Children's reading

The reading habits of children are affected by the penetration of electronic devices, social media applications and games. Hence, there is general decline in reading habits / culture in society and specifically among children. In this situation, the current study will look into the factors influencing children reading habits. The study is a significant support in relevant literature by reporting contributing factors related to children, family, and teacher in developing reading habits among children. The beneficiaries are children, their families, school teachers as well as school administrators to appropriately use the methods and techniques to inculcate reading habits.

The Shadow Box is a tangible computing project
that exploits visual association and auditory clues to
teach children the representational relationship between
words and their meanings. The Shadow Box contains
three major components: the main box, picture blocks
and word blocks. The Shadow Box activates when a
block or a matching pair of blocks is placed inside. The
box prompts children to find matching blocks and
combine them together. When children successfully
combine the right word and picture, the box rewards
them with an animated video as if they had made the
objects come alive. An informal study shows that
children responded positively to the concept of the box.
They played with it for a length of time and engaged in a
collaborative learning process with other children.

Extensive reading of children’s literature can be seen as one of the most powerful means to acquiring a large working vocabulary for both first language learners and second language learners. However, for foreign language learners, children’s literature has a less positive image. For foreign language learners the most commonly recommended reading is of graded readers. Corpus research has shown that work for children has a wide range of rare words, comparable to adult literature, and this leads to the argument that children’s literature puts too great a comprehension and memory strain on foreign language learners, and is an inefficient learning tool compared to graded readers. This paper reviews existing research and examines the arguments for children’s literature in language learning in terms of some features of naturalistic child reading behaviour, and the stylistic choices of writers for children. Replication of child reading behaviours in conjunction with the aid to comprehension and memory inherent in stylistic choices, combined with motivational and practical considerations, are argued to make children’s literature an equal, if not superior choice as extended reading material for foreign language learners.

This study investigated whether two groups of 6-year-old beginning readers taught to read by a phonics and by a “book experience” non-phonics approach would differ in reading
comprehension as well as the processes of word recognition. The two groups were matched for word recognition but despite this, the phonics taught children had higher reading comprehension.
Phonics taught children produced more contextually appropriate errors, and in both single word and text reading made more spoken attempts at reading unknown words. The non-phonics taught children had much faster reading reaction times to familiar words but they scored less in phoneme segmentation and nonword reading tasks. Compared with the nonphonics group, the phonics group spent more time in attempts at identifying unknown words
and this included using contextual information, which apparently resulted in more rehearsal of the meaning of the story text and hence better reading comprehension performance.

This chapter excerpt describes how to approach sight words and sight word instruction in a reading curriculum.  This is appropriate from emergent level and beginning level readers as well as struggling readers at all levels.  Related video lectures are included at the end.

A number of scholars in applied linguistics and reading proficiency have regularly underlined the significance of reading as a prerequisite to academic achievement and success. On that account, numerous studies have attempted to investigate a best course of action into presenting a new way of teaching reading proficiency. The present contribution attempts to investigate the probable effect of employing Harmer's Engage, Study and activate (ESA) elements involved in teaching of tasks in developing reading comprehension of EFL learners. For this reason, two intact groups of each containing 15 Iranian EFL learners from Chabahar Maritime University were enrolled. Prior to the study, before the actual classes were inducted, participants were administered an FCE reading pre-test to ensure both groups equivalence and homogeneity. Consequently, the control group was instructed based on the principles of Grammar-translation method (GTM) and the experimental group was instructed through implementation of ESA elements involved in teaching of reading tasks. Eventually, at the end of the treatment period, a post-test of FCE reading comprehension was administered to investigate their performance in reading comprehension. The results of the statistical analyses, i.e. independent sample t-test showed that the experimental group has significantly outperformed the control group; the learners also showed a positive overall tendency towards the teaching method based on ESA elements .It is expected that the pedagogical implication of the study would make considerable contribution to the works of EFL teachers, Researchers, policy makers and curriculum designers.

This essay considers the role children’s literature plays in what Lennard J. Davis has called “the hegemony of normalcy” by closely studying a sample of biographies of Helen Keller intended for children. Through the lens of disability studies, I examine how Keller’s life has been re-appropriated to portray her as a victim of her disability rather than of a society that privileges the “able-bodied.” Such analysis also revisits the debates over biographies for children, an area of children’s literary study often neglected because of accusations of bowdlerization and oversimplification of the subject’s life as well as a perceived lack of artistry.

