For children with poor vocabulary development, reading is intimidating rather than exciting. That is why elementary and middle school teachers need this activity-filled guidebook--to improve students' independent word learning skills and strengthen their comprehension so they will tackle their schoolwork with confidence. Teachers will start by…

Two experiments were conducted to examine the effects of cognitive load management using vocabulary definitions in reading passages for readers of English as a second language (ESL) with different levels of expertise who were attending school in Hong Kong. Experiment 1 found that vocabulary definitions integrated within a passage (integrated…

This paper considers reading research carried out by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). The paper presents a synthesis of this research on reading. It begins with a note about the NICHD research program and a discussion of how the program is different from other studies of reading. It then discusses a new…

A study investigated the effect Sustained Silent Reading (SSR) has had on literacy at Estancia High School in California which recently implemented an SSR program. It also examined the role SSR has on language development, comprehension, vocabulary, student attitudes, and its corollary consequence on the development of reading habits. A survey of…

A study aimed to discover a correspondence between the thinking processes and textual structures of six eleventh graders. In a predominantly White, middle class rural high school, six students were selected to think aloud as they read two essays written as part of two assignments for their advanced English classes. The six were selected based on…

A study examined the effectiveness of a training program in deriving word meanings through morphological analysis and from context. Subjects were 31 fourth-grade average and poor readers from 8 Dutch elementary schools. Four groups of students were assigned to the experimental group and four groups were assigned to the control group. The…

The human cognitive system may have a developmental property that makes acquisition of fluent reading skills difficult after a certain age. This problem may be seen to affect two different populations: participants in adult literacy programs who lacked access to schools as children and educated adults fluent in languages with non-Latin scripts.…

This report describes a program for enhancing reading comprehension and vocabulary development through the use of multiple instructional strategies and technology. The targeted elementary population exhibits both poor reading comprehension and poor vocabulary acquisition and understanding, which interfere with academic achievement. Evidence for…

Readers possess vast amounts of knowledge gained from their prior experiences and exposures. The more they are helped to use that knowledge for connecting new ideas to known subjects as they read, the better their comprehension will be. Discussions before reading have been a traditional way to activate students' schema for stories, but a new…

This book guides parents and children in developing strategies to figure out words. The first chapter, Skills for Identifying Words, presents general strategies for making sense of words, and for using the eyes and ears to identify words. The first chapter also offers listening and visual exercises. The second chapter, Using Phonics To Identify…

Many middle school and high school students have difficulty reading and understanding academic texts, which limits their ability to meet today's high learning standards. This guidebook addresses this quiet but growing crisis. Aimed at content area teachers in secondary schools, the guidebook describes a successful approach to helping students…

Competent readers use strategies automatically; moreover, the use of strategies is a natural part of their reading process. Interested in the effects of the direct teaching of strategies to poor readers, a researcher decided to use a classroom action research approach. She studied reading strategies used by competent readers before, during, and…

Consisting of four articles taken from the "Minneapolis Star Tribune" with 10 questions for each article, this Practice Test gives an answer sheet and an answer key (including specification to the type of question either Literal Comprehension or Inferential Comprehension). These practice tests are not intended to be psychometrically…

These booklets are intended for students in Alberta, Canada, taking the Grade 12 Diploma Examinations in English 30. The readings booklet presents 7 reading selections from fiction and nonfiction literature. After instructions for students, the booklet presents: (1) Lance Morrow's essay "Metaphors of the World, Unite!"; (2) Carl…

This book and the conference that gave rise to its chapters were conceived as a means of investigating how to translate important sets of research findings in reading and reading instruction into practice. Topics for inclusion were selected for their high priority in terms of practice or policy; for their potential for making a substantial…