Across disciplines, faculty members face a common challenge of finding methods to get their students to complete assigned course readings. It becomes an even larger task to develop strategies whereby students are also engaging in deep reading that promotes critical thinking. Reading positively impacts students on a number of variables, and when…

The author replicated and extended a study by Flowerday, Schraw, & Stevens (2004) that examined the effects of choice, topic interest, and situational interest on reading engagement, attitude, and learning in college-age students. The study was replicated using fourth and fifth graders as subjects. The study was extended to examine the effects of…

A study of 178 fifth grade children reveals that content schemata can be restructured through reading activities and that restructuring is more marked when information is presented through reading and semantic mapping/discussion than when it is presented through reading alone. (SKC)

Cites research suggesting that extensive reading is as effective as intensive reading in developing general reading ability and is more effective in promoting good attitudes among elementary and secondary school students toward reading. (MM)

Indicates that each instructional unit was composed of several mini-lessons rather than representing an integrated and related unit organized around a central purpose. Finds that lesson parts failed to make logical connections to previous or following parts. Concludes that the nature of reading lessons could be a contributing factor to the…

Contends that the addition of the microcomputer as a learning tool may enhance student learning and increase teacher effectiveness using the direct instruction approach. Discusses patterns associated with teacher effectiveness, practical application of the direct instruction model, and the incorporation of computer assisted instruction into a…

A review of the literature indicates that instructional differences exist between the instruction given to good and poor readers. A study was conducted to examine the amount of actual reading of connected text, orally or silently, assigned during classroom reading instruction. Twenty-four first and second grade teachers from four school districts…

Describes story impressions, a prereading activity that uses story fragments in the form of clue words and phrases to help readers activate schemata by building anticipatory models of the text prior to reading, then allowing the reader to confirm or modify the model as the details of the actual story are encountered. (SKC)

Describes a study which examined through classroom observations of reading and social studies whether elementary schools provide comprehension instruction. Major findings included the fact that almost no comprehension instruction was found. (MKM)

Two classes of junior high school pupils were observed for two school terms to determine how they coped with the reading demands of the four main content areas--math, English, science, and social studies. (HOD)

Presents a study of students in Australia, Canada, and England and examines grade nine students' written responses to writing over a two year period and their opinions of the books they read. Suggests that for students of that age, creative written responses to writing are the most imaginative. (JC)

A substantial amount of literature in education and psychology supports the notion that reading combined with writing enhances comprehension and recall. To investigate how various writing tasks affect thinking, a pilot study was conducted, which produced results consistent with the hypothesis that text engagement (student interaction with written…

A review of several classroom observation and survey studies of comprehension instruction, content area reading for homework, and aspects of reading assignments raises the question of whether enough is being done in Irish schools to develop critical reading competency. It appears from these studies that many students are being left to their own…

This study presents preliminary findings from research developing an instructional quality assessment (IQA) toolkit that could be used to monitor the influence of reform initiatives on students' learning environments and to guide professional development efforts within a school or district. This report focuses specifically on the portion of the…

The purpose of this book is to deal with pressing problems encountered by secondary teachers in teaching reading, through synthesizing pertinent research and suggesting classroom applications. Its 16 chapters deal with the following topics: the teen-aged nonreader; complicating factors in the teaching of reading; a school-wide attack on reading…