Readers often struggle to identify the main ideas in expository texts. Existing research and instruction provide some guidance on how to encourage readers to identify main ideas. However, there is substantial variability in how main ideas are operationalized and how readers are prompted to identify main ideas. This variability hinders…

Readers often struggle to identify the main ideas in expository texts. Existing research and instruction provide some guidance on how to encourage readers to identify main ideas. However, there is substantial variability in how main ideas are operationalized and how readers are prompted to identify main ideas. This variability hinders…

Reading skill plays a pivotal role in the process of acquiring information. An appropriate teaching technique should be implemented in order to improve the students' reading skill. This research aimed at revealing whether or not: (1) Herringbone technique (HT) is more effective than Tri Focus Steve Snyder technique (TFSST) to teach reading…

This study investigated the complexity of leveled passages used in four classroom reading assessments. A total of 167 passages leveled for Grades 1-6 from these assessments were analyzed using four analytical tools of text complexity. More traditional, two-factor measures of text complexity found a general trend of fairly consistent across-grade…

Teaching students to enjoy reading is important in middle level education; however, middle school students with emotional behavioral disabilities (EBD) frequently struggle with reading skills and frequently display motivational deficits during reading instruction. The purpose of this study was to examine if the presence/absence of a classroom pet…

Background: Readability tests are indicators that measure how easy a document can be read and understood. Simple, but very often ignored, readability statistics cannot only provide information about the level of difficulty of the readability of particular documents but also can increase an evaluator's credibility. Purpose: The purpose of this…

Concludes that test results are essentially the same for both the Flesch and Gunning reading indices. (RB)

Because of concern about the harmful effects of placing children in low reading groups, this study tested the following "sacred cows" in reading: (1) the use of informal reading inventories for grouping children in reading instruction, (2) the homogeneous grouping practices currently utilized in most classrooms in the United States, (3)…