Introduces middle and secondary school teachers to wordless picture books and discusses how such books can be used to alleviate students' lack of reading fluency. Provides a list of wordless picture books that appeal to older students. (FL)

Examines whether paragraph dominant readers at the fifth, eighth, and eleventh grade levels would outscore word dominant readers when tested on their ability to use context clues to determine word meaning. Concludes that this was true only for fifth grade paragraph dominant readers. (FL)

Proposes adapting holistic scoring to oral retellings of stories as a means of developing students' concepts of interrelationships and their higher levels of comprehension. (FL)

Discusses the method of repeated readings as an approach to improve the comprehension and decoding skills of disabled secondary and postsecondary school readers. (HOD)

Presents contrasting evidence on the rate of letter identification. (AEA)

Offers six suggestions for teaching reading, including forming reading clubs, using story folders, and devising a parent involvement program. (AEA)

Reviews research on the average reading level in the United States, on how well the average American needs to read, and on what the average American can and does read. (MKM)

Discusses background information about the deaf that may be useful to reading teachers working with older deaf students; suggests additional sources of information on sign language and reading instruction for the deaf. (MKM)

Contributors propose five ways for students to improve their reading: combining television newscasts and note taking, determining the main ideas of pictures, using multicultural materials, developing vocabulary through color word contests, and finishing reading what a teacher has started. Also discussed is informal research indicating that…

Details a study indicating that the minimal level of literacy necessary for adults in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is very high. Provides a master list of vocabulary words, symbols, numbers, abbreviations, computational skills, and writing skills needed for functional literacy. (MKM)

Describes research conducted in France on text readability and suggests that readability formulas give high scores to redundant texts that have no great interest and penalize texts with original information. Argues that a coefficient should be incorporated into readability formulas that reflects the nature of the text. (MKM)