A study examined the concept of the universality or the cultural specificity of the ideal story structure using the J. M. Mandler and N. S. Johnson story grammar. Specifically, the study tested the effect of two different story structures, one a conventional fairy tale and the other a Cree Indian narrative, on the recall of Cree Indian children.…

The production of a book review journal by students is suggested as a way of encouraging reading and of developing clear, expository writing. Guidelines are provided for the sequential development of such a journal. Criteria are offered for evaluating fiction and nonfiction books, with examples of annotations featuring style, period or setting of…

This handbook is for use by content area teachers in grades three through six who want to help students improve their comprehension of both oral and written language. The first three chapters discuss the nature of comprehension and establish the general philosophical framework for the strategies and activities that make up the major portion of the…

A study was conducted to determine if context facilitated the understanding of idiomatic expressions and multiple-meaning vocabulary words presented in narrative passages and if the passages containing these linguistic elements were comprehended. Specifically, the study compared the performance of monolingual and bilingual sixth grade and eighth…

Two studies were conducted to determine the effects of specific reading strategies on content area comprehension and reading skills. The strategies tested were a specific study guide, directed reading questions, cognitive organizer, and structured overview. In the first study, 225 students enrolled in a community college history course were…

A study was conducted (1) to examine the development of comprehension and production in written language of two aspects of linguistic knowledge, knowledge of ambiguity and paraphrase; and (2) to examine the influences of reading ability as measured by currently used standardized reading tests and of sex on the development of this knowledge of…

Many factors influence the comprehension of a linguistic act by a listener or reader. Some, such as maturity, background, and interests of the decoder are nonlinguistic; others, such as the vocabulary and complexity of the morphological and syntactical structures are linguistic in nature. A review of the literature reveals that while studies have…

A model of cognitive operations that children use in reading and comprehending a sentence was tested by using Sternberg's independent-process analysis on 64 second and fifth graders who were either high- or low-ability readers. Three specific component processes were examined: a decoding process, a word meaning process, and a comprehension…

To determine the relationship between reading comprehension and the measures of logical judgement and concepts of language, forty-one adult basic education students were tested using the California Achievement Test and Peel's tests of logical judgement. The findings include the following: (1) concepts of language structure vary in adults; (2) the…

To determine why some children find textbooks to be much more difficult to understand than teachers' presentations, four reading selections for middle grade readers were analyzed, as were tape recorded lessons prepared by ten teachers on the basis of the same selections. Excerpts from one of the written passages and excerpts and analysis of one…

An outline is given of a model procedure by which teachers can ascertain the reading level of students so they may match the students' ability in reading comprehension with the subject content of a course. This six-step model may be viewed as a continuum of material and student assessment, teaching, evaluation, and reassessment of material and…

Students in 61 English classes at an urban high school participated in an investigation of the effects of sustained silent reading (SSR) on their reading comprehension skills and on their atttiudes toward reading. SSR calls for a systematic structured time in school for students to read books of their choosing without being tested when the reading…

To determine whether increasing decoding speed affects the comprehension of poor readers, two experiments were designed to test two groups consisting of seven good readers and eleven poor readers chosen from fourth and fifth grade. In the first experiment, poor readers were trained to read a list of words as rapidly as the good readers and were…

Recent research projects have indicated that a majority of adolescent and adult students have not reached a formal level of cognitive functioning and must therefore be taught rhetorical modes such as comparison and classification. A study was constructed to investigate the cognitive skills development of average college freshmen and to test…

The impact of the Right to Read program in Spencer, Massachusetts, and the 11 other Massachusetts Charter communities was investigated in the following respects: to assess changes in teachers' perceptions toward the reading program, to compare the perceptions of school and community populations, to measure the amount of children's reading, to…