Over 4,000 fifth graders were involved in a study to determine the effect of teacher oral reading of test items on good and poor readers. The findings suggested that having teachers read test items aloud during standardized tests yielded higher scores for both groups than having students read for themselves. (Author/MT)

The development of intermediate grade children's knowledge of structural features and content of stories was examined from a longitudinal perspective. The primary conclusions are that over the intermediate grades, children acquire greater knowledge of structural complexity but demonstrate little growth in knowledge of content. (Author/MT)

The relations between word knowledge and reading comprehension for good and poor readers were studied using various formats. Subjects were 50 fifth and sixth graders who read at grade level and 50 tenth graders who read at a sixth-grade level. Results are discussed. (Author/MT)

Seventy-three sixth graders were asked to detect contradictions within the assigned paragraph and information contrary to general knowledge. While prior studies have found ability to detect errors related to reading ability, the results of this study suggest that individual variations in error detection are more complex. Results are discussed.…

This study describes the synthesis of the cloze technique with story-mapping techniques resulting in the Cloze Story Map (CSM) and tests the immediate and long-term usefulness of CSM with both expository and narrative texts. Results are discussed. (Author/MT)

Performances of 64 sixth-grade readers on a traditional and three alternative types of cloze tests were compared. Results confirm and extend the findings of earlier studies investigating cloze alternatives. Advantages of the alternate forms are discussed. (Author/MT)

Intermediate students scored better on reading comprehension tests when questions on content were interspersed in the text. (JD)

The extent to which students perform differently on recall, low-inference, and high-inference items on a reading comprehension test is explored in this research. Results indicate a significant difference between questions asking for recall and inference comprehension. (JMF)

Quantitative results from a study involving 78 elementary students suggest that content-related attitudes do not significantly affect subjects' reading comprehension. However, qualitative results suggest that attitudes may affect reading comprehension in qualitatively different ways. (IAH)

Thirty-eight sixth-grade students participated in a study that examined the relationship of conceptual tempo and performance on several study and reading activities. Results indicate that conceptual tempo may have a relationship to effective studying and reading. Methodology and results are discussed. (Author/JL)

Poor comprehenders from grades five and six were asked to read and rate the comprehensibility of three short passages. Passages with large numbers of modifying words were considered the least comprehensible. Support exists for the hypothesis that poor comprehenders process print in piecemeal fashion. (Author/JN)

This study examined the effectiveness of repeated reading and assisted nonrepetitive strategies such as echo reading, cloze reading, and unison reading on reading and error rate, comprehension, and fluency with sixth-grade Chapter 1 students. Findings indicated equivalent benefits for both methods, with significant comprehension improvement over…

Results from a longitudinal study indicated that first grade metalinguistic awareness was a statistically significant predictor of students' (N=65) reading comprehension performance in both third and fifth grades, even when academic aptitude was in the regression equation. (Author/IAH)

Results of an experimental study involving 49 sixth-grade science students suggest that teacher-constructed graphic organizers, regardless of position (before or after textual reading), are no more effective than traditional instruction in increasing comprehension and retention of science content-area information. (IAH)

This study examined whether graphic organizer instruction would facilitate comprehension, recall, and information transfer, and how much explicit instruction was necessary for independent generation of graphic organizers. Fifth graders read social studies information with or without graphic organizers and explicit instruction. Explicitness and…