The effects of advance organizers in learning unfamiliar material from logical or randomly organized texts was investigated in two experiments. Advance organizers enhanced performance on questions requiring integration of facts from different sections of the text. Results of both studies were interpreted as support for assimilation encoding…

Investigated effects of text availability and variations in directions on children's and adults' ability to draw inferences from information implicit within a text. (AA)

Four experiments investigated memory scanning rates of skilled and less skilled readers. In three experiments, reaction times of skilled readers were faster than those of less skilled readers with reading time partialled out (aloud and silent reading). Differences were not significant when the scan component in answering was minimized. (Author/RD)

A study assessed and compared the syntax in the oral language of six-, seven-, and eight-year-olds with the syntax in the written language of reading instruction textbooks prepared for children of the same age. (HOD)

Describes an analytical approach to making judgments about public issues which can be used in critical reading and decision making. (MKM)

Three elementary social studies texts were examined to determine extent of technical vocabulary and comprehension difficulty. Results of cloze and multiple-choice tests based on reading passages indicated that Mexican-American children had more difficulty than others comprehending the textbook material. (Author/AV)

College students either read or listened to tape-recorded stories, and immediately wrote a 60- to 80-word summary. A comparison of the readers' and the listeners' summaries revealed only minor differences; listeners included slightly more idiosyncratic detail. The processes underlying listening comprehension and skilled reading were similar.…

Thirty physical education students and 30 music education students read a passage which could be given two distinct interpretations. Multiple-choice test scores, theme-revealing disambiguations and instrusions in free recall indicate that high-level schemata provide the interpretive framework for comprehending discourse. Schema theory and its…

Time on task and time on reading were observed during free reading periods. Poor readers especially spent less time on reading with comics than books. and showed more improvement in reading comprehension with books than with comics. A link between reading ability, time spent on reading, comprehension gain, and reading material was observed.…

Suggests using visual cues such as boldface type, indenting, and color coding to help students identify important words in sentences and relationships between sentences. (MKM)

College undergraduates read stories from one of two directed perspectives or no directed perspective. An idea's significance in terms of the assigned perspective affected both initial learning and recall one week later. Schemata, or conceptual frameworks, were assumed to aid in memory and retrieval. (Author/GDC)

Competent and low ability readers were tested in reading and listening comprehension. Seventh grade students were selected, assuming that reading and listening competency are comparable at this level. After reading or listening to a folk tale, subjects recalled the important ideas. Reading and listening performance were significantly correlated.…

As stated by Kane (1968), secondary students of mathematics must not only deal with the traditional written language code of English but also encounter concepts communicated through symbol systems. These dual language patterns can compound existing reading comprehension problems. Here is a plan mathematics teachers can use to improve the reading…

Discusses the steps involved in and the preparation necessary for learning to read (decode) and to comprehend what is read. (JM)

Suggests a reading exercise to increase student interest and comprehension in social studies. Presents directions for a geography lesson in land use planning as an example of how the reading exercise can be used to teach specific social science concepts. (Author/DB)