The study aimed at investigating the impact of teachers use of folktales on the performance of pupils in reading comprehension in primary schools in Kaduna, Nigeria. The sample of the study consisted of forty (40) primary four pupils from two randomly selected primary school, tagged, school " " and school " " in Kaduna North Local Government " rea. School " " was assigned as the experimental group while school " " was assigned as the control group. " oth groups were taught reading comprehension for eight weeks. A pre-test post-test experimental design for equivalent groups was used. Pupils were tested using reading comprehension test called retelling test. Results showed that the experimental group outperformed the control group. This indicates that the use of folktales by teachers in reading comprehension may have a significant positive effect on pupils reading comprehension. " ased on the findings, it was recommended among others, that teachers should use folktales to enrich their reading comprehension lessons and to make such lessons more lively, interesting and meaningful. The reading component of the English Language Curriculum should be organized around stories that are deeply rooted in core values of the society. The curriculum should include reading comprehension passages that are based on folktales that teach moral lessons. Such moral lessons should be deeply rooted in the core values of the society.

‘‘Paragraph Reading Study III’’ contains taken from newspaper articles like The Guardian, The Independent, The Times, The Financial Times, The Washington Time, The Sun, The New York Times and The Washington Post.

The Guardian : https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news
The Independent : http://www.independent.co.uk/
The Times : https://www.thetimes.co.uk/?region=global
The Financial Times : https://www.ft.com
The Washington Times : http://www.washingtontimes.com/
The Sun : http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/
The New York Times : http://www.nytimes.com/
The Washington Post : http://www.washingtonpost.com/

Was the decision to stop publishing six obscure Dr. Seuss titles containing racist imagery and messaging an erasure of history? Media coverage of the controversy has presented it as an example of censorship, an attack on free speech and yet another example of cancel culture. These reactions are rooted in both a lack of awareness of the challenges and realities of maintaining collections and a false understanding of history.

„Minden mese olyan varázstükör, amely belső világunk valamely összetevőjét tükrözi, és azt az utat, amelyet meg kell járnunk, hogy eljussunk az éretlenségtől az érettségig. Aki hajlandó belemerülni abba a mély igazságba, melyet a mesék közölnek velünk, először csak egy mély, csendes vízfelületet fog látni, amely saját képét tükrözi vissza; rövidesen azonban felfedezi a mélyben lelke belső zűrzavarát, de meglátja azt is, milyen úton nyerheti el a békét önmagával és a világgal: küzdelmeinek ugyanis ez a jutalma." Bruno Bettelheim - ezen a bettelheimi szemüvegen keresztül néz a dolgozat a megtanítandó bibliai történetekre és a gyerekekre.

Between the years 1935 and 1946, National Comics—the leading comic book publisher in the United States—experimented with various strategies such as book lists and juvenile book reviews in order to encourage children and young adults to read books other than comics. This paper surveys these strategies and the work of key persons such as Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, M.C. Gaines, and Josette Frank, in the context of the broader landscape of children’s reading and comics publishing. In addition, the paper argues that National’s efforts serve as further encouragement for contemporary scholars to reevaluate the role that comics played in the cultural and literary lives of young readers.

Highlights

•    We studied visual attention span as a predictor of reading in a transparent orthography.
•    This relation was significant and independent of phonological awareness skills.
•    We showed that the relation was also independent of rapid naming.
•    Visual attention span had a similar unique contribution to spelling performance.
•    Based on the results we discuss a new interpretation of visual attention span.

