Able: An Instrument for Assessing Elementary Students’ Perceptions of Access to Books, Beliefs, and Literacy Environment

Abstract

In order to promote voluntary reading in elementary school, students need to have access to books they want to read, to believe they can read, and to be in an environment conducive to reading. The purpose of this study was to develop and validate an instrument intended to measure students' perceptions in these areas. An exploratory factor analysis was conducted on data from 145 elementary school students in one urban elementary school. Results indicated three dimensions of elementary school reading: access to preferred books in school, beliefs as a reader, and literacy environment in school.