This book explores the question of how students become thoughtful, independent readers who deeply understand what they read by examining the thought processes of proficient readers. The book then uses these processes as models for the strategies it offers--strategies intended to help children become more flexible, adaptive, independent, and…

A study examined the effects of active learning strategies; namely, visualization, questioning, and prediction, upon the reading comprehension performance of learning disabled students. Subjects were 6 12th grade resource room students. Prior to strategy instruction, students read and were tested on 3 reading selections from the literature-based…

One of a series of educational packages designed for implementation either in a workshop atmosphere or through individual study, this Hot Topic guide presents a variety of materials to assist educators in designing and implementing classroom projects and activities centering on the topic of research about teaching reading. The Hot Topic guide…

A study examined shifts that occur in teachers' behaviors and teaching repertoires as they become more strategic teachers, and the types of instruction that lead to the greatest growth in at-risk students' comprehension and reading abilities. A literacy initiative coordinator and a college researcher worked collaboratively with nine teachers to…

As part of the Michigan Adult Education Inquiry Project III, five adult education practitioners from five metropolitan school districts researched the use of the Cloze procedure in determining the readability of the Michigan High School Proficiency Test for students in alternative or adult education. The Cloze is an assessment designed to take a…

A study investigated the effectiveness of a listening program using the reciprocal teaching procedure and the direct instruction model. Subjects, 95 9- to 11-year-old students from 6 special schools for children with learning disabilities, were chosen based on their very low scores on a decoding test, low scores on a reading comprehension test,…

The first of two studies reported examined the factors that predict differences in item responses for black and white matched examinees to analogies on the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE). Data were taken from 13 forms of the GRE Verbal Test, with a median sample size of 21,000 whites and a median sample size of 1,400 blacks for the purpose of…

A study examined the relation between phonemic awareness and reading across the full range of decoding abilities in adults; determined if phonemic awareness can be taught to low-literate adults in one 45-minute session; and determined the effect of phonemic awareness training on the acquisition of decoding skills by low-literate and illiterate…

A study focused on whether literary character sex role stereotyping in children's literature had a negative or positive effect on reading comprehension. It was hypothesized that no significant differences exist in the comprehension of a mixed gender population when reading about characters in non-traditional sex roles. It was further hypothesized…

A study was conducted to identify poor readers and to characterize weaknesses in their knowledge and use of story structure in comprehension and recall. Subjects were 80 year-3 children in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, 20 good readers and 60 poor readers. The poor readers were then divided into relatively homogeneous subgroups, using measures…

Noting that although some children read aloud with apparent fluency, they fail to understand fully or remember connected discourse, this book brings together research on children who have a specific comprehension deficit. The book first provides an introduction and overview of adult and child text comprehension, and then describes the research.…

A think-aloud instructional program was developed to help students acquire the ability to monitor their reading comprehension and to employ various strategies to deal with comprehension breakdowns. Several research studies indicate that comprehension monitoring abilities discriminate successful readers from less successful ones and that…

Intended to help young children learn to read with comprehension, this book uses visualization and drawing techniques with folktales. The folktales in the book (collected from around the world and freely adapted) were chosen to help primary- and middle-grade students increase their enjoyment and comprehension by eliciting a flood of rich visual…

A study investigated the effects of S2RE, a metacognitive learning strategy, on the reading comprehension of second-, third-, and fourth-grade students, and evaluated its effects on the metacognitive knowledge of third- and fourth-grade students. Pretest and posttest reading comprehension scores for 218 students from a Mississippi delta school…

The summary information in this report provides teachers, school administrators, students, and the general public in Alberta, Canada with an overview of results from the June 1998 administration of the English 33 Diploma Examination. The information in the report is most helpful when used in conjunction with the detailed school and jurisdiction…