Two experiments were conducted to assess the effects of knowledge schema training and text organization on the comprehension and recall of scientific prose. The first experiment tested whether or not knowledge schema training improves processing and recall of a passage on plate tectonics (32 college subjects served as subjects). The second…

This study has three purposes: (1) to determine whether the graphic organizer (a schematic representation of text structure using key vocabulary terms) could be used to compensate for the effects of a passage organized with a description top-level structure; (2) to explore the effectiveness of providing students differing in reading ability with…

Three passages of fifth-grade readability were read and recalled by 24 high- and low-ability fifth graders and college students. These passages were characterized as either narrative (high degree of temporal linkage), expository (logical linkage and abstract content), or mixed (logical linkage but with content suggestive of a narrative). The…

This study examined the effect(s) of rhyme on the recognition and recall of story events by 32 nursery school children at the University of Maine Child Study Center. Although subjects reported liking stories better when they were presented as nursery rhymes rather than prose passages, recognition of story events was significantly higher for prose…

Essays in which 40 freshman composition students described unusual or extraordinary persons were analyzed for the charcteristic choices that males and females made and for the typical ways men and women were described. The analysis yielded seven findings with social implications. Both males and females tended to choose males as objects for…

Grace and style are elements of composition rarely demanded by teachers or developed by students. Since both terms are elusive to define and because asking students to make attempts at grace and style can have unappealing results, perhaps vigor is a better element to encourage students to pursue. Vigor does not outlaw graceful flourishes and…

Four short stories taken from Alaskan oral tradition are written in plain terms and presented in large print with illustrations on each page. "The Little Mouse" describes how a courageous mouse swims across a river only to discover it is just a man's footprint. In "The Loon and the Muskrat" two animals become possessive of the…

The approximately 500 recordings in this selective annotated list are classified by subject matter and educational level. A section for elementary school lists recordings of poetry, folksongs, fairy tales, well-known children's stories from American and world literature, and selections from American history and social studies. The recordings for…

This study investigated the effects of training in the use of advance organizers and interspersed questions on the comprehension and attitudes of good, average, and poor eighth-grade readers who were randomly assigned, by intact classroom units, to one of three treatment groups. The first treatment group received eight sessions of training in the…

Several experiments involving approximately 130 6-year-old children were conducted to examine the effects of overt illustration on first graders' learning from oral prose. In all experiments, experimental Ss heard prose selections after or during which they illustrated selection content with plasticized figure cutouts and background scenes while…

Five orders of approximation to normal English prose were constructed; 5th, 10th, 25th, 50th, and 100th plus. Five cloze tests were then constructed by inserting blanks for deleted words in 5 word segments (5th order), 10 word segments (10th), 25 word segments (25th), 50 word segments (50th), and 100 word segments of five different passages of…

A brief review of theory and traditional approaches to the problem of oral reading of Greek dating from the fall of Constantinople (1453) focuses on the importance of two major linguistic features of Byzantine pronunciation. The first examines the nature of the dynamic (stress) accent and the second is concerned with differences in vowel lengths…

An examination of models which have been employed in making predictions about the interference effect is made. It is pointed out that investigators mainly have relied upon the paired-associate model borrowed from classical studies in the field of verbal learning. This basic paradigm, represented as A-B, A-C, A-B, has produced fairly consistent…

Nearly 700 titles are included in "Paperback Books for Children," a guide for librarians and teachers published by the American Association of School Librarians. It is divided into the following sections: Picture Books; Fiction; Nonfiction; Myths, Folklore, and Fairy Tales; and Poetry, Rhymes, Riddles and Jokes. The book also contains an adult…

Two experiments concerned with memory and comprehension of prose passages were conducted with children from second through seventh grade. In both experiments the major variable was the provision of appropriate frameworks for comprehending ambiguous sections of the passages. In the initial experiment, recognition of theme-congruent and…