This study examined the responses of 10th-grade students of low, average, and high abilities to two levels of short stories: the complex, or adult, story and the less complex, or adolescent story. Students read four pairs of short stories and wrote their immediate and delayed responses to tests containing two open-ended questions and 10 objective…

Various definitions of the term critical reading or critical thinking lead to the author's view that the definition of critical reading as discerning propaganda or checking the factual validity of a statement has been overemphasized. What is needed in content areas today is critical analysis, defined as a process that involves taking the printed…

To understand the dangers of interpreting literary works primarily through the history, social customs, and values of the period portrayed in the work, students should imagine themselves 3 centuries in the future considering a modern work of art. For example, they should try to interpret the movie, "The Graduate," as a reflection of the…

Reading is a very complex psycholinguistic process consummate with writing, and reading instruction aspires to develop the critical reader, whose skills and abilities empower him to comprehend, enjoy, and assess both expository and imaginative writing. Using a rich background of learning and experience, the reader must handle many frames of…

This document presents a critique of the "Education" portion of Chapter V of the report entitled "Work in America," available as ED 070 738. The critique was prepared by a special committee on the Center for Adult, Vocational, Technical, and Manpower Education of the Bureau of Adult and Occupational Education, Office of Education, because this…

A guide to news media, this book describes how to tell when a report is biased; provides tips on spotting hoaxes and public relations ploys in the news; gives standards to judge expert opinion and reliable sources; lists critics and other sources of help for the news consumer; discusses the endless contest among politicians, newsmen, and…

Research conducted by the British Broadcasting Company on the incidence of violence on television and its impact upon society revealed that an objective analysis of program content by trained observers showed a considerable measure of violence, amounting to an average of a violent sequence every half hour. It also showed, however, that most…

The purposes of this study were to analyze questions used in the teaching of non-narrative poetry and to ascertain whether it is possible to establish any generally useful, basic pattern of question asking that would provide the student some fundamental guidelines for the study of this type of literature. First, a detailed examination of Robert…

The purpose of this investigation was to determine the relation among reading readiness achievement, three instructional programs in personal writing, and achievement in personal writing of first-grade children. The 140 white, middle class first graders participating in the study were taught in one of three programs: (1) the Initial Alphabet…

Six studies and an overview focus on the amount and character of the violence portrayed on television (TV), the circumstances and milieu in which this violent fare is created, and the formal and informal influences which affect the selection and prohibition of TV content. The overview serves as an introduction to the six studies and summarizes…

This paper describes the study which attempts to determine if civic education and political socialization topics are international in scope and, moreover, if instruments can be designed to measure cross-national effects of such education. An international committee first meeting in Hamburg, Germany, in 1966, decided to treat the subject…

This report contains a summary and analysis of public response to the Water Resources Council proposed principles and standards and its accompanying draft environmental impact statement for planning the use of water and related land resources as well as planning and evaluating water and related land resources programs and projects. Both written…

Five secondary school biology textbooks were selected for this study: the 1973 edition of the BSCS Blue Version, "Biological Science, Molecules to Man"; the 1973 edition of the BSCS Green Version, "Biological Science, An Ecological Approach"; the 1973 edition of the BSCS Yellow Version, "An Inquiry into Life"; the…

The speech of elementary school teachers in two contexts (adult-adult conversation and the classroom) was examined for the use of stance-indicating devices, i.e. ways of conveying one's attitudes towards a proposition; independent evidence supports the notion that teachers' perception of social distance between themselves and their listeners…

Discusses the technique and appeal of ten best-selling books, concluding that other mass media may be a better source of the qualities and values represented in the books. (AA)