Rhyme and reading: a critical review of the research methodology

There is debate over whether children’s early rhyme awareness has important implications for beginning reading instruction. The apparent finding that pre‐readers are able to perform rhyme tasks much more readily than phoneme tasks has led some to propose that teaching children to read by drawing attention to rime units within words is ‘a route into phonemes’ (Goswami, 1999a, p. 233). Rhyme and analogy have been adopted as an integral part of the National Literacy Strategy (DfEE, 1998), a move which appears to have been influenced by three major research claims:1) rhyme awareness is related to reading ability, 2) rhyme awareness affects reading achievement, and 3) rhyme awareness leads to the development of phoneme awareness. A critical examination of the experimental research evidence from a methodological viewpoint, however, shows that not one of the three claims is sufficiently supported. Instructional implications are discussed.     

AGE DIFFERENCES IN EFFICIENCY OF READING COMPREHENSION FROM PRINTED VERSUS COMPUTER‐DISPLAYED TEXT

Computer technology has become a tremendous aid in examining the aging process as it relates to reading by allowing researchers to measure and control processing time. But is the computer a passive player in the study of reading and aging? Are we overlooking interactions between computers and participants using them? This study compared two types of computer presentation (investigator‐paced and self‐paced by the reader) to reading from the printed page. Older adults were most efficient in their reading comprehension when reading from the printed page, while young adults were most efficient from computer‐paced text. Although reading is a highly practiced skill for both young and old adults, the computer method of presentation is much less familiar to old adults. An overestimation of age differences with misleading findings may occur if computers are routinely used to study age differences in reading comprehension.     

An independent study and seminar program for urban gifted youth

Student self‐documentation is an effective approach to program evaluation. It measures student growth and compares performance standards to actual learner performance.