Abstract
Art forms become interrelated when intertextual phenomena occur. The choice of previous art forms to create humour may seem to be a playful game, but it is the result of many kinds of inserted messages. Fourteen animated feature films by DreamWorks have been analysed and classified in depth (by using Sebeok’s (1986) intertextual categories, which were also described by Hatim & Mason (1990)), in order to demonstrate how animation is an art that encompasses other artistic productions. Firstly, art and animation will be defined in order to, secondly, use the corpus to exemplify the intertextual connections from other art forms. Lastly, the final quantitative and qualitative results will substantiate the conclusion that these productions by DreamWorks are an example of artistic cinematographic intertextuality.
Key words: animation, intertextuality, art forms, Children’s Literature..
Resumen
Las formas artísticas se interrelacionan cuando se pone en práctica el fenómeno intertextual. El uso de formas artísticas previas para crear humor puede parecer un juego pero es el resultado de la inserción de varios tipos de mensajes en un texto/discurso. Se analizan y clasifican en profundidad catorce películas de animación creadas por DreamWorks (se emplea para ello las categorías intertextuales propuestas por Sebeok (1986) descritas, a su vez, por Hatim & Mason (1990)), con el propósito de demostrar cómo la animación es un arte que engloba a otras producciones artísticas. En primer lugar, se definen los conceptos de arte y animación para, acto seguido, mostrar mediante el corpus cuáles son las conexiones intertextuales que provienen de otras formas artísticas. Los resultados cuantitativos y cualitativos permiten concluir que las producciones animadas de DreamWorks son un ejemplo de intertextualidad cinematográfica artística.
Palabras clave: arte, álbumes, museos, galerías, contexto.
Resum
Les formes artístiques s’interrelacionen quan es posa en pràctica el fenomen intertextual. L’ús de formes artístiques prèvies per crear humor pot semblar un joc però és el resultat de la inserció de diversos tipus de missatges en un text/discurs. S’analitzen i classifiquen en profunditat catorze pel·lícules d’animació creades per DreamWorks (s’hi empra per a això les categories intertextuals proposades per Sebeok (1986) descrites, d’altra banda, per Hatim & Mason (1990)), amb el propòsit de demostrar com l’animació és un art que engloba d’altres produccions artístiques. En primer lloc, es defineixen els conceptes d’art i animació per a, tot seguit, mostrar mitjançant el corpus quines són les connexions intertextuals que provenen d’altres formes artístiques. Els resultats quantitatius i qualitatius permeten concloure que les produccions animades de DreamWork són un exemple d’intertextualitat cinematogràfica artística.
Paraules clau: animació, intertextualitat, formes artístiques, literatura infantil i juvenil.

Reading comprehension instruction is considered one of the major challenges that most English language teachers and students encounter. Therefore, providing a systematic, explicit, and flexible model to teaching reading comprehension strategies could help resolve some of these challenges and increase the possibility of teaching reading comprehension, particularly in language learners' classrooms. Consequently, the purpose of this paper is to provide a model to teach reading comprehension strategies in language learning classrooms. The proposed instructional model is divided into three systematic phases through which strategies are taught before reading, during reading, and after reading. Each phase is explained and elaborated using recommended models for teachers. Finally, suggested considerations to consolidate this model are provided.

This article presents the results of a study that examined the interest and influence of gender of students studying in International schools in Sri Lanka on reading. The objectives of this study was to find the nature of reading interest of the primary school children and to examine whether it differ by gender. The sample was selected from three International schools in Colombo district. Data was collected through a questionnaire and analyzed with Chi-square test. Findings indicated that, boys preferred comic books and the girls opted to picture books. Reading Newspapers and web pages are not popular among students, despite computer was much preferred in the past. This could indicate that children prefer to read a book. Where genres are concerned, Mystery & Adventure and Fantasy are the selection of the majority. Both these fall into the fiction category which was confirmed by previous researches. Since a vast majority of the sample showed preference for series books as well as comic books, it can be concluded that books from the Wimpy Kid and the Geronimo Stilton series can be used in order to encourage and motivate young readers by making reading an enjoyable activity.

This research endeavored to determine if a significant difference exists in reading comprehension scores when reading from electronic books compared to paper books. E-books and electronic reading devices are becoming more common place in today’s technology driven world; but, are young readers able to achieve optimal reading comprehension when employing this new technology? Or is there a difference in the depth of reading comprehension achieved when reading digital books compared to traditional paper books? Seventh grade students from six area middle schools were the subjects of the study wherein each student read an e-book or a paper book and took a reading comprehension test on the book read. After which, students read a different book from the opposing medium and took a reading comprehension test. The final scores were used to determine if there were measurable differences between each text source. Overall test scores showed higher reading comprehension when students read from the traditional paper books as compared to reading from digital sources. When comparing individual student scores, almost three-fourths of students scored higher on comprehension tests after having read from paper text, while only one-fourth of students scored higher on reading comprehension tests after having read text from a digital source.

