The purpose of this study was to improve the comprehension and problem-solving skills of students with disabilities in social studies using a conceptually framed, computer-adapted history text. Participants were 11th and 12th grade students identified with learning disabilities in reading and writing from two intact, self-contained social studies…

In this article, the author presents anecdotal scenarios which reflect some important moments in the teaching and learning of reading. In the first scenario, a student recognized fluent reading and named it, illustrating the power of a common vocabulary. The second scenario addressed the importance of common visual supports in the school…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine whether memory support and elicited production differentially benefited fast mapping of new vocabulary (comprehension, production accuracy, and speed) in adolescents with Down syndrome (DS) compared with typically developing (TD) children matched for syntax comprehension. The study also examined…

This study examined the phonics and reading achievement of 117 primary grade students in 14 schools and 42 classrooms. Students received instruction in one of six different reading programs or models based upon the school they attended. Through qualitative data collection and analysis of specific instructional practices, it was determined that no…

Teachers must gauge students' understandings and confusions. Yet most research about teacher thinking neglects teachers' ideas about confusion and students' perspectives about their interactions with their teacher when they are confused. This study examines two high school English teachers' and six of their students' thinking about confusion,…

The present study focuses on the task characteristics of reading passages and key sentences in a test of second language reading. Using a new methodological approach to describe variation in test task characteristics and explore how differences in these characteristics might relate to examinee performance, it posed the two following research…

This study investigated the effects of "signals" in text (headings, previews, and logical connectives) on the reading comprehension of learners of English as a Second Language. Subjects were 232 female Hong Kong secondary school students, all less-skilled readers of English. The subjects read a relatively difficult passage in English on…

This study measured the difference of the effect on students' learning of Chinese as a second language with the use of Chinese television commercials with both audio and video and Chinese commercials with audio only. Subjects were students (n=201) at Brigham Young University (Utah). Approximately 60 hours of commercial television videos, most in…

This book presents a study of the ways in which home and school experiences affect the literacy achievement of a group of elementary school children from low-income families. Chapter 1 describes how the study differs from other literacy research. Chapter 2 describes the community where the research took place, some of the families studied, and the…

This workplace skills course on complex materials is designed for employees who want to increase their comprehension of more complex reading materials in the workplace. It uses a variety of materials from the workplace, including forms, memos, letters, and reports. Introductory material includes a course outline, objectives, and topical outline.…

The collection of papers on linguistic experiments includes: "Discourse Functions of Pitch Range in Spontaneous and Read Speech" (Gayle M. Ayers); "When Is a Syllable Not a Syllable?" (Mary E. Beckman); "The Relationship between Syntactic and Semantic Processes in Sentence Comprehension" (Julie E. Boland); "The Influence of Orthography and…

This set of working papers concentrates on reading issues. This collection contains the following papers: "Literacy: The Needs of Teachers and Learners" (Christopher Brumfit); "Eight Lessons from Research into Literacy" (Henrietta Dombey); "'The Disqualified Half': Gender Representation in a Children's Reading Scheme" (Simon Williams); "Reading to…

An experiment sought to determine the effectiveness of a program for improving achievement among black seventh and eighth grade social studies students. The aim was to develop a media center service program that would support school district efforts to provide educational and support services for the black male. An audiovisual tutoring program…

Anchored instruction and anchored assessment are described and illustrated through a mathematics problem from the Jasper problem solving series developed at Vanderbilt University in Nashville (Tennessee). Anchored instruction is instruction situated in a context complex enough to provide meaning and reasons for why information is useful. Problems…

This study examined how learning, attitudes, and mental efforts are affected by changing the verbal information presentation format and relationship between the narrator and on-screen character in a junior high school-level science film. Twenty seventh-grade science classes (N=441) were randomly assigned to one of five treatment groups. Each class…