Noting that comprehension studies have stressed the importance of determining the main idea of reading instruction, this paper offers a teaching strategy--the Modified Language Experience Method--that has proven successful in teaching main ideas to secondary school students. The paper first compares the strategy, which begins with the general…

Teachers can encourage students to see reading as meaning-making in a number of ways. Context support methods begin by ensuring that the context is already familiar to students so that word recognition is made easier. Language experience approaches encourage children to learn to read by first reading what they have produced. Real books, as…

Discusses the effect of previous knowledge on reading comprehension. Suggests reading instruction methods that evoke the readers' experiences, or schemata, relevant to the material. (HTH)

Shows how the language experience approach is a useful tool in teaching expository prose structure to elementary school students. (EL)

Lists suggestions for implementing a reading-for-meaning instructional approach that focuses on the development and comprehension of language. (FL)

A model is offered for building the vocabulary skills of students with deafness or hearing impairments. The model is based on Piaget's theoretical concepts of assimilation and accommodation. The model presents six sequenced steps for learning new vocabulary and suggests using the Language Experience approach, environmental print, predictable…

Discusses the need for systematic exploration of claims about the advantages of language experience dictations; recommends that teachers guide the rereading and editing of early dictations to facilitate comprehending behaviors, and that they help children explore writing conventions as their dictations indicate a readiness to learn them. (ET)

This monograph points out the difficulties in language development of which teachers should be aware, suggests some methods through which children may be helped to overcome comprehension problems, and presents bibliographies helpful for persons who wish to undertake further reading. Chapters include "Some Possible Origins of the Prevalence of…

Five contributors suggest ways to (1) develop oral reading skills; (2) adapt the language experience approach for use with the mildly handicapped, slow learner; (3) conduct a "ditto-less day" in the classroom; (4) use microcomputers for reading comprehension; and (5) use LEA with basal readers. (FL)

Deaf children need reading programs which emphasize comprehension of meaning rather than syntax and grammar. Successful reading programs can emerge when reading is viewed as a highly social experience, reading materials are meaningful and highly contextualized, and semantic processing in American Sign Language is used to assist reading in English.…

This report describes several prominent reading comprehension programs for use in grades three through eight and discusses some research studies on these programs effectiveness in terms of student achievement. Three basal reading series are compared and descriptions are given of the DISTAR reading and language programs, objective-based reading…

Second-grade pupils using the Ginn "Reading 360" or the McGraw-Hill "Programmed Reading" were compared in their reading and retelling of the story "King Alfred and the Cakes." Analysis, using the Reading Miscue Inventory, of the performance of 20 selected pupils indicated that those taught with "Programmed…

Describes various activities designed for use in the reading classroom, including (1) cooperative learning activities; (2) reading and writing activities; (3) ways to improve comprehension; and (4) ways to encourage independent reading. (FL)