Advance organizers, activities used before the learning task, can help mainstreamed learning disabled adolescents organize information more efficiently. Ten steps for developing advance organizers proceed from informing students to introducing vocabulary and stating the general outcome desired. This approach is easy to implement and may result in…

The article describes a four-step procedure for constructing two types of graphic organizers (hierarchical and compare/contrast) to help secondary academically handicapped students gain information from textbooks. Implementation methods include teacher-directed, student-directed with text references, and student-directed with clues. Testing…

The ability of 54 learning-disabled high-school students to monitor their comprehension was compared under three prereading conditions: self-questions only, structured overviews and self-questions, and a control condition. Subjects receiving both the overviews and self-questions were best able to detect errors during reading. (Author/DB)

This study investigated the effects of advance organizers on the English reading comprehension of six bilingual fifth and sixth grade learning disabled students whose primary language was Spanish. An alternating treatment design was implemented. Following each treatment, the students read an expository text written in English and answered eight…

The review describes the advance organizer technique and reviews the empirical evidence on the effectiveness of advance organizers with both normal students and students classified as handicapped. Examples of advance organizers include the expository advance organizer, the comparative advance organizer, the graphic advance organizer, and…

The study found that instructing 13 learning-disabled junior high students in the necessary prior knowledge (information and vocabulary concepts) led to superior reading comprehension performance. Textually explicit text structure also improved reading comprehension. (DB)

Three reading comprehension strategies are presented to assist learning-disabled students: an advance organizer technique called "TELLS Fact or Fiction" used before reading a passage, a schema-based technique called "Story Mapping" used while reading, and a postreading method of categorizing questions called…

Schema Theory, the use of the learner's background knowledge for the building of new knowledge, is applied to improving reading comprehension skills and teaching vocabulary words and concepts to learning disabled students. Semantic mapping is a vocbulary strategy which produces the interaction between prior knowledge in a graphic form. For…

Two studies evaluated the effectiveness of guided notes with five secondary students with mild disabilities and three postsecondary students with learning disabilities. In both studies, use of guided notes resulted in significantly improved academic performance. (Author/DB)

This paper offers a rationale for modifying textbooks for secondary students with learning disabilities who are taught in general education classes. Recent research on the uses of study guides, graphic organizers, vocabulary drills, and computer-assisted instruction is reviewed, and guidelines for selecting appropriate uses of these strategies are…

This article applies results of a previous meta-analysis of effective instructional practices with adolescents who have learning disabilities focusing on the factor, "Organization/Explicit," which contributed significant variance to effect size. This factor included the important instructional components of advance organization and explicit…

This article reviews the literature on the use of content enhancement techniques to help secondary students with learning disabilities to identify, organize, comprehend, and memorize critical content information. Content enhancements described include visual displays, mnemonics, advance organizers, study guides, peer mediation, audiotapes, and…

Possible adaptations of textbooks for children with learning disabilities include modifying the textbook (tape recording the text, using high-interest low-vocabulary materials); altering instructional procedures (teaching textbook structure, previewing, providing advance organizers, preteaching critical vocabulary); and teaching textbook reading…

A successful expository writing program (1) should develop basic writing ability and fluency, (2) should convey to students that they are informants in a communicative context that includes writers and readers, and (3) should foster student control of the writing process including thinking and organizational strategies (such as planning,…

This review examines all data-based ecologically valid studies published in "Learning Disability Quarterly" or "Journal of Learning Disabilities" that addressed reading instruction and were published from 1980 to 1990. It first looks at studies focusing on comprehension, including such reader factors as prior knowledge, metacognition, and visual…