A project titled "Word of Mouth" was conducted to develop and evaluate model computer courseware to teach word attack skills to adult basic education students. The project was based on the use of multiple strategies to figure out unknown words, the importance of breaking down multisyllabic words, and the necessity of the use of audio in…

A study examined whether teaching a specific reading strategy could improve the reading comprehension and memory of young (18 to 32) and older (62 and older) high school educated adults with average to high vocabulary test scores. The "plan strategy" was identified through an examination of what more than 1,000 adults wrote down as they…

Defining readability in both the narrow sense of formula use and refinement and the broader sense of the processing and comprehension of language, this paper argues for the need for more research focusing on readability as a way of improving the match between reader and text. Following a brief introduction, the paper reviews current readability…

Using two original children's books and adaptations of these books created by basal reader publishers, a study investigated (1) whether children prefer original, unadapted stories that may have longer sentences and more vocabulary items than are permitted by readability formulas for their grade level, or the adaptations of those stories, which…

A study examined three different basal reading series (MacMillan, Harcourt-Brace, and Scott Foresman) at four different levels for the types of stories found in the readers, as well as for acts of reading portrayed in the stories. Subjects, 12 second grade students at a New Jersey elementary school, completed a teacher-constructed inventory on the…

Narrowly defining reading as a list of skills dealing with word attack and letter sounds is potentially crippling to readers, because it limits the instruction provided by those who write literature--authors, who, in creating text, create meaning. The nature of reading instruction should not structure the ways human beings come to deal with…

Since current research and theory question many of the traditional methods and techniques of teaching vocabulary, a study was made to determine the content of 55 college vocabulary texts and the extent to which the content was consistent with empirical evidence. The study investigated the techniques used to teach word knowledge and whether they…

Although critics persist in attacks on the teaching profession in general and the teaching of reading in particular, both elementary and secondary school reading scores have increased steadily over the past three decades. Even Black and Hispanic students (who still score below the averages for White students tested) have made sizeable gains in…

Focusing on the need to offer and encourage the experience of reading literature in elementary schools, the essays in this book (1) explicate the range of theory known as reader-response criticism; (2) argue its distinctive relevance to the needs of young, developing readers; and (3) indicate how classroom practices might be changed to accommodate…

A description is provided of 12 reading skills strategies that were developed as part of a Reading across the Curriculum project to help students bridge the gap between their reading levels and the reading level of their textbooks. Following introductory information on the Reading across the Curriculum project, the 12 strategies are explained and…

This booklet provides information on and instructional materials from the Education Consolidation Improvement Act (ECIA) Chapter I Computer Lab at Sumter Correctional Institution in Florida. Section 1 is an introduction addressing the benefits of computer-assisted instruction, responsibility of inmate aides, and evaluation and selection of…

Horizontal instruction techniques used to improve reading skills were tested with 63 limited-English-speaking, Spanish-dominant high school students. The students were divided into four groups. Two experimental groups received instruction in how to infer the main idea of a paragraph through sequential lessons in classification skills. Two control…

William S. Gray, Professor of Education and Dean of the College of Education at the University of Chicago, began work in 1929 on a major revision of the "Elson Readers," a popular basal series published by Scott, Foresman and Company. Organized around the daily life of two ordinary children, the "Dick and Jane" readers…

In a study examining the effectiveness of story-impressions (a previewing strategy) on story comprehension, remedial eighth grade students were asked to write predictions or "story-guesses" based on a series of one-word clues (story-impressions) that had been extracted from the material to be read. Having written a logical…

A study explored whether the use of a study guide would improve students' comprehension of content area material. Two groups of students in an eighth grade social studies class were involved: students in the control group received the usual instruction--the chapter was read orally and discussed in class--while students in the experimental sample…