This open access book is a unique study of the impact of lived experience on literate life, exploring how children’s reading development is affected by their home setting, and how this sense of place ...influences textual interpretation of the books they read. Based on qualitative research and structured around interviews with twelve participants, Space, Place and Children’s Reading Development focuses on the digital maps and artistic renderings these readers were asked to create of a place (real or imagined) that they felt reflected their literate youth, and the discussions that followed about these maps and their evolution as readers. Analysing the participant’s responses, Margaret Mackey looks at the rich insights offered about the impact on childhood stability after experiences such as migration; the “reading spaces” children make based on their social relationships and domestic spheres; the creation of “textual spaces” and the significance of the recurring motif of forests in the participants’ maps; the importance of the Harry Potter novels; the basis of life-long reading habits; psychological spaces and whether readers visualize when they read. Blending theoretical perspectives on reading from many disciplines with the personal experiences of readers of diverse nationalities, languages, disciplinary interests, and life experiences, this is an enlightening account of the behaviors of readers, reading histories, and place-based reader responses to literature. By building greater understanding about the broad and subtle processes that enable people to read, this study refines the kind of questions we ask about reading and moves towards developing a multidisciplinary language for the study and discussion of reading practices in contemporary times. The open access edition of this book is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
We examined the developmental relationships between home literacy environment (parent teaching, shared book reading) and emergent literacy skills (phonological awareness, letter knowledge, ...vocabulary, rapid naming speed) in kindergarten, reading accuracy and fluency in Grade 1, and reading comprehension in Grades 2 and 3 in a sample of Canadian children learning to read English (N = 214). Results from a latent variable model showed that parent teaching predicted letter knowledge and phonological awareness, and shared book reading predicted vocabulary and rapid naming speed after controlling for family socioeconomic status. Moreover, both parent teaching and shared book reading contributed indirectly to reading accuracy and fluency in Grade 1, which then mediated the effects of home literacy environment on reading comprehension in Grades 2 and 3. The results suggest that the effects of home literacy environment on later reading development are distributed via more pathways than previously thought.
In Books and Religious Devotion, Allan Westphall presents a study of the book-collecting habits and annotation practices of Thomas Connary, an Irish immigrant farmer who lived in New Hampshire in the ...latter half of the nineteenth century. Connary led a pious life that revolved around the use, annotation, and sharing of religious books: his surviving annotated volumes provide a revealing glimpse into the utility of books for a common reader and into how one remarkable non-elite reader imagined book utilities and the iconic status of religious books. Through a careful excavation of book adaptations and enhancements, Westphall establishes a profile of an eccentric reader-cum-annotator that gives us insight into the range of opportunities provided by the material book for recording and communicating a reader’s religious fervor. The study also investigates the broader nineteenth-century cultural setting, in which books are seen as testimonies of personal faith and come to function as instruments of social interaction in both domestic and public spheres. Underlying Connary’s many and varied interactions with books is a belief that physical objects can materialize belief, and that working in them can be a devout exercise instrumental in human salvation.
States are increasingly recommending that districts and schools use multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) to improve reading outcomes for all students. States have also suggested MTSS is a viable ...service delivery model in response to new state legislation to screen, identify, and treat students with word-level reading disability (i.e., dyslexia). One model of MTSS that utilizes Enhanced Core Reading Instruction (ECRI MTSS), has demonstrated significant increases in students’ early acquisition of foundational reading skills (Smith et al., 2016). The purpose of this study was to conduct a conceptual replication of the Smith’s (2016) original impact study. In a cluster-randomized controlled trial, 44 schools were randomly assigned to the ECRI MTSS treatment or a business-as-usual (BAU) MTSS control condition. Across conditions, 754 students were assigned to receive Tier 2 intervention in addition to Tier 1 instruction. Impact data indicate moderate to strong effects on student decoding, word reading, and fluency skills for students in the ECRI MTSS schools. Results suggest that schools can use ECRI MTSS to improve foundational reading skills for struggling early readers, including students with or at risk for word-level reading disabilities (i.e., dyslexia).
