Various authors provide a wide range of instructional suggestions, including hints for parents on how to read aloud to older children, a story web prewriting technique, a lesson on similes, a description of a series of books designed to develop literacy in natural ways, and advice on using the question-answer relationship procedure and basal…

Studies the effect of intellectual development, degree of field independence, mental capacity, amount of prior genetics knowledge and amount of fluid intelligence on reading comprehension and/or genetics achievement of students enrolled in a nonmajor biology course. Concludes that developmental level was the most consistent predictor of…

Describes the use of close-captioned television to motivate high school remedial readers, who must read the captions in order to understand the story. (ARH)

The relationship between reading comprehension and the number and complexity of idea units in a text was examined. The results showed that readers using text-entailed recall strategies gained the most insight into the meaning of text and that recall ability is an important encoding strategy for gaining meaning. (JAZ)

Indicates that adding large amounts of supportive information to basal reader stories increased children's story understanding and enhanced their interest in the stories, but had no effect on reading rate or the amount of important information included in story retellings. (FL)

Findings suggest that (1) dyslexia is more prevalent in the United States than in Italy, (2) reading disabilities are strongly associated with disorders of verbal processing in both countries (although some American dyslexics also show visual-motor deficits), and (3) there is a greater dissociation between reading comprehension and decoding in…

Research based teaching strategies for improving the reading comprehension of mildly handicapped students include identifying learning goals, breaking goals into simpler units, ordering instruction developmentally, and teaching the use of metacognitive strategies for reading. (CB)

Analysis of reading comprehension and recall of text by college students studying Spanish indicated that three components of background knowledge--context, transparency, and familiarity--affected the way learners read, comprehend, and recall passages. Interaction between these components and the reader is extremely complex. (CB)

Argues that children's books are agents of socialization and examines childhood as a socially constructed concept throughout history. (SRT)

Investigates the effects of reading a series-format, many-volumed story to disadvantaged first graders. Results indicate that children who had been read to outscored children in the control classes on measures of decoding, reading comprehension, and active use of language. (SRT)

Trained junior high school students were compared with untrained students on comprehension and recall after both were told to construct questions while reading text passages. Results indicate that training improved the question quality only for those students who had above average pretest free recall scores. (Author/LMO)

Describes how reading comprehension enhancers function as aids for teachers in teaching for better comprehension and for students in reading for better comprehension. Presents ideas, suggestions, and examples for teaching and learning from the textbooks. (ML)

Contends that erroneous conclusions concerning intraindividual strengths may result when comparing scaled scores on subtests of The Test of Reading Comprehension. Examination of scaled scores may seem to indicate that a given student has performed better on one subtest than on another when the difference between the two scores is not statistically…

Describes the activities in a first grade classroom in a small rural school district where reading instruction mirrors the kinds of reading done in the real world. (FL)

A model of early literacy acquisition focused on development in word recognition, spelling, reading comprehension, and writing and on the interrelation of growth in each of these skills. Results of longitudinal data suggest that without phonemic awareness, exposure to print does little to foster spelling-sound knowledge. (Author/LMO)