No description available.

The purpose of this study was to determine the significance of the correlation between. reading achievement and attitude toward reading. This relationship was further analyzed by comparing correlations utilizing the following variables: sex, grade level, and socioeconomic settings.The following information was available for each subject in the study1. Sex2. A reading achievement score 3. A reading attitude scoreThe population of this study consisted of five hundred fifty-three (553) students in grades four, five, and six from the Dayton City Schools, Kettering City Schools, and Wolfe County Schools. The students were all members of heterogeneously-grouped self-contained classrooms. All students completed the California Reading Achievement Test,Level 3, Form A and the Estes Attitude Scales: Elementary Form, and ninety (90) of these students were interviewed utilizing the Reading Attitude Interview.The California Reading Achievement Test, Level 3, Form A, contained two sections, the first section contained forty (40) vocabulary questions and the second section contained forty-two (42) comprehension questions. Both sections were answered by utilizing one of the four (4) multiple choice answers provided for each question.The Estes Attitude Scales: Elementary Form consisted section contained fourteen Likert rated questions. All three sections were administered but only the reading section was scored.The five (5) students at each grade level in each socioeconomic school setting achieving the highest five (5) pairs of scores on the reading achievement test and reading attitude scale (accounting for forty-five (45) students) were administered the Reading Attitude Interview. The same procedure was followed for the five (5) students at each grade level in each socioeconomic school setting who achieved the lowest five pairs of scores on the reading of three sections: mathematics, reading, and science. Each achievement test and the reading attitude scale (accounting for forty-five (45) students). The aforementioned procedures accounted for an interview population of ninety (90) students. The interview instrument was devised and field tested by the investigator to analyze various possible influences on the student's attitude toward reading.Statistical processing of the data was conducted by calculating Pearson Product-Moment correlations for null hypotheses one, two, and three. Hypotheses four through twelve were statistically treated by computing Pearson Product-Moment correlations, Fisher Z-transformations, and two-tailed t-test values.Twelve major null hypotheses were tested at the.05 level of confidence to determine the relationship between reading achievement and attitude toward reading and also the influences exerted by the variables of sex, grade level, and socioeconomic setting.It appears from this study that reading achievement and attitude toward reading are correlated significantly. The degree of significance varied somewhat but the male students generally produced higher correlations than their female counterparts.Only one instance indicated a significant difference between correlations due to the sex variable. The fifth-grade rural male students produced significantly higher correlations than their female counterparts.One instance indicated a significant difference between correlations due to the variable of grade level. The fifth-grade students in a rural school setting produced significantly higher correlations than their sixth grade counterparts.Two instances of significant differences between correlations due to the variable of socioeconomic school setting occurred. In both instances, the sixth-grade students of rural and urban school settings produced significantly higher correlations than the sixth-grade students in a suburban school setting.Information from the Reading Attitude Interview revealed that the mother in the home appeared to be the greatest single influence on reading attitude, followed closely by the student's school environment and finally by the influence exerted by the student's peers.

The purpose of this study was to assess and compare the judgments of elementary classroom teachers and college and university reading professors with regard to what should be included and stressed in undergraduate level reading methods courses.The instrument developed to gather pertinent data consisted of thirty-eight items which were grouped under the six major categories utilized by the International Reading Association. Each respondent marked on a line continuum the degree of emphasis he judged each item should receive and the response was later translated into a numerical value with nine being the highest rating and one the lowest rating.A random sample of forty public elementary schools in Marion County, Indiana gave the researcher a possible one hundred sixty elementary classroom teacher respondents. A stratified random sample of the Indiana colleges and universities appearing on the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education list yielded twenty-two college and university reading professors. Since each person's participation was purely voluntary, the ninety-five percent return by elementary classroom teachers and a ninety-one percent return by college and university reading professors was considered satisfactory.A one way analysis of variance was computed on the data gathered for each instrument item to obtain an F ratio for the test of significance. The mean obtained on each instrument item by a certain respondent group was also used to place the topics on a rank order scale.Based on the results of the investigation, it was concluded and recommended that:1. Both lower and upper elementary classroom teachers would profit from reading courses dealing with the total reading spectrum rather than having separate reading courses for each of the above noted groups.2. Suburban teachers in this particular geographical area desired more emphasis in undergraduate reading methods courses on techniques for evaluation of a child's progress and how to foster a child's interest in reading.3. The number of years of teaching experience did not influence the teacher’s judgment concerning the content of an undergraduate reading methods course.4. The highest academic degree obtained by teachers in this populous Indiana county did make a difference in how important the instrument items were perceived. Master Degree teachers had a greater awareness of the individual needs of children.5. Currently, it would seem that Indiana college and university reading professors stress knowledge of the total reading program throughout the elementary school and knowledge of types of prereading readiness experiences to a greater degree than elementary classroom teachers believe they need. On the other hand, elementary classroom teachers in Marion County, Indiana would like college and university reading professors to increase the emphasis on how to use audio visual aids in reading, how to foster interest in reading, and how to teach reading through a variety of mass media.

