Offers Request, the Directed Reading-Thinking Activity, the Expectation Outline, the Prereading Guided Reading Procedure, Word Wonder, and Semantic Webbing as techniques that use many of the basic principles of the directed reading activity while adjusting to the needs of specific materials and students. (FL)

A study investigated whether comprehension of a text could be enhanced by careful structuring of the lesson elements surrounding it. One group of ten second grade children received a reading lesson as prescribed in a basal series that directed attention to irrelevant content while failing to highlight consistently important story elements. A…

Proposes a seven-stage model of direct instruction as it might be applied to a reading skills lesson on predicting outcomes. Discusses each stage of the model: exploration, explication, translation, modeling, guided practice, application, and closure. (FL)

Describes how to help children comprehend what they read using an experience-text-relationship method of discussing and reading class material. (MKM)

In this study, two different approaches to the teaching of reading were designed and presented over an eight-week period, then evaluated according to student scores on three standardized tests. After a pretest, nine first-grade classes were randomly assigned to one of three groups: literature, concept development, or control. In the literature…

Discusses the benefits of reading aloud to preschool and kindergarten children. Notes that active participation accounts for many of these benefits. Suggests several interactive story reading strategies, including a Directed Listening-Thinking Activity and shared book experiences. (MM)

A study evaluated the effectiveness of various models constructed to account for how children read and comprehended a story presented in a directed reading lesson. A commercial directed reading lesson was revised to introduce information related to the story and to help the children form a "map" of the central story content. Data were…

Investigates the effectiveness of a direct instruction model for teaching children to comprehend anaphoric relationships. The results provide further support for the efficacy of a direct instructional model for teaching children reading comprehension skills. (HOD)

Discusses the role of the elementary teacher in instilling a love of reading in children. Stresses need to provide material of interest to children, the pitfalls of oral reading, and the need to help parents plan book purchases. (CJM)

This activity book uses the whole language approach to encourage young readers and prereaders to become critical listeners and viewers by comparing different versions of familiar fairy tales ("The Three Little Pigs" and "Beauty and the Beast"). Class activities, educational games, posters, and student activity pages are…