The Reading Group: An Experimental Investigation of a Labyrinth

Reported are two experiments with third graders in which a number of dimensions of reading instruction were investigated.The major findings: an emphasis on meaning produces better results than an emphasis on word identification; in groups receiving a word identification emphasis, but not a meaning emphasis, results depend upon instructional time; the child who is taking an active turn gets more from a lesson than the children who are following along; and the interestingness of the material is a major factor in performance, one that is much more important than