This study investigated the effects of headings and text organization on grade 5 through 10 students' written recall of expository prose passages written in a classification/description mode. Emphasis was placed on the results from students in grades 5 and 6. This study was a component of a three part study. The other two parallel studies emphasized grades 7 and 8 (King, 1985) and 9 and 10 (Gibbs, 1985). Each subject read and recalled two passages: one written at his or her grade level and one written at a low readability level. Performance on the written recalls from passages with headings and without headings was examined on the basis of the number of superordinate and subordinate ideas recalled, the superordinate and subordinate organization, and the format. Developmental trends were investigated by including the data from the two parallel studies (Gibbs, 1985; King, 1985). There was some evidence that headings had a significant positive effect on the number of superordinate ideas recalled from a passage of low readability. Some significant differences indicated negative effects by headings. The majority of differences, however, were not significant. Developmental trends in grades 5 through 10 were noted in the number of ideas recalled on a low readability passage and the format used on the written recalls. Implications for instruction and suggestions for further research are discussed. / Education, Faculty of / Language and Literacy Education (LLED), Department of / Graduate

The results from a content analysis of an elementary reading education journal, The Reading Teacher, are reported in this study. Retrospective bibliometric analysis of the journal focussed on three dimensions: subjective classification of articles published in Volumes 21 through 30, determination of selected content trends and demographic characteristics of articles published in Volumes 1 through 30, and analysis of referenced journals in Volumes 21 through 30. The 20 Year Annotated Index to The Reading Teacher, containing 18 major categories and 31 sub-categories, was used as a base for the subjective classification. Empirical classification of the 844 articles contained in Volumes 21 through 30 resulted in the addition of five additional sub-categories. Demographic characteristics of the articles were determined using eight variables: topical trends, multiple authorship, sex of author, author occupation, geographic location of author, citations per volume, type of publication cited, and age of cited material. Data were presented in frequency counts and percentages, and collapsed into three ten-year time periods to detect trends and shifts in emphases over the thirty volume years. With articles classified according to subject matter, two areas received the greatest emphasis: Reading Instruction and Skill Development. Major categories remained quite stable over the three time periods, with shifts occurring among the sub-categories. The majority of articles were single authored (82.6%); authorship was approximately equally divided between men and women over the thirty volume years, with a noticeable increase in male authors in recent years. The most productive contributors were affiliated with colleges and universities and resided in the eastern sections of the United States. The number of publications cited showed a steady increase across the thirty volume period, with an increase observed in the number and percentage of books cited and a slight decrease in journal citation. Relatively high median ages were found for cited material with a trend toward citation of newer, material and cited material representing archival and near archival ages in comparison with similar results from science disciplines. The third section of the study investigated the core and support literature structure of elementary reading based on the frequency with which different journals were cited by authors publishing in Volumes 21 through 30 of The Reading Teacher. It was found that the Pareto characteristic identified in previous research held for this literature collection with eight titles accounting for 51.14 percent of the cited journals. These eight titles could be considered the core elementary reading journals, and include three reading journals, two general elementary journals, two educational research journals, and one English journal. A wide variety of support journal literature was identified suggesting: that elementary reading interacts with a broad interdisciplinary base representative of education and other academic fields. / Education, Faculty of / Language and Literacy Education (LLED), Department of / Graduate

This study examined differences in oral reading behaviour of 58 grade one children attending achool in Richmond, B.C. Half the subjects received initial reading instruction through a phonics approach; half the subjects received initial reading instruction through a language experience approach. Among the findings were that subjects taught by the phonics approach, which emphasized letter-sound correspondence, produced more oral reading errors, more nonwords, and more substitutions with graphic and sound similarity to the response word than did children instructed by the language experience approach. Subjects taught by the language experience approach produced fewer errors and more substitutions syntactically and semantically acceptable, and more substitutions that did not alter the meaning of the sentence than the children instructed by the phonics approach. An analysis of the children's substitution errors for high, middle and low achievement groups was also discussed. / Education, Faculty of / Graduate

The problem of this study was to demonstrate the possible effects that reading with a definite purpose has upon the improvement of comprehension in reading.

Harris suggests the following as important to readiness for reading: 'general intelligence, visual and auditory perception, physical health, background of experience, comprehension and use of oral English, emotional and social adjustment, and interest in reading'...As a first grade teacher, the writer became especially interested in two of these factors. As a result of such teaching experience, two of these interrelated readiness factors have seemed of special significance: the influence of emotional attitudes on reading readiness and the relation of kindergarten experience to the child's readiness for reading. It seemed wise to learn more about meeting the emotional needs of children whose school adjustment might be affected by lack of kindergarten experience. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to investigate these two phases of reading readiness: the emotional factors and the influence of kindergarten as a part of the child's background of experience. The relation of these factors to procedures in the first grade classroom will be emphasized. / Typescript. / "August, 1955." / "Submitted to the Graduate Council of Florida State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts." / Advisor: Sarah Lou Hammond, Professor Directing Paper. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 70-75).

"The writer chose reading readiness for special study and research primarily because she is a trained, experienced, secondary-school teacher now teaching the first grade. She feels that special attention should be given to reading readiness for beginning first graders to try to offset part of the 25 per cent who 'fail' each year due to inability 'to read.' Since a good start on the road to reading is so vitally important, the author feels that she, as a first-grade teacher, should study the causes of reading failures and search for the best methods of prevention that reliable research has found up to this time. The desire to explore the field of reading readiness was further strengthened from the writer's study of child growth and development, especially the study of applying the principles of child growth and development to the classroom and to educational activities"--Introduction. / "August, 1954." / Typescript. / "Submitted to the Graduate Council of Florida State University in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Science." / Advisor: Marian W. Black, Professor Directing Paper. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 38-40).

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