A study examined whether informed training and computer mediated text improved reading comprehension levels, whether computer mediated text is effective when it is preceded by informed strategy training, and whether informed strategy training leads to higher levels of metacognitive awareness and more frequent use of computer assistance options.…

A study examined the reading practices of reviews and editors of scholarly journals and their attitudes about their roles in the editorial process. Two-hundred thirty-seven reviewers (for a return rate of 50%) and 8 editors (for a return rate of 57%) of 14 journals (representative of those currently publishing articles in composition and…

Exploring the responses of a variety of readers from three-year-old Dominic sharing a picture book with his father to adults reading a poem by Ted Hughes, this book examines the ways in which various readers respond to different texts. The aim of the book is to develop an awareness of the issues involved in readers' responses for primary teachers.…

Noting the persistent tendency to polarize questions of reading instruction into diametrically opposed or simplified positions, this book (developed in the United Kingdom) is a teacher's guide to learning to read. The first part of the book surveys what is known about reading, in chapters corresponding to the four major partners in the reading…

Noting that it is only within the last decade that schools have begun to identify ways to optimize language use to promote higher level thinking, this ERIC Digest focuses on developing thinking skills in reading. The digest discusses the impetus for critical reading, the use of children's literature as a tool for teaching thinking skills, a…

Aimed at junior and senior high school teachers and artists in residence, this book urges teachers and students to read and write poetry "as though their lives depended upon it," and to breathe life into classroom writing traditions that are not hands-on or intense. Each chapter is set in the classroom. Poems by students and teacher…

Differences in readers' interpretations of a given text illustrate premises of the transactional or reader response theory of literature. The theory holds that: (1) meaning resides in the coming together of reader and text; (2) the reader affects the reading of the text and is affected by the text; and (3) there are potentially as many meanings to…

Five methods for studying the process of reading a text are presented, and a model for discourse processing is outlined. Discourse processing refers to comprehension of the meaning underlying the verbal message. The methods discussed here investigate the reading process as it occurs, and focus on the amount of time taken to complete a task or…

This book provides information about reading and reading instruction from kindergarten through the elementary grades that is specific enough to be helpful to anyone who is, or will be, teaching reading. Chapters in the book are: (1) The Reading Process; (2) The Reading Teacher; (3) Reading: Silent or Oral?; (4) Easing Young Children into Literacy;…

The instruction of six teachers in a private school (Benchmark) for bright underachievers that is characterized by a strategic teaching initiative, strong instructional leadership, and collegiality was examined to characterize the nature of instructional dialogue. Lesson transcripts were coded for the presence and organization of eight…

Finding meaning in an ordinary prose text and following a description or argument is generally considered less difficult than finding the essential message in a literary text. Sometimes, however, the emotional impact makes it easier for some readers with some texts to see and understand the meaning of some literary texts. Research from the…

To determine the impact of causal relationships and shared features in the use of analogy, subjects in two separate studies were informed of the behavior of six members of a little known primitive tribe and asked to make predictions on the behavior of additional tribe members based on their perceived similarities with the original group. Results…

Designed to analyze systematically the relative effects of different types of oral reading errors on comprehension, this instrument consists of a basic set (each with an easy and a hard version) of six stories. Every story is transformed so that it contains simulated errors of a particular type: (1) correct, (2) semantically related visually…

Valuable insights into the reading process can be gained by analyzing children's reading miscues and by encouring children to use their linguistic knowledge when reading. (JH)

A study examined laterality effects observed in previous studies in which men as well as right-handers show a right-visual field (RVF) advantage for letter recall and a left-visual field (LVF) advantage for letter position recall, suggesting asymmetrical brain organization for these groups. Subjects, 96 undergraduates equally divided by sex and…