A study investigated how text features influence the amount of vocabulary knowledge students acquired incidentally while reading expositions. Three sets of text features were identified from studies on comprehension: (1) features associated with the macrostructure, (2) features associated with logical and temporal relations in the microstructure,…

Prompted by the growing interest in the role of reader-related and text-related variables in reading comprehension, a study compared 30 sixth grade students in regular classrooms to 30 language impaired students. The purpose was to assess the relationship of (1) text structure manipulations for simple and complex sentence structure, (2) discourse…

Drawing upon data from a series of studies, this paper analyzes children's verbalizations about a wordless picture book to discover any relationships between a child's learning style and his or her comprehension of events in the book. Using the definitions of learning style established by M. Rosenberg, the paper also compares the behavior of…

To understand better how readers learn and recall text information, a study examined one prose learning approach--the selective attention strategy (SAS)--in which text elements are processed, given various degrees of attention, and learned according to their perceived importance. Fifty sixth grade students from an inner city school in a large…

Two studies analyzed self-regulatory cognitions of students asked to study complex instruction texts; examined the relationship between self-regulation and performance; assessed self-regulatory processes during learning from text in detail; and examined how pictures integrated in instructional text were processed by learners with different degrees…

Approaching literary study from two distinct yet interlocking perspectives (by looking at the major genres of literature and by examining the forms in which students of literature are expected to write about the literature they read), this book has two main sections. Following the Prelude, which treats the relationships between reading and writing…

Describes one teacher's reading aloud a Paula Danziger novel to motivate a group of adolescents to think and respond critically to read-aloud fiction. Includes examples of discussion strategies used to help students judge word play, recognize different points of view, and evaluate the author's ability to relate to her audience. (ARH)

Investigates the effect of vocabulary-based and generative-reciprocal inference procedure (GRIP) training on third grade readers' comprehension. Reports that the GRIP group outperformed control and basal inference groups on various inferential transfer tasks, indicating that strategies which help students attend to text clues aid in making…

Notes that varying the conceptual models of the relationship between reading and writing processes, as parallel, interactive, or transactional, has influenced instructional practices. (JC)

Describes the humanities curriculum at the North Carolina Governor's School which focuses on two courses of study: (1) one of ten academic disciplines (art, choral music, dance, drama , English, foreign language, instrumental music, math, natural science, social science), and (2) foundations in epistemology. (SRT)

Addressing the problem of the language-related barriers to successful postsecondary education for underprepared college students, an assessment of academic language proficiency and a curriculum to help students improve their academic language skills were developed. The nature of the language tasks required in the undergraduate curriculum was…

These exercises and examples pertain to readability information presented in preceding articles. They are designed to help speech language pathologists test their intuitions about word and text difficulty and to see readability data from a number of quantitative formulas applied to passages across a wide range of levels. (Contains 8 references.)…

Three historic examples demonstrate the vital role data displays (graphs and tables) have played in important discoveries. Levels of information that form the basis of a theory of display are described, and steps to improve the quality of tabular presentations in educational writing are outlined. (SLD)

An interview method for assessing reading processes was pilot tested to examine reader-text interaction among native-Spanish-speaking fifth graders. Subjects were active participants in the reading situation but were lacking in aspects related to the text's cultural content. The reading interview method is highly recommended for use in…

This descriptive study focuses on the understandings expressed by nine second graders about themselves as readers and looks at the direct experiences of the students in their reading groups. Findings suggest that these proficient and less proficient readers hold very different perceptions of themselves as readers and that these perceptions are…