The theme of this chapter is straightforward but is often overlooked in beginning reading instruction: Beginning reading texts need to give young children many opportunities to apply their emerging knowledge of written words. Opportunities to focus on increasing reading speed occur in subsequent levels, but this later proficiency is built on the early foundation.  Over a 15-year period, my colleagues and I have worked to refine a curriculum for creating texts that support a foundation of automaticity, meaningfulness, and engagement. In this chapter, I call this curriculum by the name of the digital system it uses to analyze texts: TABB (Text Analysis: Beginning Books). The chapter describes the curriculum and summarizes evidence that exposure to TABB-based texts supports a fluent start for beginning readers. It concludes with text-selection guidelines for educators.

An investigation to see if young children could pick up on issues of cultural awareness, empathy and alienation in Shaun Tan's 'Eric.' This includes the study of picturebook theory, an analysis of Tan's book and interviews with 5 children. Appendices and interview transcripts are included

Türkçe programında yer verilen temel kazanımlardan biri olan okuduğunu anlama, sadece ilkokul kademesiyle sınırlı kalmayıp örgün eğitimin neredeyse her kademesinde ve sonrada yaşam boyu kullanılan bir beceridir. Bireylerin ilkokul birinci sınıfta okumayı öğrenmesine rağmen karşılarına çıkan metinlerde yer alan ifadelerden yapabildikleri çıkarımlar sınırlı kalabilmektedir. Öğretmenler öğrencilerinin okuduklarını anlama düzeylerini geliştirebilmeleri için çeşitli çalışmalar yapılmaktadır. Bu çalışmalara yönelik yapılan araştırma sonuçlarındaki öneriler incelendiğinde bazı ortak noktalar göze çarpmaktadır. Okuyucular, her türlü yazılı materyallerin içeriğine kalıcı bir biçimde ulaşarak anlamlı öğrenmeyi sağlanması için özetlemeyi, tahmin etmeyi, soru sormayı, tartışmayı ve eleştirel okumayı içeren çeşitli yöntemlerinden birini veya bir kaçını kullanırlar. Öğrencilerin sınıfta ve evde okurken değişik pozisyonlarda okuma yaptıkları görülmektedir. Çocuklarda görülen çeşitli okuma pozisyonları, okumayı etkileyen unsurlardan biri midir sorusunu gündeme getirmektedir.
Bu çalışmada öğrencilerin tercih ettikleri okuma pozisyonunun okuduğunu anlamaya etkisinin ortaya koyulması amaçlanmıştır. Araştırma, yarı deneysel yöntemle yürütülmüştür. Araştırmada tek grupla ön test son test tasarımına dayanan yarı deneysel model uygulanmıştır. Araştırma, bir ilkokulda 2015-2016 öğretim yılında öğrenim görmekte olan 10 ikinci sınıf öğrencisi ile yürütülmüştür. Uygulamaya başlanmadan önce araştırma için hazırlanan çalışma planında yer verildiği şekliyle her haftaya bir uygulama yapılmak üzere 7 uygulama belirlenmiştir. Araştırmada akıcı okuma düzeylerinin belirlenebilmesi için öğrencilere her haftadaki uygulamada sınıf düzeyine uygun bir metin sesli olarak okutulmuştur. Okuma sürecinde okuduğunu anlama düzeyleri hesaplanmıştır. Öğrencilerin okuduğunu anlama düzeyini belirlemek için gerekli olan veriler hikâye edici metni anlama, bilgi verici metni anlama ve kelime bilgisi testlerinde yer alan (olay, olgu ve öğelere yönelik metin haritasını çıkarma amaçlı) soruların cevaplandırılma düzeyleri incelenmiştir. Araştırma bulgularından okuma pozisyonları öğrencilerin okuduklarını anlama düzeylerinde anlamlı düzeyde bir farklılaşmaya yol açmadığı sonucuna ulaşılmıştır.
Anahtar kelimeler: Okuduğunu anlama, okumada vücut pozisyonu, öğrenme stili.

Many studies have examined reading and reading development. The majority of these studies, however, focused on oral reading rather than on the more dominant silent reading mode. Similarly, it is common practice to assess oral reading abilities rather than silent reading abilities in schools and in diagnosis of reading impairments. More important, insights gained through examinations of oral reading tend to be generalized to silent reading. In the current study, we examined whether such generalizations are justified. We directly compared oral and silent reading fluency by examining whether these reading modes relate to the same underlying skills. In total, 132 fourth graders read words, sentences, and text orally, and 123 classmates read the same material silently. As underlying skills, we considered phonological awareness, rapid naming, and visual attention span. All skills correlated significantly with both reading modes. Phonological awareness contributed equally to oral and silent reading. Rapid naming, However, correlated more strongly with oral reading than with silent reading. Visual attention span correlated equally strongly with both reading modes but showed a significant unique contribution only to silent reading. In short, we showed that oral and silent reading indeed are fairly similar reading modes, based on the relations with reading-related cognitive skills. However, we also found differences that warrant caution in generalizing findings across reading modes.

