This study was designed to discover the answers to two general questions concerning the instrucitonal level of reading: (1) What is the percentage of word recognition that is necessary for second and fifth graders to maintain in order to achieve a certain percentage of comprehension? (2) Are those word recognition percentages the same for both…

This study investigated students' learning performances in reading and academic achievement after an experimental group took a reading improvement course in which vocabulary and comprehension improvement exercises were derived from their content area textbooks and a comparison group took a general reading improvement course with materials…

The problem under investigation was to determine the differential effects of three types of treatment on students' test-taking skills. The study also investigated whether test-taking instruction would result in significant mean test score gains on a standardized reading test for white and black, high and low socioeconomic status (SES) third-grade…

This paper describes a methodological approach to the reading processes, involving the use of measures of speed of response or reaction time (RT) obtained from subjects while performing reading related tasks. Following a review of the literature on measures of RT, two experiments currently being done at the University of Minnesota are described…

The relative value of individual or small group tutoring and isolated or contextual phrase presentation on the reading achievement scores, self-concepts, and reading attitudes of 78 inner-city third-grade Mexican-American subjects was explored in this study. All subjects received regular classroom reading instruction, but the contrast group was…

The purpose of this study was to determine whether boys read to by their fathers for the six-month period immediately preceding entrance into first grade would score significantly higher on predictor instruments for first-grade reading achievement when compared with boys read to by their mothers or boys in an unplanned situation for the same…

The purposes of this study were to determine if training in listening would result in the improvement of both reading and listening skills among black students, and if there would be any differences between the results produced by a passive approach to teaching listening, a direct approach to teaching listening, and the offering of no special…

This study questions the developmental nature of the ability to understand syntactic structures. An exploration is made of the possibility of learning more about reading comprehension and readability by examining responses made to sentences described by transformational grammarians as structurally ambiguous. A group of fifth grade students were…

This study investigates the factors that have a bearing on the elementary urban child's standardized reading test scores. Three areas were investigated: parental contact with the school, supportive services that the child received, and the teacher's perception of the child's behavior and the behavior of the child's class. The study included 637…

This study was planned as two parts. In the first part, a prereading index similar to the ones created for kindergarteners was developed for preschool age children. The second part was an examination of the relationship between the prereading measure and four contextual variables. Thirty-six 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 year-old children were randomly selected…

This yearbook includes a summary of the research in reading that has been conducted in recent years, and also contains many ideas that have practical implications for the teacher in the classroom. The essays are divided into six major sections: research review, college and adult programs, teacher education, programs and practices, test materials,…

The overall effectiveness of the Title I program is questionable, according to this report to Congress. Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act authorizes federal financial assistance for programs designed to meet the special educational needs of educationally deprived children living in areas with high concentrations of children…

In the summer of 1971, the Adult Learning Center decided to conduct a one-year, research-based field test of programmed instructional materials specifically designed to teach disadvantaged adults to read. The four programs tested for effectiveness were Programmed Reading for Adults, Building Reading Power, Reading Series, and Building Your…

This study tested the effectiveness of Teams-Games-Tournament (TGT) for teaching basic reading skills. TGT is a classroom management technique which uses cooperative student teams, instructional games, and interteam tournaments in a particular combination. Fifty-three third-grade students were randomly assigned to either a TGT or a control…

Two passages were written, one on the topic of graphs and one on the topic of sonnets. Sixteen versions of each passage were constructed. Each version contained identical content but different textual manipulations. One hundred twelve community college students and 48 Cornell students participated in the experiment. Each read a single version of…