The functional literacy of various groups of 17-year-old students was assessed to discover whether the reading skills which are usually taught in the schools are adequate for functioning in everyday life. Eighty-six test exercises were classified according to the various formats of reading materials they represent and according to the types of…

This research studied the effectiveness of a taxonomy of literature and specific arts upon aspects of functional and creative reading in secondary school students. Two experimental groups (taxonomy and enrichment) and one control group (traditional) were used. All of the students in the study were pretested with tests measuring creative and…

A digest of findings from a national survey by Louis Harris and Associates of adult reading skills comprises this edition of Adult Reading Development, a publication of the National Reading Center. The study measured the ability of adults to respond to practical real-life situations such as reading direct-dial instructions in a telephone directory…

A method of teaching functional reading to three trainable mentally handicapped children (mean age 7.2 years) was developed by L. Brown. (PHR)

Presents a test on abbreviations used in classified employment advertisements which may be used in survival reading skills instruction. (MKM)

Proposes redefining the problem of illiteracy in terms of a "social-interaction perspective" that would emphasize the need "to acculturate students to the practices of reading in their communities" and the broad range of reading competencies required by today's society. (JBM)

In this study, adults identified as low-readers were asked to sort 20 words into four unspecified groups. The purpose of the task was to determine ways in which learners clustered words. Subjects grouped words thematically as opposed to grammatically or hierarchically. Groups suggested stories rather than parts of speech or concept groupings.…

Argues that critical reading is educationally and logically distinct from functional reading and a disregard for this distinction and for the sequential primacy of functional reading decreases the efficiency of reading instruction. (Author/RB)

Learning disabled students need to be exposed to instruction in functional reading and mathematics, social information, and verbal and nonverbal social skills so that they can function as competent individuals in the every-day world. (CL)

Suggests that competency reading programs should be based on a definition of functional reading that applies reading skills to real-life tasks, that materials should be real and timely, and that activities should center on finding meaning. (MKM)

Presents a taxonomy of graphs, including lineal, quantitative, spatial, pictorial, hypothetical, and omitted graphs. Provides illustrations of each kind of graph and suggests that reading teachers take the responsibility for teaching graph reading and drawing skills. (MKM)

This study assessed effectiveness of peer delivered simultaneous prompting (SP) in teaching the expressive identification of community signs to four students with developmental disabilities. Results showed that the tutors delivered the SP reliably and tutees were able to expressively identify community signs. Tutees maintained acquired skills one…

Discusses adult literacy and the need for appropriate instruction to prepare workers for job-related reading. (MG)

This book of supplemental exercises is one of a series of books designed to provide educational materials for students in addition to the instructional texts in the Adult Learning Skills Program. Exercises in this basic level book are for the language arts subject area. Course numbers and exercise topics are: 201 (sight words, long vowels, hard…

Research was conducted into the metacognitive awareness of electronics workers in completing job reading tasks. The study examined how successful adult readers make decisions about why, when, and how to use reading on the job. It also identified unique aspects of the job reading context that both require workers to control their reading…