The concept of autonomy can help secondary reading teachers help their students to become better readers and users of text. Research indicates that many students in content areas do not know how metacognitive strategies can be implemented so that students can become autonomous. Practical suggestions for helping readers become autonomous include…

This guide, written for parents, teachers, and students, presents advice on academic study habits derived from research data. Part 1 of the text presents the research evidence in five chapters: chapter 1 reviews common study skills problems; chapter 2 focuses specifically on research data from eight studies which successfully used precollege study…

As in processing oral speech, proficient reading involves "chunking" written texts into meaningful phrase units. Unlike oral speech, however, cues for segmenting the written text at the proper points are not clearly marked in the text. One method for helping readers identify and use phrase boundaries is to mark such boundaries in the…

Reviews current approaches to the assessment of the great variety of retellings encountered by teacher and tutor. Proposes a set of three criteria by which teachers can judge whether approaches to retellings developed by researchers are likely to be useful in classroom settings. (JK)

Describes the basic components of Iser's theory, then suggests ways to get students to interact with texts. (FL)

Describes the InQuest Procedure, which actively involves the reader or listener with narrative text through a combination of student questioning and spontaneous drama techniques. (FL)

Describes four strategies that employ competition as a means to motivate remedial readers to practice decoding. Discusses the value of competition as well as cautions to be exercised in using it. (FL)

Reports that after more than 50 years of argument as to whether children should be taught the names of letters as part of learning to read, American researchers have begun to suggest that letter name instruction and phonics instruction interact for better learning. (FL)

A considerable body of research has shown that Guided Reading lessons provide the structure students need to develop specific ways to approach reading a text. In guided reading, teachers first provide instruction for the reading involving general discussion of the text to build background information. Second, children participate in supported…

Analyzes teacher-prepared materials at the Federal University of Piaui (Brazil), and gives suggestions for improving some of the exercises. Effective analysis of the materials requires a review of the literature on the reading process, the schema theory, reading strategies, and material evaluation. (Author/VWL)

Areas of concern for matching adult readers and programs are theoretical orientation (meaning based, code based, or interactive); programing factors (reading assessment, goal formation, affective factors, negative schooling attitudes, student interests, reading interpretations); and methodologies (phonics, whole word, neuro-impress, repeated…

Offers a brief introduction on the theory of schemata (dynamic, constructive processes by which people perceive and remember information) and its relation to reading instruction. Reviews three instructional techniques that seek to develop students' schemata, including PReP (Pre Reading Plan), ConStruct (Concept Structuring), and double-entry…

A review was conducted of the research related to the ability of elementary school children to carry out search tasks with informational text. The review was organized within a framework of components of the search process: goal formation, text selection, information extraction and integration, and evaluation. The research reviewed suggests that…

To develop a historical perspective on the sources of the controversy over the appropriate place of oral reading in formal reading instruction, this paper presents a brief history of oral reading instruction as used in American schools from 1880 to the present. The paper describes in detail both classroom and clinical practices that rely on oral…

Applied linguistics has made major contributions to literacy teaching in recent years, in four general areas. First, second language acquisition is becoming the model for first language literacy teaching in schools through the "whole language approach" to literacy. Second, the field of sociolinguistics has convinced educators that literacy is a…