The Role of Maternal Beliefs in Predicting Home Learning Activities in Head Start Families Family Relations, 51, 2, 176–184 Sandra Machida, Angela R Taylor, and Juhu Kim, 2002 What influences a mother, child, and family have on learning activities in low-income homes? What factors best predict parental involvement in home learning activities? The researchers examine the mediational role of parental beliefs, such as self-efficacy (“a parent’s belief that he or she possesses the required parenting skills to meet specific childrearing challenges”) and perceived control (a parent’s perception of personal control in determining their child’s personality and development), on their child’s home experience in 306 Head Start children and their mothers The sample was 51% Mexican American Machida et al interviewed the mothers in the fall and spring of the Head Start program’s academic year During the fall interviews, mothers were asked to respond to survey items, and in the spring they were asked to complete a home learning environment profile The survey and profile allowed the researchers to measure maternal education, family stress, child temperament, maternal beliefs, and home learning activities Interviews were conducted one-on-one in either the mother’s home or at the Head Start center Machida et al.’s research partially confirmed the belief that parent self-efficacy mediates the effect of child temperament that will then impact the family’s home learning activities Another finding is that family stress has an indirect impact on the home learning environment through the mother’s self-efficacy This research fails to confirm the role of perceived control in predicting home learning activities The findings in this study help educators understand how people and families in different situations deal with parenting and the unique situations that arise in their homes GENNA GURKOFF The Dalton School and New York University New York, New York, United States Interactional Differentiation in the Mixed-Ability Group: A Situated View of Two Struggling Readers Reading Research Quarterly, 43, 228–250 Deborah Poole, 2008 Do homogenous or heterogeneous grouping make a difference for struggling readers in late elementary school? Grouping has been a controversial topic in a number of school districts in the United States 150 TESOL QUARTERLY The researcher focuses her study not only on how students emotionally react to their placement in a group but also the instructional practices and interactions during the grouped activity Poole investigated fifth grade mixed-ability groups Each group consisted of five students Poole’s study was conducted in a Southern California school where about 87% of the students are Latino or Hispanic and 80% of the students qualify for free or reduced lunch Poole found that students who participated in a low-ability group for a long period of time developed a “pervasive international differentiation” which stigmatized the students Poole examined the total words read, the number of turns while reading, words read per turn, speaking turns, correction by peers or teachers, unacknowledged miscues, and words read per minute In the heterogeneous groupings, other students often interrupted the low-ability students A focus on comprehension also allowed for the students reading at grade level to use the experience as additional reading practice However, little attention was given to decoding, which the low-ability students needed Poole suggests that both types of groupings could produce stigmatizing effects for the students reading below grade level For teachers, Poole’s study demonstrates how difficult it is to effectively use small-group reading to improve struggling student reading levels For researchers, Poole’s close examination of struggling readers’ moment-to-moment interactions opens new points of exploration of how best to support them in classrooms ASHLEY SILVERS New York University New York, New York, United States Mother–Child Shared Reading With Print and Digital Text Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 8, 213–245 Ji Eun Kim and Jim Anderson, 2008 Do mother–child interactions vary in different reading contexts? The researchers compare mother–child interactions in three contexts: traditional print books, and electronic books in CD-ROM and video clip format The interactions of a Korean family—a 3-year-old, a 7-year-old and their mother—were explored Because Korean was the language of the home, all of the electronic and traditional literacy resources were in Korean A traditional print book was read six times per week with the 3-year-old and once per week with the 7-year-old In addition, the 7-yearold read traditional books independently The print book and the CD-ROM and video electronic books were the same difficulty level and were selected based on the familiarity with the genre and unfamiliarity with the specific books Kim and Anderson observed and videotaped the RESEARCH DIGEST 151