This paper discusses some specific issues about testing and relates the discussion to reading teachers and reading instruction. The issues that are discussed include the goals, criteria, and methods of classroom assessment. The paper concludes that teachers need to learn more about the process of assessment in order to use tests effectively, and…

A major problem that continues to plague United States education is the fact that large numbers of disadvantaged black students are not learning to read well enough to function in society. This paper discusses three reasons for the problem of teaching reading to these students. First, there exist no comprehensive developmental reading theories, no…

Reading programs in community colleges of Florida are described, based on the responses of 52 community college reading instructors (63% return) to a guestionnaire and a "Job Activities Rating Scale." Information is provided on the educational background of the instructors, with emphasis on specific training in the teaching of reading; the…

Language development and dialect are measures of influences upon a student's ability to learn to read. It has been observed that students whose language differs from that used in schools and in the materials of instruction are often found in remedial reading classes. Their difficulty lies in attempting to learn to read a language which is…

Students from 16 different vocational/technical areas of study in seven postsecondary complexes in Mississippi (representing a cross-section of all junior colleges in the State) were administered the Nelson-Denny Reading Test to identify reading levels. The FORCAST readability formula (Klare, 1974) was used to determine the readability level of…

Two experiments assessed the effects of text cohesion and schema availability on sixth grade children's comprehension of social studies passages that varied in vocabulary difficulty. The purpose of the experiments was to test the compensation hypothesis within the interactive theory of reading, which assumes that reading involves many…

The skills-based method of remedial reading instruction is based on a medical model, in that it focuses instructional efforts solely on "curing" what is "wrong" with a reader. Such attention to students' shortcomings and the labeling of their lack of instant success as a problem causes healthy learners to begin to doubt their own abilities, often…

The keyword method, originally developed as an instructional technique in foreign language acquisition, was tested for its application in other school learning tasks and as a self-initiated study strategy. Two classes containing a total of 40 eighth grade students served as the experimental and control groups. The tasks were learning to pair…

The research described in this report is the first part of an attempt to study the development of both overall reading ability and verbal encoding efficiency in an effort to see how the two are related. The report proposes a theory of prerequisite or hierarchical relationships and suggests that there may be differences between performance of a…

The effect of passage topic and task demands on elementary school students' monitoring of their own comprehension was examined. Second, fourth, and sixth grade students read a short passage about a well-known event (playing checkers) or one about which they had little existing information (making lye soap). Half of the students in each grade were…

A study examined the relationships between cognitive tasks and social skills that are relevant to prereading or beginning reading instruction by observing lessons given to small groups of children. Four preschool children--one with many prereading skills and three with few skills--participated in the study. Student-teacher interaction that…

Qualitative methods were used to analyze the social environments--or webs of interaction--in reading groups of varying ability levels. Ethnographic observations were conducted for 15 to 30 hours in each of eight first and second grade classrooms with ability-divided reading groups. A code scheme was developed to categorize the quantity and quality…

A study examined whether the frequent use of advance organizers in the content areas would significantly improve the reading comprehension of junior high school compensatory education students. For ten weeks a group of 16 students was exposed to the continuous use of advance organizers (structured overviews, previewing, questioning, and…

This report presents case studies of the three exemplary projects within the Special Emphasis Project, a federally funded national study of how intensive reading programs might change the patterns of elementary school students who read one or more grades below grade level. An introductory section provides information on the history, organization,…

A cross-age tutoring program--using a highly structured tutoring method, an administrative reporting system, and home based reinforcement--was implemented and evaluated in six Ontario, Canada, schools. The subjects were 50 students with reading scores at least six months below grade level. These students were placed either in an experimental group…