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.…

A project to develop word lists for first-year English as a second language instruction at Osaka Jogakuin Junior College (Japan) is described. The lists were drawn from high-frequency vocabulary lists, with word selection based on course unit themes and rhetorical patterns. These include: introduction/people and places; women's issues;…

Music can be used in the adult English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) classroom to create a learning environment; to build listening comprehension, speaking, reading, and writing skills; to increase vocabulary; and to expand cultural knowledge. This digest looks briefly at research and offers strategies for using music in the adult ESL classroom.…

Contains a list of 46 references. (RB)

Advantages and disadvantages of songs in the language classroom. (FWB)

Reviews three alternative cognitive approaches for verbal comprehension. Discusses a theory of learning from context and cites empirical data to support the theory. Presents a componential framework for understanding verbal comprehension and suggests that the ability to acquire information from context is a key source of individual differences in…