Shows that intermediate learners of German whose first language is English experience more semantic difficulties when reading an English text and more syntactic difficulties when reading a German version of the same text. A stronger emphasis on syntactic features, such as word category, agreement relationships, tensing, and word placement in the…

This article addresses two sets of organizing principles to guide prevention and intervention in beginning reading: (1) the complexity in our alphabetic writing system, and (2) the complexity in our schools. The first set is related to instructional design, while the second set is related to a schoolwide model. (Contains references.) (Author/CR)

Describes a study of seventh graders learning to make and share meaning about literature through "sketch-to-stretch," an interpretive strategy involving the creation of symbols and pictures and other nonlinguistic signs to signify ideas generated through reading. Supports teaching that provides such shared opportunities for students. (TB)

Claims that readers can conduct dialogue with many inner audiences through reading, and readers who manage to do so are likely to develop more sophisticated strategies for learning. Describes different kinds of dialogues, specifically, dialoging with reader's experience, with the author/illustrator, with genre, with problems, and with culture.…

In 3 second-grade classrooms within diverse educational settings, the theory of culturally responsive teaching was utilized in combination with the strategy, Text Talk. Text Talk is a strategy generally used with young children during read-alouds to foster oral language and comprehension. Culturally response teaching builds on students' prior…

Intended as a guide for teachers of grades 3-6, this book presents ideas for the use of literature groups in the classroom. In chapter 1, the author talks about her own reading background and her discovery of teaching methods for literature, and presents ideas for forming literature groups. Chapter 2 offers advice on selecting and collecting good…

Noting that a small portion of older emergent readers are usually found in all primary classes, this pamphlet discusses how teachers can help students with reading difficulties see how to fit together the snippets of literacy-related information they may have already acquired. After a brief introduction, the pamphlet suggests that children learn…

This book presents essays that offer a guide to understanding the elements necessary to bring good reading instruction to all children. It includes a list of follow-up actions accompanying each essay to assist administrators, teachers, and parents in applying this knowledge to their own instructional objectives. Essays in the book are: (1)…

A large segment of poor readers in elementary school do not supply prosodic features to print; in other words, they do not use pauses, changes in pitch, or differences in emphasis to show their comprehension. Two methods that help children to supply reading intonation involve using phrasally segmented texts and teacher modeling of the correct…

J. D. Bransford's tetrahedral model of learning considers four variables: (1) learning activities, (2) characteristics of the learner, (3) criterial tasks, and (4) the nature of the materials. Bransford's model provides a research-based theoretical framework that can be used to teach, model, and have students apply a variety of study strategies to…

Notes that expository text, the predominant form of writing in content textbooks, is generally more difficult for students to comprehend than narrative, which predominates in basal readers. Recommends the use of extended anticipation guides as a strategy for helping students build background knowledge for understanding content area texts. (SKC)

Three articles describe methods for teaching library skills. The first presents a song used to teach students the Dewey Decimal system; the second describes a reading program incorporating Halloween and foreign countries; and the third includes short poems designed to teach students to care for library books properly. (CLB)

Suggests linguistic guessing strategies designed to help older students with reading problems. (FL)

Argues that children need to be taught how to extract, synthesize, organize, and integrate important information from texts into their own knowledge structures and describes some techniques that can be used to activate prior knowledge. (HOD)

Low literate patients face difficulties when they read health care information. The complex process of reading can be summarized in five steps: input, decoding, encoding, output, and feedback. Each occurs automatically for the fluent reader; the low literate reader might encounter stumbling blocks in one or more of the steps. Once the patient has…