This inservice professional development module, part of the Alabama Reading Initiative, presents research summaries, notes for presenters, and activities. The Oral Language and Vocabulary module elaborates on a student's comprehension of text as it relates to the overlap between the student's system of language and the author's system of language.…

To spread the word that reading instruction must be based on research and to improve the preparation of teachers to teach reading, this edition of "Basic Education" emphasizes some of the most significant findings of recent reading research and suggests how these findings should translate into immediate action and policy. The first article, "A…

This paper discusses the amount of vocabulary required by students learning in a second language to comprehend academic texts, explaining that a wide vocabulary is essential for reading comprehension and for speaking and writing clearly. It highlights an assessment of the vocabulary levels of students entering Hong Kong University, which found…

This practical resource offers more than 40 strategies that teachers in all content areas can use to help students--including English learners and struggling readers--understand new words, phrases, and concepts. Far more than best means of teaching specific words, these strategies will tap students' curiosity, engage and empower them, develop…

Gather students and jump back in time to experience what life was like "back then." Through this book, during each day of immersion, students rotate through 14-18 stations of math and vocabulary activities, games, crafts, costumes, and food. Explore legends, songs, maps, and historical events along the way to understand specific times…

This handbook presents brief descriptions of various aspects of reading instruction and related lesson plans and class activities. Sections of the handbook discuss reading readiness, word recognition, word analysis; word meaning, comprehension, and content area reading. The handbook also offers brief biographies of Jeanne Chall, Theodore William…

This action research project focused on causes for reading deficiencies of the targeted eighth grade students and how those deficiencies affect students' achievement in language arts, science, and mathematics. The targeted population consisted of 30 eighth grade students in a middle-class community located in a suburban area of a large Midwestern…

This report describes a program implemented to improve reading comprehension in the content areas. The targeted population will consist of students in grades two, three, four, and five, in five midwestern schools, four public and one private. The problem of poor comprehension will be documented through test scores, parent and student surveys, and…

Based on Grimm's fairy tales, this lesson plan presents activities designed to help students understand that fairy tales connect them to earlier generations, help them think about present situations, that magic figures prominently in fairy tales, and that fairy tales can inspire readers to create original works of art. The main activity in the…

Based on Erich Maria Remarque's novel "All Quiet on the Western Front" and other war literature, this lesson plan presents activities designed to help students understand that works of art about war can call up strong emotions in readers; and that the writing process can be applied to writing poems. The main activity of the lesson involves…

Based on Joseph Heller's novel "Catch-22," this lesson plan presents activities designed to help students understand that active readers evaluate the actions and statements of characters in a novel; and active readers apply the ideas of a novel to contexts outside the novel. The main activity of the lesson involves students writing a paper on a…

Based on Miguel de Cervantes' novel "Don Quixote," this lesson plan presents activities designed to help students understand that Quixote's misperceptions are understandable; writers often describe one object to sound as if it were something else; and metaphors help readers see with new eyes. The main activity of the lesson involves students…

Based on Mary Shelley's novel "Frankenstein," this lesson plan presents activities designed to help students understand that active readers interpret a novel (its characters, plot, setting, and theme) in different ways; and the great literature can be and has been adapted in many ways over time. The main activity of the lesson involves students…

Based on Homer's "Odyssey," this lesson plan presents activities designed to help students understand literature originally presented in one genre can, with care, be adapted to another genre; and adapters of a literary work into drama must consider dialogue and stage directions. The main activity of the lesson involves students converting a scene…

Two studies assessed the impact of short-term memory on English as a Second Language learning. The first involved 20 graduate students at a Taiwanese university, who were randomly divided into treatment and control groups. It investigated differences in the performance of phrase recollection when the information was chunked versus unchunked.…