Sixty-six grade six students were subjects in a study to evaluate the effectiveness of a direct instruction paradigm for teaching children the reading comprehension skill of main idea identification. Both experimental groups (strategy and basal) and the control group received eight lessons of 30 minutes each. All instruction occurred over a…

Although critics persist in attacks on the teaching profession in general and the teaching of reading in particular, both elementary and secondary school reading scores have increased steadily over the past three decades. Even Black and Hispanic students (who still score below the averages for White students tested) have made sizeable gains in…

This handbook, which suggests activities to help students acquire and improve reading skills, is divided into the following units: (1) vocabulary development--word attack skills and vocabulary acquisition skills, (2) reading comprehension, (3) critical and interpretive reading, (4) work study habits, (5) locating information in books and using…