Reviews a number of studies on the development of achievement-related self-system factors in relation to young children's reading acquisition. Shows that phonological processing ability and letter-naming knowledge at the outset of schooling not only predict subsequent reading performance but also academic self-concept and reading self-efficacy.…

Examines second-graders' use of email to share with the researchers favorite parts of books they read, or any other aspect of stories they read. Finds appropriate use of e-mail communication offers teachers opportunities to identify instructional focus and take advantage of instructional moments to fit the developmental needs of their students in…

Considers how the practice of including students with disabilities in general education classes has spawned interest in academic interventions, such as homework, that allow these students to be successful. Investigates the perceptions and experiences of parents of children with and without disabilities regarding homework load and problems related…

Describes a national survey in which parents of children with and without disabilities rank-ordered a number of strategies that schools, teachers, and parents could use to improve communication about and completion of students' homework. Finds that parents of children with and without disabilities were in substantial agreement about strategies for…

Describes how a group of third graders had an opportunity to write fairy tales using process writing techniques to assist them in overcoming their anxiety and dislike for writing. Indicates that writing strategies introduced through focused mini-lessons and feedback that valued children's writing choices were critical for the positive influences…

Administers the Qualitative Reading Inventory-II and the reading subtests of the Woodcock Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery-Revised to 34 fourth-grade males reading at or below the 25th percentile on the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills. Considers the different results obtained by each test. Discusses implications for placing poor readers in…

Uses two formulas developed for Spanish language text to analyze 9 stories that were read by 36 Spanish-speaking second graders with limited English proficiency. Finds that the Spanish readability formulas only weakly predicted student performance, indicating the need to pursue broader, qualitative indices of difficulty for Spanish text. (SG)

Finds that teachers trained in Reading Recovery (RR) modified their regular classroom teaching to use RR-type instructional practices and taught students the strategies typically taught during RR tutoring sessions. Concludes that further research should be done to understand how aspects of this beginning reading intervention program affect the…

Examines the complexities of decisions about special educational services including pull-out placements and retention. Makes that complexity personal through the stories of six children whose school lives were examined for 4 years. Concludes that there are devastating human consequences to standardized solutions. (SG)

Describes how early literacy practices were extended to accelerate the literacy progress of at-risk third- through sixth-grade students through a summer school model and an intersession model for year-round schools. Concludes that both models produced impressive gains in reading achievement, with the year-round intersession model producing the…

Reviews research on lexical access (the process of getting information about a word from a mental dictionary). Discusses implications for comprehension development. Suggests that individual differences in comprehension depend on speed of lexical access as well as on speed of decoding. (SR)

Examines developmental stages of reading from preschool to secondary school. Discusses cognitive requirements of various stages of reading and identifies possible sources of difficulty. Presents several case vignettes to illustrate common patterns of reading disabilities and their behavioral manifestations. Offers specific suggestions for…

Reviews the controversy over a biological basis for developmental dyslexia and illustrates it with two case studies of junior high school students. Reviews neurological evidence for developmental dyslexia, and proposes seven signs characteristic of reading disability that may qualify as dyslexia. (SR)

Investigates the types and depths of cognitive complexity that 11th-grade readers of high, average, and low reading ability exhibited when given either text-based comprehension questions or reader-based journal response writing assignments. Finds significant differences between the groups in type and depth of cognitive complexity, engagement with…

Finds that the strategies used by children with hearing impairments to invent spellings were developmentally and phonologically similar to those used by hearing children. (SR)