Describes how, in one Texas fifth-grade classroom, Shared Inquiry book discussions were taught and implemented over a six-month period in connection with the Junior Great Book Series. Discusses solutions to the dilemma of grading these active class discussions, and reports that scores on the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) tests were…

Reviews literature on second-language instruction to determine the rationale for the design and implementation of computer software in the field. Findings indicate a need for more software that engages learners in communicative task-based activities and is based on current learning theory. (118 references) (CK)

Fifteen middle school students with mild disabilities and poor reading comprehension were taught to independently create cognitive maps from reading passages. Comparison with a matched control group indicated that students who were taught the cognitive mapping strategy demonstrated substantial gains in both literal and inferential comprehension…

The functional architecture of the verbal processing resource system was studied by testing aphasic patients in Canada and Boston for their abilities to use syntactic structure in sentence comprehension in isolation and under dual-task conditions. Results indicate that the processing resource system underlying syntactic processing is separate from…

Describes a promising approach to literacy instruction for Latina/o middle school students struggling with literacy that emphasizes culturally relevant quality literature and that focuses heavily on comprehension-enhancing strategies. (SR)

A "transitivity" analysis within a systematic functional grammar is used to explore what the discourse of reading lessons looks like in one secondary school context and to examine what is being communicated about the culture of schooling. Conclusions are drawn concerning the value of teacher and test-authorising strategies. (Author/JL)

Discusses the Accelerated Reader software program and describes a project conducted with fourth grade students that investigated strategies for teaching reading and writing comprehension. Topics include generative learning theory; higher order thinking skills; generating original reading comprehension questions; and thinking maps and question…

Explains a case study in Retrospective Miscue Analysis (RMA), a process which enables readers to discuss the underlying logic of their miscues. Concludes that RMA is a powerful tool in crafting and guiding reading instruction. Notes that when the student subject was encouraged to use reading strategies that worked for him, he became empowered as a…

Ninety-five rural eighth graders completed the Idiom Comprehension Test in three contexts: idioms in a short story, in isolation, and in a verification task. Performance in the story condition and on high-familiarity idioms showed the greatest accuracy. Associations existed between performance and reading ability for the story and verification…

Discusses the importance of the home setting for the development of literacy. The article focuses on a pilot study employing homelike interactive models in classroom settings. Results reveal that pupils of low socioeconomic status in an experimental group, who were exposed systematically to series books in English, had higher reading comprehension…

This study of 461 Colorado students (ages 7-18) with deafness or partial hearing investigated the students' psychoeducational development by age and hearing loss, including syntactic comprehension and production, reading comprehension, social maturity, speech intelligibility, and math calculation skills. Traditional standardized measures of…

Describes how a middle school principal, concerned with the growing number of failing students, found a successful way to improve students' performance in content area classes: she observed and worked with students, demonstrated information processing strategies, and interviewed students about strategies that worked best for them. Describes how…

Studied the effects of Language 1-assisted (L1) reciprocal teaching (in this case, Mandarin) on the comprehension of English expository text by 12 year-7 and year-8 (grades 6 and 7) Taiwanese students. The use of reciprocal L1 and L2 (English) teaching appeared to increase comprehension when reading L1 and L2 texts. (SLD)

Shares how the author designed reading activities to increase students' understanding of nonfiction by adhering to three principles: purpose, classification, and collaboration. Recounts how students responded to the reading materials and each other as they developed an understanding of the information available to them. (MG)

The Moss Point, Mississippi, school district uses a semantic mapping teaching approach called "Writing to Learn" that visually and graphically displays ideas and concepts. Students use computers to work on writing projects, and their achievement scores in the state's reading and writing examinations have increased remarkably. Outlines…