A model has been developed for studying the relation between text structure and reading comprehension, emphasizing the reader's use of world knowledge and text-structural knowledge to evaluate and interpret meaning from text. When the highlights of the model are considered from the perspective of various expository texts used in research on…

A study extended word association methodology beyond isolated word stimuli to investigate the effects of written context on the meanings that proficient readers impart to words. A repeated-measures design was used to assess the responses of 62 sixth grade readers to target words at three levels: no context, limited context, and expanded context.…

A total of 255 reading teachers and classroom teachers completed questionnaires in a study that examined the use of the cloze procedure in selected schools in western New York State. The sample included reading teachers and classroom teachers in grades four through six and junior high school reading teachers and content area teachers. The results…

A study was conducted to identify operational procedures that could maximize learning and acceptance of reading materials within a parent education program. A factorial design was used to test how two levels of readability of written material (ninth and fifteenth grade levels) and two levels of reader competency (lower and higher) were related to…

A survey was conducted of parents of preschool children in a child development center to determine the current level of home reading behavior. Twenty-five parents completed the survey instrument, which consisted of questions concerning the number of available children's books in the home, the time spent reading with the child, and the quality or…

A study was conducted to examine the relationship of reading rate to comprehension on material read with a pacer and without a pacer. Two hundred paired scores were obtained in a college reading and study skills course in which students read both paced and nonpaced material alternately during class time and recorded their rate and comprehension…

The hypothesis of this study was that reading rate would be relatively constant (within a 15% range of the subject's mean reading rate) both within and across different difficulty levels of materials as long as the levels of difficulty remained at or below the subject's ability level. The subjects were 65 college students whose reading levels…

Edward Fry's Graph for Estimating Readability (Extended) was used to determine the approximate readability levels of books within the Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, and "Little House" series. The findings indicated that the levels of readability did not remain the same throughout each series, with the Nancy Drew series ranging in reading levels from…

A survey of 767 teachers from five major regions of the country solicited teachers' views and perceptions concerning the roles and responsibilities of reading consultants. It was found that 85% or more of the respondents thought that the prime functions of reading consultants are to diagnose students' reading problems, interpret test results,…

This report provides an informal discussion of observations conducted in twenty-three classrooms in six schools. Observations focused on instruction in reading comprehension in grades three through six. The report also comments on comprehension instruction, on the teaching of word meanings, phonics instruction, and on the presence of extra…

The 42 teachers enrolled in a graduate reading course participated in a study examining the application of the Rauding Scale and the SEER technique, two global readability procedures. After a lecture on the topic of readability, the teachers rated eight passages with both readability formulas, and these ratings were compared to the predetermined…

The objectives of the Clinical Information Processes in Reading Project (CLIPIR) were to create simulated cases of reading difficulty, observe experienced reading diagnosticians as they interacted with those cases, and analyze the protocols of their proceedings. Cases were designed to represent commonly encountered reading difficulties. By…

Thirty-six fourth grade pupils were grouped according to reading ability in a study conducted to examine comprehension within the framework of event perception. The children were presented a sequential activity described in picture or text form and then were asked to indicate on scoring sheets which of eight test items logically fit with the event…

A study of the constraints on word recognition errors (miscues) readers make when reading a passage printed conventionally and one printed in a regularized orthography such as the initial teaching alphabet (i.t.a.) was undertaken with 50 second-grade students divided equally between children taught according to the orthographies being studied. The…

Focusing on some of the techniques classroom teachers are using to help students with reading comprehension, this report also highlights some of the research dealing with that area. The various articles in the report contain the following: a discussion of ways to teach inferential and critical reading skills; a discussion of "Research within…