The purpose of this study is to investigate the reading conditions and preferences of seafarers. Surveys were distributed to 491 seafarers, and statistical analysis was conducted. The research ...findings indicate that the overall level of reading time and quantity among seafarers is significantly lower than the national average in China. Seafarers under the age of 25 with less than 1 year of work experience exhibit a higher willingness to read, while those aged 56 and above show the lowest inclination to read. As sea service years increase, the willingness to read decreases. Seafarers with higher education levels demonstrate the best reading habits, and those in higher positions with advanced education exhibit better reading methods. The main obstacles to seafarers’ reading are attributed to personal factors and external environmental influences. The primary purposes of seafarers’ reading include entertainment, problemsolving, self-improvement, and stress relief, with diverse content preferences. After understanding the purposes and needs of seafarers’ reading, a series of recommendations are proposed to enhance reading conditions.
A vivid exploration of the evolution of reading as an essential social and domestic activity during the eighteenth centuryTwo centuries before the advent of radio, television, and motion pictures, ...books were a cherished form of popular entertainment and an integral component of domestic social life. In this fascinating and vivid history, Abigail Williams explores the ways in which shared reading shaped the lives and literary culture of the time, offering new perspectives on how books have been used by their readers, and the part they have played in middle-class homes and families.Drawing on marginalia, letters and diaries, library catalogues, elocution manuals, subscription lists, and more, Williams offers fresh and fascinating insights into reading, performance, and the history of middle-class home life.
The space of the book Remnek, Miranda
The space of the book,
c2011, 20110409, 2010, 2011, 2010-01-01, 20110101
eBook
Skilfully connecting multidisciplinary sources along broad historical continuum,The Space of the Bookwill be a valuable resource as the study of Russian print culture takes on new directions in a ...digitized world.
"Read-i-cide" n: The systematic killing of the love of reading, often exacerbated by the inane, mind-numbing practices found in schools. Reading is dying in our schools. Educators are familiar with ...many of the factors that have contributed to the decline--poverty, second-language issues, and the ever-expanding choices of electronic entertainment. In this provocative new book, Kelly Gallagher suggests, however, that it is time to recognize a new and significant contributor to the death of reading: our schools. In "Readicide," Kelly argues that American schools are actively (though unwittingly) furthering the decline of reading. Specifically, he contends that the standard instructional practices used in most schools are killing reading by: (1) valuing the development of test-takers over the development of lifelong readers; (2) mandating breadth over depth in instruction; (3) requiring students to read difficult texts without proper instructional support; insisting that students focus solely on academic texts; (4) drowning great books with sticky notes, double-entry journals, and marginalia; (5) ignoring the importance of developing recreational reading; (6) and losing sight of authentic instruction in the shadow of political pressures. Kelly doesn't settle for only identifying the problems. "Readicide" provides teachers, literacy coaches, and administrators with specific steps to reverse the downward spiral in reading--steps that will help prevent the loss of another generation of readers.
What happens to books as they live in our long-term memory? Why do we find some books entertaining and others not? And how does literary influence work on writers in different ways? Grounded in the ...findings of empirical psychology, this book amends classic reader-response theory and attends to neglected aspects of reading that cannot be explained by traditional literary criticism. Reading arises from a combination of two kinds of mental work: automatic and controlled processes. Automatic processes, such as the ability to see visual symbols as words, are the result of constant practice; controlled processes, such as predicting what might occur next in a story, arise from readers' conscious use of skills and background knowledge. When we read, automatic and controlled processes work together to create the "gist" of reading, the constant interplay between these two kinds of processes. Andrew Elfenbein not only explains how we read today, but also uses current knowledge about reading to consider readers of past centuries, arguing that understanding gist is central to interpreting the social, psychological, and political impact of literary works. The result is the first major revisionary account of reading practices in literary criticism since the 1970s.
Best-selling authors Dr. Jan Burkins and Kim Yaris rethink traditional teaching practices in Who's Doing the Work: How to Say Less So Readers Can Do More.
