This paper describes some findings from language development research and from studies in which comprehension of certain sentence structures in written materials was examined. The paper is divided into four sections. "Language Development Studies" discusses research that looked at the sentence structures of produced language of groups of children,…

Reports on a study during which intermediate level students were exposed to three auditory backgrounds while reading (no music, classical music, and rock music), and their subsequent comprehension performance was measured. Concludes that the auditory background during reading may affect comprehension and that, for most students, rock music should…

Administered the Survey of Reading Attitudes to 68 intermediate-grade students to determine the reliability of the eight attitudinal dimensions which it measures. The test retest interval was seven days. Results showed the scores were relatively stable. Reading anxiety appeared to be a less stable dimension. (Author/JAC)

This study investigated the effect of the integration of media projects into an existing language arts curriculum on the year-end achievement of fifth and sixth grade students at the University of Wyoming laboratory school. During their communication arts block of language arts, reading, and literature, each student completed a minimum of four…

The individualized developmental reading laboratory program described in this monograph was designed to supplement regular reading instruction in grades four and five. Information is provided on the instructional procedures used in the program, with emphasis on instruction given through teacher comments written in individual students' folders.…

Research data is presented to support special education approaches to personal and social development. Seventy-eight fourth- to sixth-grade handicapped students and 82 first-grade nonhandicapped students participated in the project. Promising research results suggest many questions to be addressed in future study. (JS)

In a replication of two studies, the author found that sixth and eighth graders performed comparably to their counterparts of 60 years ago on reading comprehension and vocabulary tests. (MKM)

A study explored the relationship of interest in story content, external incentives, and reading level to elementary school children's reading performance. The subjects, 75 fifth grade students who were either average or below-average readers, were asked to rate the content of five stories from "most" to "least" interesting and were then assigned…

The direct and indirect effects of neighborhood characteristics on school-level reading achievement were investigated via path analysis in this study. Race, family structure, income, and neighborhood density were among the variables investigated. (Author/JKS)

The present study explored some of the implications of Carroll's model of school learning in the context of a group of school districts with varying resource use in regular and compensatory reading programs in the intermediate grades. Subjects were 2,516 students in grades four through six from four school districts. Though the findings of this…

Two experiments designed to examine the effects on poor readers' comprehension of increasing their decoding speed indicated that the decoding training on single words and phrases increased the speed of word recognition but did not improve comprehension performance. (MKM)

Describes a modification of the cloze procedure which was used to assess the reading achievement of selected students in the Mariana Islands. (MKM)

A study examined whether students coming from low income families perform less well on achievement tests than do students in general. Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP) test scores of fourth grade students coming from low income, rural Michigan homes were compared to overall schoolwide and statewide average scores for the period…

A study in German schools found that sex of teacher had no effect on either boys' or girls' reading achievement. (MKM)

This report examines the Chicago Mastery Learning Reading Program (CMLRP) and other schoolwide approaches at selected schools in Los Angeles (California), New York City, and Chicago (Illinois) to identify factors in augmented achievement gains. This extended summary and conclusion seeks to provide information which can improve the general…