Four moderately mentally retarded students, aged 8-13, were taught to read food words found in grocery stores, using constant time delay or system of least prompts procedures. Both strategies produced criterion-level performance in training and other settings, but the constant time delay procedure was more efficient. (Author/JDD)

Suggests a variety of activities and projects which integrate functional literacy instruction into the curriculum. (MM)

Indicates that a broad age range of students can use some purpose questions as cues to activate background knowledge. Suggest topic familiarity, amount of information presented, and the presence of genre clues as text features affecting schema activation. (NKA)

Presents a study of students in Australia, Canada, and England and examines grade nine students' written responses to writing over a two year period and their opinions of the books they read. Suggests that for students of that age, creative written responses to writing are the most imaginative. (JC)

Criticizes the "project" approach to reading instruction, where beginning reading students are supposed to learn the skills it takes to find out information for themselves by reading from sources. Points out that a large number of ill-defined skills which are not taught explicitly are required to sucessfully complete a project. (SKC)

Reports on a study that found that children who read, write, and discuss whole texts of their own choice show remarkable insights into literature and its making, and that the insights match those of experienced adult literary critics. (SKC)

Examines the validity of estimates of instructional reading level produced by the Reading Comprehension Test of the 1986 Metropolitan Achievement Tests (MAT). Compares reading level estimates provided by the MAT, basal reader placement tests, an informal reading inventory, and classroom teachers' judgments. Suggests that each method, because of…

A program is described that successfully teaches decoding to poor readers of average or above intelligence in grades 1 through 8. The teacher-directed, supplemental program guides students to become aware of language patterns and consistencies and to apply a decoding process of using known language patterns to figure out unknown words. (Author/JDD)

Supports linking reading and writing by teaching at-risk college students a problem-solving approach which provides a thinking skill also applicable to other disciplines. Illustrates how problem-solving strategies can be used to teach reading. (SD)

Surveys university-based reading clinics and their potential for research leadership. Recommends that graduate programs of reading/language arts examine the consistency between the clinical component and the developmental coursework of their degree programs. (ARH)

Discusses possible causes of the lack of good reading and study skills among U.S. secondary school students. Describes several techniques for improving these skills. (ARH)

Argues that reading aloud to teenagers can provide some of the same benefits that lap reading gives to younger children. (FL)

Reviews the literature on classroom reading instruction and elaborates the results of a series of studies that hypothesized that high-risk students, such as those typically found in low reading groups, would become more aware of how to reason during reading if their teachers explained the mental acts associated with strategic skill use. (NKA)

Describes the fundamentals of reader response theory, focuses on the aspects most relevant to reading instruction, and presents a method of teaching using reader response as a vehicle for improving student ability to learn from text. (NKA)

Reviews research in the areas of reading standards and tests, reading development, dyslexia and specific reading retardation, and reading materials and interests. (FL)