Recent research suggests that an understanding of a simple children's story can demand sophisticated knowledge of concepts, social life, and literary forms. A well-written story for beginning readers will relate goal-directed event sequences in a coherent and relatively complete form, but understanding the story involves processes extending beyond…

While diagnosis is generally considered a vital element in reading clinicians' expertise, research has revealed that even degreed, experienced reading clinicians display little personal consistency or agreement with one another when diagnosing simulated cases of reading difficulty. Three studies were conducted to determine if systematizing the…

A study investigated the effects of nonverbal and verbal classification abilities on reading comprehension. Subjects, 104 fourth grade students, were tested on three measures of classification skill (a shifting of criteria task, a free sorting task, and a three-level hierarchical classification task) and on a measure of recall of relevant story…

Teaching reading comprehension as a process rather than a product demands new instructional techniques. As the psycholinguistic model of reading suggests, readers use prior knowledge and linguistic competence to confirm, reject, or revise predictions on the text's meaning. Methods increasing readers' consciousness of their role in the…

A descriptive study examines the drawing, oral language, and composing behaviors of selected first grade limited English proficient (LEP) children following a natural language text reading experience. The units of analysis were LEP children's drawings, written texts in writing folders, oral language during a writing episode, and story retellings.…

A study was conducted to determine whether high and low ability comprehenders would benefit from induced lookbacks over naturally occurring text. Subjects were 64 tenth grade students selected on the basis of how their self-perceived proficiency matched their actual reading achievement as measured on a standardized test. The subjects were randomly…

To explore how readers create textual meanings or interpretations from written materials, a study that investigated reading from a semiotic perspective was conducted. The study's design was based on the principle of prior ethnography and employed data collection techniques common to field studies: participant/intervention and interviewing.…

A study was conducted to obtain information about the involvement of the private sector in creating literacy programs for employees. Specifically, it examined the extent to which selected Fortune 500 companies were involved in literacy training and the extent to which materials and methods used were relevant to specific job tasks. An analysis of…

This is one of a series of reports which provide definitions of and descriptive data on the variables used in the Comparative Study of Phase IV of the Individually Guided Education (IEG) Evaluation Project. Phase IV investigated three curriculum programs specifically designed to be compatible with instructional programming for the individual…

Using a question/answer format, this report provides program descriptions and evaluation findings for the 1983-84 Chapter 1 and Chapter 1 Migrant programs in the Austin Independent School District. Topics covered include student eligibility, numbers of students served, teacher characteristics, teacher satisfaction, special programs, achievement…

A willingness by the teacher to experiment with innovative instructional strategies and aids is a prerequisite to success for students in a reading situation in which the reading material is not properly matched to the student's reading competence. Using recordings done by professionals is one such technique. Another device is the tape recorder,…

A pilot study of discourse in a practicum reading class for instruction in English as a second language examines miscommunication between non-native English speakers. Teachers and their students read transcripts of episodes from classroom discussions and wrote line-by-line analyses of what they understood was being said. Similarities and…

Jackdaws are collections of interesting artifacts that provide information about a particular subject, period, or idea, and build background and interest in works of literature for children. Jackdaws are easy to construct: practically anything that is related in some fairly direct way to a piece of literature and that can aid a student's…

Informal and formal observations of a second grade classroom of 25 students indicated that students did not remain on task for any substantial length of time when given an assignment, had poor work habits, and were lacking in discipline. The classroom teacher spent most of her time disciplining students in a negative manner for lack of on-task…

Sixteen first-year elementary school teachers participated in telephone interviews and classroom observations that focused on decision making processes before and during reading instruction. The most difficult aspect for the majority of teachers interviewed was explaining what influenced their decisions. The major decisions made prior to reading…