This essay suggests a foreign language (FL) pedagogy for teaching literature to beginning students that creates strong readers equipped with strategies to undertake independent interpretations of literary works. It endorses a top-down processing that teaches students to attend to patterns of textual messages. Students use an "r+1" approach (the…

This practical book grew out of a recent report written by the RAND Reading Study Group (RRSG), which proposed a national research agenda in the area of reading comprehension. In the book, RRSG members have expanded on their findings and translated them into clear recommendations to inform practice. The book explains research-based ways to plan…

Noting that the quality of literacy instruction in the upper grades is equally essential as literacy in the primary grades, this book focuses on helping students' needs in the upper grades and the needs of all teachers in grades four through twelve who endeavor to help students read to learn across the curriculum and comprehend at grade level, and…

Students' mastery of subject matter rests heavily upon their ability to read proficiently. Likewise, a teacher's capacity to cover all the material in a course and cultivate successful learners depends largely on the students' reading skills, as these skills are inextricably linked to problem solving, critical thinking, writing, researching,…

The reading comprehension assessment tool is a product developed for the Regional Educational Laboratory's (REL) initiative, Pacific Communities with High performance In Literacy Development, herein named the Pacific CHILD. This research project is focused on school improvement, especially as it relates to the teaching and learning of early…

This paper first gives a brief chronological overview of reading theory development and a short introduction to schema theory, and then comprehensively reviews, comments, and synthesizes research-based studies, published between 1980 and 2002, that examined the effect of text structure (reader effect and text effect) on L1 and L2 reading…

The purpose of this study was to study recreational reading in third, fourth, and fifth grade urban students in a school district in Southeastern Virginia. The widely-used Accelerated Reader (AR) was the tool examined in the promotion of recreational reading. The major research questions determined if recreational reading, using Accelerated…

This supplement is designed as a resource for helping students read and respond to literature and other forms of print. It notes that kindergarten through third graders are expected to: develop an ability to read with increasing fluency and understanding by using writing and a variety of other reading strategies; and read, interpret, and respond…

The author endorses the approach to teaching phonics set out in recent documents (e.g. Progression in Phonics) that extend and supersede the approach set out earlier in the National Literacy Strategy (NLS) Framework for Teaching. Proposed are minor, evidence-driven amendments to this approach. The assumption that failure to achieve continuing…

This paper describes the investigation of a computerized measure of reading rate as measured by the new Nelson-Denny Reading Test CD-ROM (1993). This study addressed three aspects of validity: (1) score comparability between reading rate measured by the computer version and the paper-and-pencil version; (2) concurrent validity with reading…

Suggesting the need for balanced reading and writing instruction, this book is a compendium of many of the best teaching ideas presently available to reading professionals. The first part of the book addresses the research and practice related to understanding and supporting literacy development, and the second part "puts it all…

This report describes a program for advancing reading comprehension skills. The targeted population consisted of second and fourth grade students in an affluent northern suburb of a large midwestern community. The problem of a lack of comprehension skills was documented through teacher observations, student and parent surveys, comprehension…

This action research project describes a program for improving literal and inferential reading comprehension skills aimed at increasing overall academic achievement. The targeted population consisted of third, fourth, and fifth grade students in middle class communities located in the Midwest. Evidence for the existence of the problem includes…

This "how-to" booklet was compiled by Oklahoma's "Phonics Task Force" to help teachers of K-3 students further incorporate phonics into daily reading instruction using a systematic approach--one that is logical, sequential, and orderly. The booklet states that the use of phonics in Oklahoma's core curriculum has been promoted…

This report describes a program to increase sight/functional vocabulary to improve reading comprehension. The targeted population consisted of one 2nd-3rd grade and one 6th-8th grade cross-categorical self-contained class, located in an elementary school and a middle school. The schools were located in a northeast suburb of a major city in the…