Presents a qualitative analysis of a transcript of a critical-thinking reading lesson designed for sixth grade students. The analysis illustrates the relationship between critical thinking and reading comprehension and demonstrates that critical thinking can be promoted in everyday classroom instruction using regular classroom materials. (JD)

Reports the impact of metadiscourse on sixth grade students' learning and attitudes. Finds that low-comfort students learn more when informational metadiscourse is presented in interpersonal voice and high-comfort students learn less. Finds that students' attitudes are more tolerant of opinions if they read just one type of metadiscourse. (KEH)

Examines how cultural schemata influence American and Palauan students' reported strategies and their reading comprehension. Finds that students predominantly use processing strategies categorized under awareness development and intrasentential ties establishment for culturally unfamiliar passages. Finds that students use intersentential ties and…

Four language classroom activities are described, including a geography unit focusing on the Paris/province contrast and use of maps as authentic documents; a reading exercise teaching comprehension of an article on French family economics; an oral communication activity about European countries; and a year-long project on business administration…

The article describes seven methods to help special needs learners improve reading comprehension: the Pre Reading Plan; the six-step survey technique; semantic mapping; story maps; mental imagery; learning logs; and use of question-answer relationships. (DB)

The study examined the performance of 28 students (ages 12-15) with mild educational handicaps and 38 with learning disabilities on a combination of norm-referenced and curriculum-based assessment approaches. There were no significant differences on measures of word recognition, but significant differences favoring learning-disabled students…

Examines whether the comprehension of English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) students who were trained to summarize improved more than that of students who responded to short-answer questions. Finds that since the reading comprehension of all classes improved significantly, the study could not prove that either approach was the major cause of this…

Reviews previous research on the effects of signals (structural cues that announce or emphasize content or reveal content relationships) on readers' comprehension of expository prose. Concludes that inconsistent results are due to inadequate methodologies that fail to control for confounding variables, such as text length and difficulty, topic…

Results from a longitudinal study indicated that first grade metalinguistic awareness was a statistically significant predictor of students' (N=65) reading comprehension performance in both third and fifth grades, even when academic aptitude was in the regression equation. (Author/IAH)

POSSE, an instructional procedure for a reading comprehension curriculum, structures classroom dialogue about text meaning. Students with mild handicaps predict what the story will be about, organize their knowledge, search for the text structure, summarize, and evaluate. POSSE's successful application is dependent upon effective lesson dialogue…

Examines reading comprehension as it applies to the chemistry lab and describes techniques that promote better comprehension of lab materials. Lists four levels of reading to understand: literal, inferential, evaluative, and creative. Notes three methods to teach reading: the reference approach, mapping, and request. (MVL)

Investigates whether thematic organizers can facilitate generalizability of ideas from one context to another for low ability readers enrolled in a college developmental studies program. Finds that the thematic strategy facilitated transfer of learning. (RS)

Investigates how readers use schemata and purpose in learning vocabulary from context. Examines Sternberg's model of verbal comprehension acquisition as well as the interaction among vocabulary acquisition and components of the reading process. Finds the effects of comprehension ability and purpose are significant, while the effect of schemata is…

Compares retention of popular science material by fifth grade students using either computer simulation software or expository text as the instructional tool. Finds a statistically significant superiority in favor of the expository text group. (RS)

Two studies at Haifa University examined the effects on oral reading comprehension scores of these factors: (1) anxiety under varying test situations, (2) student gender, (3) students' native language, (4) individual vs. group testing, and (5) the relative difficulty of the English language texts. (MSE)