Discusses content area concerns for secondary teachers. Presents two ideas to help teachers build the bridge from research findings to content classrooms: (1) an inservice plan that specifically teaches content teachers strategies which they, in turn, can use with students; and (2) the use of action research in the classroom. (JD)

Argues that an essential factor in becoming literate is young children's developing an understanding of the registers of written language. Examines the reading-like behavior of a prereading kindergartner. (AEW)

Reviews some of the current definitions of literacy and suggests that an expansion of the definitions is needed, based on information gained from interviews with adult remedial readers as they describe their reading needs. (SKC)

Describes story impressions, a prereading activity that uses story fragments in the form of clue words and phrases to help readers activate schemata by building anticipatory models of the text prior to reading, then allowing the reader to confirm or modify the model as the details of the actual story are encountered. (SKC)

Describes 10 ideas for using recitation to strengthen reading comprehension, including: (1) what did I just say? (2) one thing I learned today; (3) student-generated test questions; (4) guess what will be on the test; (5) where is it located in the book? (6) teacher show and tell; (7) inquiry training; and (8) what's the big idea? (SKC)

Analyzes four informal reading inventories to determine the text type of each passage, whether narrative passages are well formed, and whether expository passages are well organized. Finds almost half the narratives poorly formed. Concludes that the lack of continuity in text type and organization could result in children's comprehension scores…

Notes that many students enter higher education without basic skills for understanding texts, and presents three strategies for framing and answering questions about text to enable students to engage actively with the content. (SKC)

Investigates the effects of four types of prereading activities on comprehension of Australian fifth grade students: (1) irrelevant tasks (control); (2) pictorial introductions to the subject; (3) content-directed questions; and (4) free-association to the passage's titles. Determines that, although the pictorial introduction group performed best,…

This review of cognitive development research in the area of computer-based reading instruction focuses on reinforcement and instructional objectives. Differences between extrinsic and intrinsic reinforcement and motivation are discussed, types of objectives and learner characteristics are described, and implications for instructional design are…

Discusses text presentation in computer-based instruction and reviews research that has been done in this area. Topics discussed include length of text, amount of text presented at one time, rate of text presentation, color, text comprehension, text structure, reader comprehension, and new directions for computer-based text. (23 references) (LRW)

Study investigates the nature of verbal interactions which occur between parents and kindergarten children as they read favorite (familiar) and unfamiliar books. States that favorite stories allow children to become more involved in the story and attend to print, while unfamiliar stories provide for expanded schemata which may enhance meaning…

Evaluates an individualized reading program in which elementary school teachers prepared written prescriptions for students, targeting specific deficiencies for remediation. Finds that among students, preferences for independent modes of learning are significant predictors of positive reading attitudes. (MM)

Concludes that teacher enthusiasm training is effective in increasing levels of observable teacher enthusiasm and that teachers so trained had an effect on their students' attitudes toward reading. (FL)

Argues that while many publishers may simplify the sentence structure in the basal reader to facilitate the process of learning to read, this practice may result in texts with stylistic features and text formats that are unnatural and uncharacteristic of written English or the language development level of the children. (FL)

Concludes that three experimental programs were more effective than traditional approaches in beginning reading instruction: (1) a literature program using special decoding strategies, (2) a literature program not using the special strategies, and (3) a traditional basal approach using the special decoding strategies. (FL)