth-grade students from three middle schools. Shows that light materials (scary series books, comics, and magazines) top the list for every sub-group of students. Finds very limited availability of preferred materials in school; and shows that most students…

Investigates the relationship between phonological awareness, short-term memory, grammatical awareness, and reading accuracy in a follow-up study of 34 nine-year-olds originally studied as preschoolers. Finds the best concurrent predictor set for reading accuracy at age nine was grammatic knowledge, phoneme awareness, and speech rate, which…

Examines school and classroom factors that moderated gender and home language gaps in reading achievement of New Zealand students. Uses data from the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement survey to examine comprehension and word recognition scores of nine-year-olds. Shows that the magnitude of the gender gap and…

Investigates the strategic literacy knowledge, abilities, and potential of five Latino/a subjects (three were bilingual). Employs qualitative research methods and cognitive strategy lessons. Finds that students, with instructional support, implemented the focal strategies emphasized during the experiment and engaged in extended discourse which…

Examines students' ability to understand definitions of novel verbs--in 2 experiments upper elementary students received definitions of pseudowords paired with sentences using those words and evaluated use as appropriate for definition given. Finds students' judgments about these sentences were not substantially different from chance, suggesting…

Investigates 11- and 12-year-old open-concept school students' reading and writing engagements as they conducted a research investigation related to World War II. Finds that students who viewed research as a process of transforming information were more likely to demonstrate a range of strategies that allowed them to traverse their topics from…

Examines group and individual differences arising from strategy instruction. Finds support for strategy instruction for at-risk students. Finds also that students' motivation can influence their use of the instruction they receive. Raises critical questions regarding the role of motivation in strategy instruction and use. (RS)