Reviews earlier studies of the effect of student background knowledge on reading comprehension and then reports on a third investigation into the same effect. Concludes that the test results obtained in the study can be accounted for in terms of an interaction between background knowledge and linguistic proficiency. (Author/SED)

Investigates second grade children's ability to understand the use of deictic terms (devices in language that convey information about the communicative situation) in three types of tasks: oral language, written language, and picture selection, and concludes that the difficulty of a word with deictic content depends largely upon the discourse…

An additive model is developed to account for reading times for two different reading tasks: reading for retention and reading for comprehension. The model is concerned with the reading strategies of adults and fifth graders, and with individual differences between fast and slow readers. (Author/LMO)

Reports the methodology used to measure the reading ability of third and fourth grade pupils in Finnish "comprehensive" schools in 1964 and 1979. Notes that 1979 students had significantly higher abilities in all areas measured, despite decreases in standard deviations. Interprets results in the light of acceleration theory. (SB)

This article provides a description of a planning strategy for the involvement of the learning-disabled adult student. It examines the philosophical approach to planning; characteristics of the learning disabled adult; program planning strategies, involving diagnosis, goals and objectives, modalities and learning procedures; materials and…

The situation with regards to reading performance in Washington State is similar to that in many other states. Although student performance in reading has improved somewhat over the past four years, too many students continue to fall below state standards. In response to poor test scores and to the outpouring of research on early reading…

This book offers strategies to help both new teachers and seasoned veterans create dynamic classroom environments where students enjoy learning and teachers enjoy teaching. In addition to no-nonsense advice, checklists, and handouts, the book includes: (1) A step-by-step plan to make the first week of school a success; (2) Approaches for creating…

Literacy consultant Joan Groeber provides educators with a teacher-friendly, step-by-step guide for creating and using rubrics to assess a wide range of literacy skills. Groeber's approach helps ensure that students gain a clear understanding of teacher expectations and assume a greater responsibility for their own learning. Offering an overview…

This book focuses on a key component of literacy instruction: helping children become thoughtful, independent readers who are able to use a flexible repertoire of reading strategies for comprehension and word recognition. The book presents research-based explanations and guidelines that culminate in a comprehensive strategy instruction model. It…

This guide was developed with the recognition of the growing need for school districts to provide access to the general education curriculum for students with special needs and to align assistive technology (AT) with performance requirements of the curriculum. The AT solutions presented represent changes in materials and instructional strategies…

This paper investigated if prior context was used by readers to resolve temporarily ambiguous prepositional phrases. The paper addresses two issues, referring to two competing approaches to sentence processing and testing the predictability of each approach in two online reading experiments. The issues focus on the Human Sentence Processing…

Part of a series, the purpose of this low-readability/high interest book is to use higher order thinking to develop students' reading comprehension skills. The reading skills addressed in the book are based on state reading standards and assessment tests for grades five and six. The goal of the series of books is to teach students how to analyze…

Noting that comprehension instruction is widely recognized as an essential component of developing students' pleasure and profit from reading, this book presents 25 essays on comprehension instruction that summarize current research and provide best-practice guidelines for teachers and teacher educators. Each chapter in the book presents key…

The effectiveness of explicit fluency interventions, with decoding instruction as needed, on a single subject in grade three was investigated. Fluency interventions, including choral reading, echo reading, repeated reading, audio book modeling, and teacher modeling, were conducted over a period of 8 weeks. Results indicated that using manageable…

This study has been done to gather data as to whether there is improvement in vocabulary development, reading comprehension and reading fluency when a child is reading aloud and he or she has a reading companion as opposed to not having a reading companion. As this literature review indicates there has been a lot of research on the benefits of…