A study determined what comprehension strategies either contributed to literary engagement or inhibited engagement among adolescents. Subjects, 25 eleventh-grade students chosen at random from two heterogeneous English classes in a suburban school, read two short stories and reported their thinking and understanding as they were reading.…

A study established the logical validity of instructional activities for teaching reading evaluatively. These activities operationalized a theory of literacy and a model of reading comprehension developed by L. Dagostino and J. Carifio that specify 20 general characteristics of literate students who read evaluatively. Nineteen secondary classroom…

A study compared test scores of students instructed to use graphic organizers while reading social studies content material with those of students not using the strategy. Subjects, students in two fourth-grade classes in a primarily middle class, suburban community, studied two chapters from a social studies textbook and completed chapter tests…

A qualitative study investigated one group of non-mainstream (low socioeconomic status) children's use of literacy materials during their free play. Subjects, 17 children, one teacher, and one assistant teacher in one session of a Head Start located in the downtown of a small midwestern city, were observed during seven free play periods over 5…

A study investigated whether comprehension would be affected by utilizing prereading strategies. Subjects were 57 students (low level 11th graders) in 4 classes. Two classes, totaling 29 students, utilized prereading strategies before 2 units of study. In the other 2 classes, with 28 usable subjects, no prereading activities were used prior to…

A study examined whether previous knowledge facilitates the acquisition of a reading comprehension strategy by children who are poor readers. Subjects, 54 fourth- and fifth-grade boys in Palm Beach County, Florida, who were poor readers and baseball experts, were trained in the use of a reading strategy (asking "why" questions), with…

This article discusses polysemy in terms of foreign language reading and vocabulary development. For some foreign language readers, polysemy can be a major source of difficulty in the comprehension of text, even more so than a lack of vocabulary knowledge. Research with non-native readers of English has indicated that even advanced readers, upon…

An ethnographic study explored how small groups of student readers interacted in a classroom over time to interpret short stories assigned by a teacher. For five weeks, eight sixth-grade volunteers met on consecutive Fridays in two separate face-to-face discussion groups to read, discuss, rewrite, and perform a short story as a play. Primary data…

A survey was administered in September 1994 to 226 students enrolled in reading courses at Bishop State Community College to gain information about the students' reading habits and experiences and their expectations from the courses in which they were enrolled. Results indicated that: (1) math was chosen by 29% of subjects as their favorite…

This compilation presents material related to Project Read-Write, a basic skills program for grades 2-7 which utilizes students' attitudes and experiences and is designed to promote total reading comprehension through writing. It is noted in the compilation that although the program was developed in an urban area (Newark, New Jersey), it can be…

If portfolios are to be used to assess students' progress, it is essential for preservice teachers to have the opportunity to become familiar with the use of this technique prior to beginning their teaching career. At Eastern College, Pennsylvania, portfolio assessment is first introduced in the Developmental Reading course and further refined in…

A study evaluated the Reading Alignment Program (which targets priority reading skills and encourages the use of high-performance instructional methods) in the Kansas City, Missouri, School District. Data were collected from the first and third grades of 16 selected schools. The schools were visited to determine the level of implementation of the…

Using a sociocultural framework to generalize principles about how to work within an emergent reader's zone of proximal development, this study analyzed teacher support and forms of teacher prompts in one-on-one Reading Recovery tutorials with first-grade students at risk of reading failure. The ways that five Reading Recovery teachers supported…

Conducted as part of the 1992 Integrated Reading Performance Record (IRPR), a study investigated the oral reading proficiency of a subgroup of students participating in the 1992 reading assessment conducted by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Subjects, 1,136 fourth graders, read aloud one passage and were audiotaped as they…

An ethnographic study analyzed and compared children's participation in book reading activities with their participation in other types of literacy activities. Subjects, 15 bilingual children who were enrolled in a multilingual, multicultural preschool program where English was the common language, were encouraged to maintain their native…