Thesis (M.A.)--Rowan University, 2008. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, 1936. / Error in imposition of pages: 78 and 79 follow 73; 74 and 75 follow 77. Lithoprinted. "Private edition, distributed by the University of Chicago libraries." Bibliography: p. 154.

No description available.

Prior research has concerned the school as a cultural system and the early development of children's concepts about reading and about print. This descriptive research study explored concepts which bridged these two areas by investigating the defining, categorizing and labeling of the cognitive domain of books by sixth-grade children. The specific purpose of this study was to identify the nature of the concept of "book," the categories applied to the cognitive domain of books, the labels subsumed under these categories, and the attributes of these categories. It was assumed that books comprised a cognitive domain for sixth-grade children and that this cognitive domain was accessed via the vocabulary employed to categorize and label it. The data were elicited by an interview schedule which included questions concerning words associated with the term "book," criteria for selecting books, important features of and similarities among books, explanations of the concept of "book," and the various kinds of books known to each respondent. Additional data, relative to the hierarchical organizations of the kinds of books named by the subjects, were elicited by a card sort procedure; subjects grouped and regrouped cards with the kinds of books elcited by the interview schedule until all of the cards were in one group. Two samples of upper middle class sixth-grade children, who had not yet entered the seventh grade, were the subjects (N = 23 and N = 18, respectively). One sample completed the interview schedule and the card sort procedure; the other cross-validating sample completed the card sort procedure only. In addition to myriad findings, the following were the most appropriate generalizations from findings. (1) Sixth-grade children view reading as an active and responsive process, in which the reader engages in a dialog with the author which begins with reader expectancies and purposes. (2) Although sixth-grade children participate in the same culture, the school, it cannot be inferred that they share similar cognitive maps for the domain of books. Their categorizing, defining and labeling of books do not reflect a shared meaning system. Rather, quite individualistic systems of rules for the organization of this domain are apparent. Studies of children's reading interests may reflect general predispositions of particular groups, rather than strong preferences. (3) The definitions of books formulated by sixth-grade children are descriptive rather than generic or synonomous in character. (4) Sixth-grade children have salient individual taxonomies of the cognitive domain of books. However, it appears that they do not have one, shared, salient folk taxonomy of the cognitive domain of books. The only salient, shared categories of books were fiction, non-fiction and mystery, along with their subsumed labels. (5) The methodology of ethnoscience demonstrates potential for the study of readers and reading in cultural contexts. One implication for reading instruction arising from the findings of this study is the following: Because sixth-grade children categorize the cognitive domain of books in quite an individualistic manner, it is suggested that the selection and recommendation of reading material should be guided by a child's individual interests rather than by lists generated by reading interests research.

