Investigating the selective attention strategy, a study examined the type of attention allocated to important information by good and poor readers. Also tested was the methodological validity of using a conceptual (word recognition) perceptual (tachistoscopic word flash) task as a means of investigating the types of information processing that may…

A study on children's recall of words presented on a computer was assessed as a function of action and verbal labels. Subjects, 80 public school children in a southeastern city, equally distributed between kindergarten and second grade and between high and low reading ability levels, interacted with different versions of a computer presentation.…

To create an introductory literature course which helps students develop positive feelings about reading and confidence in their abilities to create viable meanings out of a text, an alternative to the standard lecture format or "Socratic" class discussion is needed. Formed from a variety of research, theory, and classroom experience,…

This story, one of three in The Sexuality Decision-Making Series for Teens, contains several different possible plot lines depending on the decisions the reader makes for the characters at various "choice points." The study focuses on the theme of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs): Tracy and Tom have been in love for a year, and they…

A review of the literature was conducted to summarize how characteristics of individual readers help to determine the nature and quality of their comprehension of specific texts and to discuss how this knowledge might be used by teachers to promote effective reading in their classes. Three dimensions of readers were identified as being causally…

This research review is an examination of representative studies on the nature of the reading process and of various instructional methods in reading deemed to be of interest to classroom teachers of reading. The review provides both a theoretical perspective and related empirical evidence to guide instructional practice and discusses the ways in…

Can teachers see where the reading process is going wrong in the first years of school? Marie M. Clay designed procedures called Reading Recovery to help young children at risk of failure in reading. In the first year of an Ohio pilot study over two-thirds of the children reached average levels in reading and were successfully released from the…

This article discusses editorial "filters" in folktales, specifically the changes ("orientations") which editors deliberately impose on a tale because they want to reach a specific audience. A case in point is the tale called "Allerleirauh," in the Grimm collection, which not only is highly illustrative of editorial…

Two basic approaches to teaching children to appreciate literature at any level are the structural (traditional literary analysis) and the reader response approaches. Structural analysis provides the terms and concepts that help readers interpret and discuss literature, while reader response emphasizes the integrated experience an individual has…

Examines the effects of three text signal types (headings, previews, logical connectives) on relatively sophisticated college age readers and their comprehension of technical expository prose. Concludes that all three types can enhance comprehension, but that facilitation depends on passage length and difficulty. (FL)

As measured by responses to a main-idea essay question and by written summaries of two passages, students' ability to abstract the macrostructure of problem/solution text read independently was improved by the use of structure training. (FL)

Describes a study indicating that the ability to use context deliberately to facilitate word recognition reaches maximum for average readers by grade six and does not appear to show further improvements at higher reading skill levels. Discusses possible reasons for the discrepancies between this and other studies that use incomplete contexts. (HTH)

Offers a psychoanalytically based reading of Conrad's "The Secret Sharer" and points out the similarities between analysis of a text and analysis of a patient in a psychoanalysis session. (JC)

Discusses the need for assessing and remediating three strategic-text behaviors: (1) recognition of text organizational patterns, (2) use of text lookbacks, and (3) the location of important text information. Develops a diagnostic rational using current research findings, and presents assessment procedures and instructional strategies based on a…

Determines some reasons that children may ignore detected inconsistencies in judging story adequacy. Results indicate that factors specific to a story and the construction of its internal representation, contribute to the judging and monitoring performance of children. (RJC)