Describes a basic reading course designed to meet the specific needs of the weakest basic writers enrolled in a large midwestern university with an open admissions policy. Shows how the developmental course improved the students' reading comprehension so they could better understand the texts they would encounter in college courses. (SKC)

Provides information on how to use newspaper comic strips with reluctant, older disabled readers because the visual nature of the comics helps reading comprehension. Activity types include: (1) categorizing; (2) finding main ideas; (3) comparing; (4) determining cause-effect relationships; and (5) predicting outcomes. (SKC)

Among techniques which can be used by foreign language teachers to help learners use multiple-choice tests (after reading a text) to become better readers are: have students attempt to answer questions before reading the text; rearrange the order of the questions; and have students make up multiple choice questions. (CB)

Examples are presented of worksheets designed to help students prepare for discussions of literature in terms of the language, plot, and literary aspects of a particular work. All examples are from an introductory course in German literature. Benefits of using such worksheets include increased students comprehension and class participation. (LMO)

Reports two studies of comprehensible and memorable expository writing. Finds that Time-Life editors' revisions of a high school history text improved eleventh grade students' recall, while revisions made by text linguists and composition instructors did not. But given latitude to change content, all editors' revisions improved recall. (RAE)

Poor readers often know only the most common meanings or nuances of multimeaning (polysemic) words frequently encountered in reading materials. Teacher-directed, systematic vocabulary instruction must focus on specific problem areas. A three-step plan for teaching multimeaning words is proposed, emphasizing recognition and classification of word…

Four activities for language learning are presented, including: an exercise in compound word formation; television program production; a puzzle made of text fragments; and organizing a trip to France. (MSE)

Explores how well measures of verbal short-term memory and naming speed tasks predict children's reading achievement under various IQ control conditions. Both were effective, but when controlling for verbal IQ, memory measures are less reliable, whereas digit-naming speed remains a significant predictor of reading achievement. (MM)

Indicates a reasonable range of individual differences in the dark interval threshold (DIT). Reveals a significant interaction between DIT and illumination level in their effect on reading accuracy. Finds that children with a short DIT read more accurately in high rather than low illumination and that this performance was reversed for long DIT…

Describes pilot study in a high school which assessed the qualitative and quantitative changes which occurred in two severely disabled readers' cognitive processes during strategy training. Results suggested that a qualitative shift in verbal strategy reports occurred during prose recall. Introduction of cognitive training increased recall of…

Examined whether altering the sequence of the traditional basal reading lesson by placing enrichment activities first increased comprehension of text. Found altered format subjects (of 45 subjects in total) correctly answered 71% of comprehension questions, whereas traditional format subjects correctly answered only 58%. Suggests these significant…

Presents results of a study indicating that what young readers say when they first read is influenced by their previous experiences with books, the structure of the text, and also the accompanying illustrations. Points out implications for reading to young children, and for choosing early texts. (SKC)

Classroom use of roadside signs and billboards is recommended both for understanding cultural and geographic context and for learning French. Exercises for decoding and comprehension are suggested. (MSE)

Three 11-year-olds with difficulties in reading comprehension received self-instructional training along with task worksheets and stories. Compared to control children, the experimental students achieved increased accuracy on classroom comprehension questions, and the increase was maintained during a subsequent self-management phase. (Author/JDD)

Principles that should guide reading comprehension assessment include acknowledging the complexity of reading, focusing on orchestrating rather than isolating skills, regarding reading as a dynamic process, developing techniques that encourage student-teacher interactions, and using a variety of reading comprehension measures. The principles are…