This article revisits the rich theoretical and empirical literatures that undergird strategy instruction, with the goal of identifying a principled approach to the teaching of strategies to enhance reading and learning with text. Its purpose is to examine the question of why strategy instruction, as enacted in practice, might raise concerns among…

This article considers the role of reader characteristics in processing and learning from informational text, as revealed in think-aloud research. A theoretical framework for relevant aspects of readers' processing and products was developed. These relevant aspects included three attentional foci for processing (comprehension, monitoring, and…

A study investigated the use of study guides as instructional tools and compared the effectiveness of study guides with and without analogies. Seventy-four undergraduate students in three upper division education classes studied three passages about three obscure religions (Manichaeism, Jainism, and the Druze religion) with and without the aid of…

The purpose of this book is to introduce the research on readability, defined here as reading ease. The first part of the book covers how people read. A series of national literacy surveys show that the average person in the U.S. and most other countries are adults of limited reading skills. For example, the average adult in the U.S. reads at the…

Studies one struggling reader and her self-directed pathways to progress as she consistently chose old basal-sounding, beginner-oriented materials over newer, aesthetically constructed literature. Investigates differences between beginner-oriented texts and aesthetically constructed literature. Concludes some struggling readers need repetitious…

Most studies of eye movement behavior during reading have dealt with the processes involved with local aspects of text, such as visual or graphic characteristics or individual word features. To determine if a global level of processing (pertaining to the whole text or to large sections of it) would affect eye movement patterns differently, a study…

Examines the role of the teacher in enhancing students' reading comprehension. Finds that the teacher is a more significant factor in the comprehension of lengthy natural texts than is the ease of the text itself. (MG)

Forty-eight college students participated in a study that (1) explored the degree to which the reader response technique developed by W. F. Brewer and E. H. Lichtenstein to study artificial texts could be applied to natural texts, and (2) compared texts written over a wide time period and from two different literary traditions (six American and…

Creating a link between current research findings and classroom practice, this book analyzes, compares, and critiques prevalent classroom strategies in beginning reading instruction in light of expertise available in other countries. The book begins with a section on "Points of Departure," consisting of three chapters:…