"“Bernstein’s powerful account of how the sentimental ideology of childhood innocence, and particularly its highly gendered manifestations, function to articulate racial hierarchies gives strong and detailed evidence for how paying attention to childhood serves to refocus many all too familiar, and troublesome, facets of American culture. I know of virtually no one of her generation who writes with this kind of verve, authority and pleasure. Racial Innocence will prove an important and widely read book—in part simply because it will be so much fun to read.”
—Karen Sánchez-Eppler, Amherst College

“Nineteenth and early twentieth-century material culture comes alive in Robin Bernstein’s brilliant study of the racialized and gendered ideologies that shape, inform and continue to haunt notions of American childhood into the present day. Through imaginative and masterfully innovative archival research, Bernstein shows how representations of childhood and child’s play are integral to the making of whiteness and blackness and citizenship in this country. Racial Innocence is a groundbreaking book that for the first time illuminates the powerful and critical connections between constructions of girlhood, racial formations and American popular culture.”

—Daphne Brooks, Princeton University

In Racial Innocence, Robin Bernstein argues that the concept of “childhood innocence” has been central to U.S. racial formation since the mid-nineteenth century. Children—some imbued with innocence, others excluded from it—figured pivotally in sharply divergent racial agendas from slavery and abolition to antiblack violence and the early civil rights movement.

Bernstein takes up a rich archive including books, toys, theatrical props, and domestic knickknacks which she analyzes as “scriptive things” that invite or prompt historically-located practices while allowing for resistance and social improvisation. Integrating performance studies with literary and visual analysis, Bernstein offers singular readings of theatrical productions from blackface minstrelsy to Uncle Tom’s Cabin to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz; literary works by Joel Chandler Harris, Harriet Wilson, and Frances Hodgson Burnett; material culture including Topsy pincushions, Uncle Tom and Little Eva handkerchiefs, and Raggedy Ann dolls; and visual texts ranging from fine portraiture to advertisements for lard substitute. Throughout, Bernstein shows how “innocence” gradually became the exclusive province of white children—until the Civil Rights Movement succeeded not only in legally desegregating public spaces, but in culturally desegregating the concept of childhood itself.

Robin Bernstein is Associate Professor of African and African American Studies and Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality at Harvard University. Her previous books include Cast Out: Queer Lives in Theater.

In the America and the Long 19th Century series"

Las investigaciones acerca de la competencia literaria se han movido en general en el ámbito de la teorización sobre aquellos componentes que hacen a un individuo un individuo competente. Los textos de Mendoza, Colomer o Aguiar Silva, han resultado unas guías imprescindibles para la comprensión de lo que significa la competencia literaria y han servido también para sentar algunas bases didácticas que se inferían de sus propuestas.
Sin embargo, no existen en la actualidad instrumentos estandarizados para medir esta competencia literaria. Si bien los métodos cuantitativos tienen algunas limitaciones para el estudio de la literatura, lo cierto es que si somos capaces de calificar al alumnado con notas numéricas, deberíamos ser capaces también de establecer una marca numérica para su competencia literaria; siempre con todas las reservas necesarias.
Así pues, presentamos una propuesta de test de competencia literaria realizado sobre las bases teóricas de los autores nombrados y también de Witte, Janssen y Rijlaarsdam (2009). El test fue primero consensuado con cinco investigadores expertos en educación literaria y posteriormente puesto a prueba también con alumnos de diferentes niveles antes de ser pasado a un total de 222 alumnos de 1º de la ESO. Los resultados se cruzaron con las puntuaciones subjetivas del profesorado de lengua y con la puntuación de una prueba de escritura creativa valorada por tres jueces, dos de ellos ajenos a la investigación.
El resultado, a falta de mejorar algunas cuestiones prácticas, ofrece a nuestro parecer un test sencillo de realizar y de adaptar a las diferentes realidades culturales, y que puede ser de gran utilidad en un futuro próximo tanto por su aplicación didáctica como por su utilización como herramienta de investigaciones diversas.