Described are two English units--Aggression and Death--developed at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, intended for use in the inner city secondary school. Built on the premise that erudition should be an extension of the search for self-knowledge, both units involved the students in a general discussion of how aggression (or death) is…

This annotated bibliography lists 27 Canadian doctoral dissertations in reading instruction written from 1928 through April 1971. Each citation describes the research investigations involved and the conclusions drawn. Some of the topics covered include: (1) remedial reading, (2) reading achievement, (3) perceptual skills, (4) parental…

This guide is divided into seven main sections. "How to Help Your Child Read" discusses the importance of being aware of your child, your schools, school-related factors, particular ways of helping your child in reading, and yourself. The Unit: "Help Me Help My Child" discusses assignment of pupil to teacher, grouping procedures, size of groups,…

A COMPARISON OF AN ENGLISH LANGUAGE READING COMPREHENSION TEST WITH ITS TURKISH TRANSLATION AND RETRANSLATION WAS CONDUCTED. THE INSTRUMENTS CONSISTED OF TWO PARALLEL FORMS OF A READING TEST OF COLLEGE ENTRANCE LEVEL. THEY WERE TRANSLATED INTO TURKISH, AND THEN RETRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH. SUPPLEMENTARY MEASURES WERE ALSO EMPLOYED. THE SAMPLE…

This handbook is designed to give background information on the Mini-Assessment of Functional Literacy, a criterion-referenced test designed to determine the extent of functional literacy among seventeen year olds in America. The five format categories identified for the test were passages; drawings, pictures, signs, etc.; charts, maps, graphs;…

This study investigated the effectiveness of the Story Writing Scales of the Personalized Progress Assessment set in determining the writing capabilities of fourth, sixth, and eighth graders and assessed the relationship between students' story-writing competencies and their achievements in reading comprehension, vocabulary, usage, and spelling.…

Provides a strategy for teachers to use to help students relate their concrete nonschool experiences to the abstract content of social studies textbooks and nonschool learning to school learning. Suggests use of a Nonschool Activity Student Profile to provide teachers with information about their students so that this may be achieved. (AEM)

This study focuses on teachers' and business managers' assessment of the importance of communication skills in the business world, specifically whether teachers underestimate or overestimate the importance of these skills and, if so, to what degree. Results of the questionnaire are reported and discussed. (CT)

Indicates that segmentation significantly aided the comprehension of narrative and expository materials for hearing impaired students who read at a second-grade level. (NKA)

Notes that expository text, the predominant form of writing in content textbooks, is generally more difficult for students to comprehend than narrative, which predominates in basal readers. Recommends the use of extended anticipation guides as a strategy for helping students build background knowledge for understanding content area texts. (SKC)

College students (N=180), in first-semester and second-semester Spanish at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, were each given a short text and one of five assessment tasks to determine if comprehension of the subjunctive is necessarily due to prior instruction in its form and use or can be achieved without instruction. Text and…

Examines the word-reading strategies of a sample of second- and third-grade students in normal classrooms, focusing on the students' relative reliance on decoding versus sight-word associations. Suggests that lack of efficient decoding skills will begin to take a toll on reading comprehension by grade 3. (SR)

Study guides for learning-disabled students can improve their comprehension of textbook readings. Guidelines for developing, using, and modifying study guides are provided. A sample study guide on early Latin American civilizations is given, followed by a sample test covering the study guide material. (Author/JDD)

Studies on reading comprehension for bilingual students are reviewed to examine the importance of first-language mastery prior to second-language acquisition. Immersion program factors analyzed include automaticity, plateau effects, need for a variety of sociolinguistic settings, oral facility versus cognitive academic linguistic abilities, and…

Discusses the need for reader orientation to the text and procedures for working through discourse to encourage selection and organization of main ideas. Students can summarize more effectively if they process and reformulate the text first. Sample text and student summmaries are appended. (Author/LMO)