This qualitative case study explores the processes that occurred when pre-service teachers in an undergraduate elementary education literacy methods course were asked to interact with contextually challenging texts in a comprehension module and implement comprehension instruction in a tutoring field experience placement. The goal was to understand…

Because reading is not a natural process like language, young learners must be taught to read. Knowledge about how the reading brain develops has critical implications for understanding which teaching methods to use and helps reconceptualize previous debates. In this excerpt from "Reader Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World",…

IN ORDER TO TEACH READING AS A THINKING PROCESS, TEACHERS SHOULD BELIEVE THAT CHILDREN CAN THINK AND CAN BE TAUGHT TO READ CRITICALLY, EVEN AT A VERY YOUNG AGE. THREE ASPECTS OF THE READING-THINKING PROCESS INCLUDE DECLARATION OF PURPOSES, REASONING, AND JUDGMENT. THE NATURE OF THE PURPOSES DETERMINES WHAT IS TO BE READ AND HOW IT IS TO BE READ.…

Argues that basing comprehension questions on story grammar will help students develop story schema. (FL)

Argues that metacognition gives a framework for understanding earlier studies on the relationship between reading rate and text characteristics and points toward an explanation for reading flexibility. (FL)

Offers suggestions on using underlining as a strategy to help students identify key concepts. (FL)

Emphasizes that, in order to comprehend, a reader must chunk the many words of a sentence into meaningful groups of words. Offers suggestions for developing "thought units" in the upper grades. (FL)

Provides suggestions for activating prior knowledge, getting children to be aware when their comprehension is lagging, and tying it all together at the end. (FL)

Outlines seven basic concepts regarding teachers' understanding of the comprehension process and proposes several instructional strategies based on the concepts, each of which actively involves children in reading. (FL)

Reports that reading researchers are now debating whether reading is a bottom-up or top-down process. (FL)

Describes a story grammar, summarizes some results of story grammar research, and suggests instructional procedures for developing children's concept of story and story components. (FL)

Three experiments were conducted to determine how children assign meaning to a multiple-meaning word in a sentence context. Fourth-grade children were given sentences in which a key word carried a meaning other than its "primary," or most familiar, meaning. Two types of multiple choice questions could then follow: in the first type, the secondary,…

Reviews a line of research in which the readability of basal reader stories is assessed through a comparison of traditional and story grammar-based indices. Presents implications for the measurement of readability and the preparation of basal reader stories. (FL)

Reports on a study that investigated the effect of readers' abilities to be creative on their abilities to make inferences in reading prose passages. (FL)

Reviews recent ERIC materials on comprehension monitoring. (FL)