A study investigated the attention of 116 children in 6 second- and third-grade classrooms while they participated in 4 lessons involving progressively more difficult stories. Analysis of videotapes of the lessons revealed that the likelihood of a lapse of attention was highest during the first 15 seconds of attention episodes. Lapses in attention…

The reading pariety study for 1989-90 provided information for the Cleveland, Ohio school district, parents, and community to determine what progress the school system is making toward parity in reading proficiency. Parity will be attained when statistically equivalent proportions of Black and White students score at or above the thirty-fourth…

The Nihongo tutorial system is an intelligent tutorial system designed to use a computer to assist scientists and engineers in developing reading competence in technical Japanese. It consists of three applications: the Nihongo Tutor, which provides useful information about an article (translation, syntax, pronunciation) to help understand the text…

Intended as a comprehensive review of study guides, this monograph combines a discussion of why and how study guides help students comprehend text with a focus on the most effective ways to use these guides in the classroom. The publication is designed to help teachers decide when and how to use these comprehension aids. The monograph presents an…

Intended to disseminate new information about early literacy development to teachers of young children, this 125-item annotated bibliography includes listings of books, book chapters, pamphlets, journal articles, and videocassettes that can help enhance teachers' knowledge base about theory and strategies in early literacy development. The…

Reading strategies that have been identified and recommended by recent literature can be classified into four categories: cognitive strategies, compensation strategies, memory strategies, and test-taking strategies. Research indicated that the use of appropriate strategies may improve reading comprehension. Research has also suggested that readers…

A project designed and implemented a framework of conceptually oriented reading instruction to foster students' amount and breadth of reading, intrinsic motivations for reading, and strategies of search and comprehension. The framework emphasizes five phases of reading instruction in a content domain: observing and personalizing, searching and…

This paper reports the results of using a three-layer backpropagation artificial neural network to predict item difficulty in a reading comprehension test. Two network structures were developed, one with and one without a sigmoid function in the output processing unit. The data set, which consisted of a table of coded test items and corresponding…

The 197 reading tests described in this bibliography assess various reading skills such as comprehension, oral reading, silent reading, independent, instructional and frustration levels. Some of the reading tests are part of overall achievement batteries. Some of the tests are in Spanish. This bibliography does not include reading readiness tests.…

A study investigated the growth in reading comprehension of students successfully completing a college developmental reading course, and the retention of students taking (and not taking) the reading course. Subjects, 197 first-time freshmen who entered Indiana Wesleyan University during 1989-90 and the 1990-91 school years, were divided into a…

The ability of the Rasch model computer program BIGSTEPS to perform concurrent calibration and differences in the outcomes between vertical equating using a common item anchoring method and a common item concurrent calibration method was examined. The data for the investigation came from two Chinese language tests that researchers wished to…

A practicum addressed the significant difference between the reading comprehension levels of gifted students and their ability to demonstrate achieved levels on exams designed to measure these levels. Nineteen fifth-grade students participated in daily timed activities targeting reading comprehension, reading rate, attitudes towards test taking,…

An action research project studied the attitudes and achievement of low-achieving fifth-grade students after participating in a 1-year heterogeneously grouped, literature-based reading program. The project explored the changes in student attitudes towards reading, and changes in students' knowledge in comprehension and vocabulary development.…

Although each of the 11 programs evaluated in this report during the 1989-90 school year had its own unique design and objectives, their common goal was to increase the likelihood that at-risk students in Cleveland (Ohio) schools would complete their high school education. Programs were evaluated in terms of changes from the previous year in the…

Computer courseware appropriate for instruction in grades K-12 is listed in this document. Entries are classified by subject or application: (1) communication skills, which include instruction in reading, writing, and research sources; (2) mathematics; (3) college selection services; (4) problem solving; and (5) social studies. Information on each…