This study examined whether the design of textbook material affects comprehension and memory of textbook material under certain cognitive conditions for proficient and remedial readers. Using quantitative and qualitative research methods, format was found to significantly affect comprehension and memory. Proficient Male scored significantly…

Describes how social studies teachers can help students interact with textbooks to promote better comprehension and retention of information. Suggests methods for linking existing knowledge to concepts in the text, for organizing information to encourage retention, and for making the expository style of texts more accessible. (LS)

Examples are provided that show readability in action in diverse settings. The first shows how readability analysis resulted in a new fluency monitoring protocol in three school districts in Northern California. The others present hypothetical school, clinic, and research situations that a speech language pathologist might encounter. (Author/CR)

This document reports on research related to large-scale assessments for students with learning disabilities in the area of reading. As part of a process of making assessments more universally designed the authors examined the role of "readable and comprehensible" test items (Thompson, Johnstone, & Thurlow, 2002). In this research, they used think…

Reading in content areas is generally difficult for English-language learners (ELLs), but reading in social studies is particularly challenging for ELLs for several reasons. First, ELLs often lack background information that textbook authors assume readers have. Second, ELLs in the process of learning a new language do not have…

The reading abilities of enlisted personnel are of interest to the Air Force for a number of reasons. One important reason is that the Air Force must ensure that airmen have the abilities necessary to read and comprehend training material and job aides such as technical orders (TOs). Since reading ability tends to differ among the Air Force…

Concludes that the readability levels of textbooks can be done rapidly and accurately by computer. (RB)

Even when the readability levels of content passages are equal, cloze shows some content areas make easier reading. (RB)

Concludes that with short news stories presented in modern style repetition is equally as important to the broadcast journalist as to the newspaper journalist. (RB)

Concludes that time-consuming man-made counts of syllables can quite accurately be done by computers. (RB)

Compares the predictive capabilities of readability formulas derived from cloze and multiple-choice reading comprehension tests. (RB)

Twenty-five introductory college psychology textbooks are analyzed for terms most frequently used, the textbooks which employed the largest number of frequently used terms; similarity among textbooks; and the relationship between readability and technical thoroughness of the texts. (Author/JR)

Presents two ideas for testing a class in the ability to read the textbook. (RB)