Does poor spelling equate to slow reading? The relationship between reading,spelling, and orthographic quality

High quality lexical representations in memory, characterized by accuracy and stability, are said to underpin fluent reading. Here, the relationship between orthographic quality and reading speed was examined by asking undergraduates (N = 74) to repeatedly read and spell words. Spelling performance over five trials indicated orthographic quality. Single word reading speed was measured using E-Prime technology. A within-participant repeated measures analysis revealed that words which participants spelled consistently accurately, were read faster than words which were misspelled. This pattern also held in a within-word analysis; the same words were read faster by individuals who always spelled them correctly, compared to those who did not. Further, it was found that when words were spelled using the same incorrect letter patterns across trials (i.e., in the same erroneous way), they were read faster than when they had an incorrect but less stable representation (i.e., inconsistent spelling across trials). Hence, the difference in reading speed appears to be a function of both the accuracy and stability of the orthographic representations stored in memory, rather than due to characteristics of individual participants or words. These results lend support for a central role of lexical quality in both spelling and reading, and are discussed with reference to the lexical quality hypothesis.     

Radio and presidential campaigning

The advent of radio broadcasting brought some significant changes into presidential campaigns but it jailed to produce other changes that one might have expected to arise from the use of this new communications medium. This paper describes the changes that took place and examines the reasons for certain expected changes failing to materialize.     

Hollywood: Films in General

Basil Wright's The Long View (New York: Knopf, 1974—$15.00)

Paul Sylbert's Final Cut: The Making and Breaking of Film (New York: Seabury Press, 1974—$7.95)

Gerson Kanin's Hollywood: Stars and Starlets, Tycoons and Flesh-Peddlers, Moviemakers and Moneymakers, Frauds and Geniuses, Hopefuls and Has-Beens, Great Lovers and Sex Symbols (New York: Viking Press, 1974—$8.95)

John Milton Hagen's Holly-Would! (New Rochelle, N.Y.: Arlington House, 1974—$7.95)

David Madden's Remembering James Agee (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1974—$8.95)

Richard Lawton's A world of Movies: 70 Years of Film Art (New York: Delacorte Press, 1974—$19.95)

Bob Willoughby and Richard Schickel's The Platinum Years (New York: Random House, 1974—$25.00)

Stephen H. Scheuer's The Movie Book (New York: Playboy Press with distribution by Simon and Schuster, 1974— $17.95)

Cecil Munsey's Disneyana: Walt Disney Collectibles (New York: Hawthorne, 1974—$19.95)

George Barris and Jack Scagnetti's Cars of the Stars (Jonathan David, Publisher, Middle Village, N.Y. 11379, 1974—$16.95)     

An MMB Special: Survey of Broadcasting Texts Compared

Harrison B. Summers, Robert E. Summers, and John H. Pennybacker, Broadcasting and the Public (Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth Publishing Co., 1978—$13.95)

Giraud Chester, Garnet R. Garrison, and Edgar E. Willis, Television and Radio (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, l978—price not given)

Saundra Hybels and Dana Ulloth, Broadcasting: An Introduction to Radio and Television (New York: D. Van Nostrand Co., 1978— price not given)     

The ‘nature of science’ in the school curriculum: the great survivor

This paper explores the ways in which the ‘nature of science’ (NoS) has been interpreted, accommodated and justified within school curricula since science was first schooled in the mid-nineteenth century. It explores how different interpretations of ‘the NoS’ have been invoked by those seeking to reform school science education in response to wider political, economic or social concerns such as the demand to ‘humanise’ school science teaching, to increase the supply of qualified scientists or to promote scientific literacy. It offers some comments upon the implications of these interpretations for current attempts to promote the ‘NoS’ in school science education. The focus of attention is England and, to a lesser extent, the USA but the issues raised are of contemporary relevance to many other parts of the world.     

Curriculum as Experienced by Students: How Teacher Identity Shapes Science Notebook Use

This mixed-methods case study examined the notebook entries of one class of 22 second graders as a way of examining how teacher identity shaped the way students experienced their science curriculum. These notebook entries were created during lessons with three different teachers over the course of one school year, using similar kit-based materials to teach science. The entries were coded for inquiry phase, percent missing or incomplete entries, and driving force (teacher-driven, student-driven, or balanced); chi-squared analyses revealed significant differences among the notebook entries created by the same students during lessons taught by each of the three teachers. Qualitative observations of each teachers' instruction around notebook use supported these quantitative differences, and suggested that the differences in curriculum as experienced by students could be attributed to differences in teacher identity, both who the teacher is and what they do in the classroom. These findings indicate that students' notebooks are useful tools for examining how teachers' identities might shape how elementary students experience science curriculum, and that they can be used to help structure more effective professional development plans for each teacher.