Notes that the Title I Program at the Upper Darby School District (located on the western boarder of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) created the T.O.A.S.T. (Title One After School Tutorial) program from the need for extended learning time and opportunities to assist struggling young readers. Concludes that students increased their sight word…

Investigates the relationship between type of reading instruction and reading comprehension. Uses predictor variables including IQ, group, race, and comprehension pretest score to predict comprehension score. Finds that the dependent variable was not significantly related to method of reading instruction, and there was no interaction effect…

Reports that a meta-analysis of the effects of sentence-combining on reading comprehension (which compared the mean effect sizes with zero) affirmed the congeniality of sentence-combining with cloze tests but not with standardized tests. (NH)

Finds that first graders who received direct instruction in awareness of four pragmatic language functions (heuristic, imaginative, regulatory, and personal) evidenced greater recognition and awareness of these functions in narrative than did uninstructed children. Implies that it is useful to cultivate such pragmatic awareness to promote…

Presents an essay that is the result of group-centered activities by graduate students and a faculty mentor in a leadership training program for prospective educational administrators in California. Notes that the class produced some forward-moving and future-thinking core recommendations for reading improvement and achievement in multicultural…

Assesses effectiveness of intervention exercises in the use of textbook comprehension strategies on middle school teacher endorsement of instructional adaptations. Finds trained teachers would use significantly more strategies. (NH)

Since the 1940s, teachers in upper grade classrooms have been asking students to "survey, question, read, recite, and review" chapters in their content area textbooks. Known as SQ3R, many teachers have long believed that this study strategy helps students make sense of unfamiliar informational text, or that it at least provides a structured…

Reading comprehension instruction in many classrooms focuses on teacher-generated questions which actually measure comprehension of specific text rather than developing metacognitive strategies for comprehending all text. Explicit instruction in the metacognitive strategies of making text connections, predicting, and sequencing, was evaluated for…

Outlines a taxonomy of reading comprehension skills that teachers can use to develop questioning techniques that are flexible enough to reflect the nature of the reading materials. (RL)

Reviews 13 supplementary reading material series--including Impact on Reading, Project Achievement, and Be a Better Reader--useful for providing instruction and practice with a variety of comprehension skills. Includes evaluative comments for each series, noting series' emphases, levels, and publisher. Observes that materials can be used in…

Reports that sentence combining studies have consistently recorded significant gains in writing improvement at all grade levels and that, while reading comprehension gains have not been as significant, fewer studies have been conducted in that area. (FL)

Examines the abilities of 52 fourth graders to recover surface structure from deep structure and to understand logical connectives. Finds that high comprehenders show greater ability than low comprehenders but that the two groups do not differ in ability to understand logical connectives. (RL)

Determines the efficacy of a structured reading intervention program with adolescents identified as evidencing significant reading underachievement. Suggests that implementation of the "LANGUAGE!" intervention program was effective in significantly improving reading comprehension and spelling, word recognition for students in grades 7 and 10, and…

Reviews research on children's comprehension monitoring skills. Discusses implications of research findings for the classroom. Describes procedures for assessing children's comprehension monitoring. Outlines how monitoring strategies can best be taught. Discusses children's readiness for monitoring instruction. (RS)

Uses a survey to determine how adult, adolescent, and elementary age students remember what they read. Finds that, for all three groups studied, adjunct (during reading) strategies were reported as being used more often than pre- and posttype strategies. Finds that adolescent readers believed teachers taught them to remember, but adults believe…