To help students achieve a better understanding of narrative prose, yet still keep the benefits of semantic mapping, the traditional form of the semantic map is modified by incorporating the elements of story structure as part of the map. This format is called episodic mapping. Episodic mapping is based on the idea that most well-developed stories…

A study was conducted to determine whether there was any match between student perception of reading ease and the readability of three main line, first-year college composition texts (Daugherty; Kinneavy, McCleary, and Nakadate; Lauer, Montague, Lunsford, and Emig) as determined by five commonly used readability formulas. Two chapters (on…

This document summarizes a report on the implementation and impact of instructional strategies to improve students' comprehension skills at three diverse urban secondary schools. While activities and characteristics varied, educators at all three locations were implementing local variations of a school-improvement approach based on the use of the…

This report describes in depth the implementation and impact of instructional strategies to improve students' comprehension skills at three diverse urban secondary schools. While activities and characteristics varied, educators at all three locations were implementing local variations of a school-improvement approach based on the use of the…

Artificial intelligence research on natural language understanding is discussed in this report using the notions that (1) natural language understanding systems must "see" sentences as elements whose significance resides in the contribution they make to the larger whole, and (2) a natural language understanding computer system must…

In its report "Becoming a Nation of Readers," the Commission on Reading defines reading as the process of constructing meaning from written texts, a view of reading that makes the use of strategies seem probable. If a book is a source of partial information, and readers are supposed to use knowledge they already possess to determine the…

Analyzing word frequency in six complete texts, a study investigated how vocabulary can be used to define texts. The texts included three stories from 5th and 6th grade readers, selections from literature anthologies for 8th grade and 12th grade students, and a magazine essay for adults. Results indicated that if particular words occur frequently…

Schema Theory, the use of the learner's background knowledge for the building of new knowledge, is applied to improving reading comprehension skills and teaching vocabulary words and concepts to learning disabled students. Semantic mapping is a vocbulary strategy which produces the interaction between prior knowledge in a graphic form. For…

Working on the assumption that story structure contributes to the reading comprehension of students, a study assessed the comprehension and recall of 12 seventh and eighth grade remedial reading students. Subjects read a basal story revised to conform to a familiar story grammar and the original, unrevised, basal story. The two original stories…

The problems inherent in the use of norm-referenced achievement tests in evaluating reading comprehension may be alleviated through the use of a criterion-referenced, cloze type test. The Degrees of Reading Power (DRP) Test, published by the College Entrance Examination Board (1980), was designed to measure students' ability to understand English…

A study tested the validity of arguments leveled against reader-response methods of reading instruction, which--if these criticisms are correct--would produce lower comprehension scores on objective tests and less accurate recall from students. Subjects, 84 college freshmen in four developmental reading classes, were taught using one of four…

It is argued that the close relationship between learning and testing is best exemplified in achievement tests, which are designed both to reinforce learning and to provide feedback about the effectiveness of teaching. Of the four types of achievement tests (placement, formative, diagnostic, and summative), two (formative and diagnostic) are…

Since many studies indicate that young readers have difficulty comprehending many commonly occurring forms of anaphora, an instructional experiment was conducted in which a variety of anaphoric forms was taught, the intervention period was of sufficient duration, and external validity was enhanced so that results would be generalizable to the…

A study examined primary grade children's comprehension processes while reading a particular story in which specific areas likely to pose reading difficulty had been identified. Based on the children's readings and on their answers to questions concerning the text, five problem areas were identified: (1) poor decoding or word attack skills (2)…

Intended for reading teachers, this book is concerned with the process of reading, with the perceptual and language skills involved in reading, and with the nature of the task confronting children learning to read. It shows that it is only through reading that children learn to read, and that a teacher's role must therefore be to make reading easy…