There is no abstract available for this dissertation.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of group sharing of books and related materials on the number of books borrowed, on the strengthening of reading interests, and on the improvement of vocabulary of second grade pupils.The study was conducted over a period of twelve weeks from the first pre test to the final post test.The subjects selected for the study were forty-two second grade pupils in two classes in Anthony Elementary School, Muncie, Indiana, 1969-70. The pupils had been assigned to the two classrooms by the administrator the previous spring at the close of school. The school is located near the Ball State University campus. The population consisted of white children from a middle class neighborhood. The children ranged in mental ability from 89 to 140 I.Q. The mean I.Q. was 109.9.Thirty-nine pupils completed the study. The experimental group, labeled as Group A, consisted of eleven boys and nine girls. The comparison group, labeled as Group B, contained fourteen boys and seven girls. Two of the boys moved away during the study. One boy was dropped from the study.The following null hypotheses were examined:(1) There will be no significant difference between the children of Group A and the children of Group B in the quantity of books borrowed; (2) There will be no significant differences in terms of broadening of reading interests of the children of Group x as compared to the children of Group B; (3) There will be no significant difference between the children of Group A and the children of Group B in the growth of vocabulary from the pre test to the post test.The instruments of measurement used were: (1) a book count of library books borrowed by the children during the study; (2) an interest inventory constructed by the writer; and (3) the Dolch list of 220 words.Two teachers participated in the study. Each had had previous experience with second grade children. The writer was the teacher of the experimental group.The experimental group differed from the comparison group in that, while both groups had free reading periods, only the experimental group participated in the sharing of books and related materials at the beginning of each free reading period.Some of the library books were selected by the teachers from a neighborhood library. These sets of books were exchanged between Group A and Group B. This afforded the opportunity for children of both groups to make contact with identical books. Other library books were selected by the children from the centrally located school library. A special library period each week was scheduled for both groups. Books were placed in a library corner of the classroom of Group A and of Group B.Free reading time consisted of three twenty minute periods each week. This was for the purpose of allowing the children to select and read library books. Records of the books read were kept by means of the cards which the children signed when they borrowed the books. The cards were collected by the writer each week.The interest inventory was devised by the writer. The selected seven book categories of possible interest to second grade children consisted of (1) humor, (2) farm, (3) make-believe, (4) pets, (5) family and friends,(6) cowboy, and (7) outer space. A book from each category was then selected from the school library. Each book was assessed for its most representative picture. Each child was given an interest inventory sheet which listed numbers corresponding to numbers on the books. Each child was instructed to place an X in the three boxes following the number if he liked the book "a lot"; two boxes were to be marked if he liked it "some"; one box was to be marked if he was indifferent to the book. No boxes were to be marked for that number if he disliked the book.The interest inventory was previously given to the third and first grades of Anthony Elementary School. The teachers of those classes evaluated the inventory. The interest inventory then was given to Groups A and B at the beginning and end of the study.The Dolch Vocabulary Test of 220 basic sight words was administered at the beginning and again at the end of the study to each group by the teacher in charge of that group. The entire list of 220 words was given to each group.The sharing activities of the experimental group consisted of free discussion of stories and pictures, illustrations of ideas and characters found in the books, tape recordings of the children's evaluation of books, and dramatization with the aid of puppets.Attempts were made to keep the formal reading programs of Group A and Group B the same. Both groups used The Ginn Basic Readers, Ginn and Company, as a basic reader series and The New Basic Readers, Scott Foresman and Company, as a supplementary reader series.The total number of books borrowed by Group A during the study was 858. The boys of Group A were found to have borrowed 348 and the girls borrowed 510.A total of 653 books were borrowed by Group B during the study. The boys of Group B borrowed 403 and the girls 250.Group A showed a mean of 47.667 books borrowed, while Group B showed a mean of 31.095. Simple analysis of variance was used to statistically test the difference in the number of books borrowed by each group. The F Ratio was 12.8702, which was significant at the one percent level, thus allowing the null hypothesis to be rejected.Subsequent t-Test was applied and the results showed that when comparing the number of books borrowed between boys and girls of Group A, there was a significant difference at the one percent level favoring the girls. There was also a significant difference at the one percent level favoring Group A girls when comparing girls of Group A with boys of Group B, and girls of Group A with girls of Group B in the number of books borrowed.In consideration of books borrowed there was no significant difference between boys of Group A and boys of Group B, boys of Group A and girls of Group B, or boys of Group B and girls of Group B.Simple analysis of variance was used to test the differences in the reading interests of Group A as compared to Group B as indicated through the interest inventory administered. No significant differences were found.There were no significant differences found between Group A and Group B in vocabulary growth as measured by the Dolch words when tested by simple analysis of variance.In conclusion, it can be stated that children of the experimental group had a tendency to be motivated to check out more books by group sharing of books, and that the experimental group borrowed more books than the comparison group. It may also be stated that boys of both groups tended to narrow their reading interests while girls had a tendency to broaden their reading interests during the study.While the measured vocabulary growth did not indicate significant differences between the comparison group and the experimental group, there was a tendency for the experimental group to show strength in vocabulary growth. Had the experiment been of longer duration, the growth in vocabulary might have been significant.It was noted that children of different mental abilities chose similar books. This was indicated by the result of the reading interest inventory and by the specific books borrowed.As a result of this study, it is recommended that more teachers use motivational techniques to encourage the borrowing of library books by young beginners in reading.It is suggested that boys especially have the advantage of a wide variety of books. The books selected for this study were limited by the neighborhood library and the Anthony School library.It is recommended that further studies such as this be made with large random sampling of groups and over a longer duration of time. It is suggested that a vocabulary test consisting of a wider range than the Dolch test be used as a measuring instrument. Since this study was conducted with children of a white population, whose mental abilities were normal and above, it is suggested that the study be repeated in a more controlled situation to see whether the results would be statistically similar. An inner city population might tend to show different results as related to their background experiences and interests. Another recommendation could be a change in the procedure in administering the interest inventory. Instead of children indicating interest in a book based upon a picture, the children could browse through the book. Several books in each category could be utilized.Further recommendation with regard to testing would be that the study be conducted over a longer period of time and achievement checked with standardized tests. Interest and achievement might be related.Ball State UniversityMuncie, IN 47306

Thesis (M.Ed.)--Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, 1980. / Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 45-06, page: 2795.