Two hundred children in grades K-3 were administered a test designed to assess knowledge of letter names in both upper-and lowercase primary type. Children exhibited better knowledge of upper-than lowercase letter names. Rank order, correlational analyses performed to determine the relationship of letter naming to visual discrimination and letter frequency revealed different patterns for upper-and lowercase letters. A subsequent, factor analytic treatment of the data also suggested differences in upper-and lowercase letter naming. Results are related to reading readiness norms and pedagogical implications are dealt with briefly.

One hundred and forty-nine children in Grades 1, 2, and 3 were administered two tests designed to assess knowledge of English soundsymbol relationships. One test involved the recognition of the appropriate grapheme, given a phoneme as a stimulus, while the second test required children to judge whether a given grapheme could be employed to produce a particular phoneme. Data revealed developmental trends in knowlege of both phoneme-grapheme and grapheme-phoneme correspondences and also indicated that such associations may not be entirely symmetrical. In general, performance was better on the phoneme-grapheme than oa the grapheme-phoneme test. A subsequent factor-analytic treatment of the data suggested that knowledge of sound-symbol relationships may be influenced by a complex multidimensional set of factors.

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The impetus for the current work came from persistent requests from educators for assistance with decisions about allocating children to various pre-reading and reading programs. Our review of existing reading readiness tests revealed that they have two major related weaknesses: (a) they are based on items which are often far removed from the basic skills necessary for success in reading, and (b) when a student fails to reach an appropriate level of performance on such a test, the pattern of his failures does not provide the teacher with specific indications for remedial work. Indeed, the composition of many so-called reading readiness tests suggests that their authors regard reading readiness as a global characteristic of the child like general intelligence.We take issue with the very concept of reading readiness. The question "Is the student ready to begin a formal reading program?" suggests a discontinuity between the sub-skills involved in reading and the reading process itself, a discontinuity which does not exist. A more appropriate question is "Has the student

I first encountered Roland Barthes�s Camera Lucida�(1980) in 2012 when I was developing a performance on falling and photography. Since then I have re-encountered Barthes�s book annually as part of my practice-as-research PhD project on the relationships between performance and photography. This research project seeks to make performance work in response to Barthes�s book � to practice with Barthes in an exploration of theatricality, materiality and affect. This photo-essay weaves critical discourse with performance documentation to explore my relationship to Barthes�s book. Responding to Michael Fried�s claim that Barthes�s Camera Lucida is an exercise in �antitheatrical critical thought� (Fried 2008, 98) the essay seeks to re-view debates on theatricality and anti-theatricality in and around Camera Lucida. Specifically, by exploring Barthes�s conceptualisation of the pose I discuss how performance practice might re-theatricalise the punctum and challenge a supposed antitheatricalism in Barthes�s text. Additionally, I argue for Barthes�s book as an example of philosophy as performance and for my own work as an instance of performance philosophy.