The authors used a conceptual analysis, following Foucauldian genealogy, to consider the history of Nila Banton Smith's "American Reading Instruction." The goal was to make better sense of the challenges and opportunities facing literacy instruction today and to articulate the enormous responsibilities of literacy scholars to critically…

Describes a procedure for helping students to reorganize text structured by listing. Details a study proving the effectiveness of the technique. (AEA)

This paper describes the National Reading Research Center (NRRC), a federally funded center that intends to carry out research to discover what promotes readers' engagement in literacy activities, foster their critical thinking and strategic learning, and prepare them to meet the challenges of a technological age. The paper describes the mission…

Suggests that disabled readers can benefit from the use of mnemonic devices as they learn to recognize words and identify their meanings. (FL)

Reveals that fourth-grade children were able to tell the differences between expository and narrative text but still needed guidance in how to read the two types of materials best. (FL)

A study was conducted to investigate the compensatory effects of graphic organizers on text organization. Subjects were 114 tenth grade students who read two versions of an expository passage containing identical information but differing in top level structure. The version organized to show opposing views (comparison/contrast) was considered…

Investigates the transfer effects of graphic organizer instruction on fourth graders' ability to use top-level structure as an aid in comprehending and retaining content reading materials and concludes that there were no discernable effects. (DF)

To explore ways to improve reading instruction, a study examined the relation of discussions about assigned reading to students' critical reading behavior and investigated the efficacy of coaching teachers on techniques for discussing the readings they assign. Five teachers from a rural Georgia high school, and their classes of 25 students each…

Examines teachers' decisions to make adjustments in their preplanned discussion routines to better facilitate students' comprehension of previously assigned content area materials in terms of how texts figured into those decisions. (FL)

Argues that instructional decisions may be affected by the conflict produced when teachers' curricular perceptions do not match those that underlie a recommended teaching strategy and presents an ideological framework for comparing secondary reading goals and their related curricula. (FL)

Concludes that middle school and high school students are rarely involved in discussions (as opposed to recitations) of their content reading assignments. Includes three sources of information for helping teachers help their students learn from text. (FL)

Since confusion continues to exist over what teachers mean when they say they are holding a discussion over previously assigned content reading materials, a study compared and contrasted the verbal and nonverbal interactions between teachers and students (or students and students) in eight content area classrooms in rural high schools in Georgia.…

Concludes that on an immediate recall test, fourth-grade students taught with a graphic organizer strategy for facilitating comprehension recalled significantly more idea units in a test passage than did students who had not received such instruction, but there were no performance differences between the two groups on a one-month delayed recall…

A study was conducted to determine whether high and low ability comprehenders would benefit from induced lookbacks over naturally occurring text. Subjects were 64 tenth grade students selected on the basis of how their self-perceived proficiency matched their actual reading achievement as measured on a standardized test. The subjects were randomly…

This critical review of "Becoming a Nation of Readers" states that the Commission on Reading report contains sensible and practical recommendations, though it is not wholly representative of all the available research on reading and it contains occasional insensitivities to the potential problems within its recommendations. The first…