"The Comprehension Toolkit" focuses on reading, writing, talking, listening, and investigating, to deepen understanding of nonfiction texts. With a focus on strategic thinking, this toolkit's lessons provide a foundation for developing independent readers and learners. It also provides an alternative to the traditional assign and correct…

Fifty-five boys, aged 6 to 8 and 10 to 12 years, were administered EEGs while they silently read short passages. Subjects were then tested on the passages. Age differences in the relationship between hemisphere activation during silent reading and reading comprehension were discovered. (TJH)

An interview-based study with 13 African-American and white third graders finds that developmental age, prior experience, and academic background provide the context for comprehending, identifying with, and generally enjoying 24 culturally conscious children's literary works. Both race and class are important identifying social influences. (SLD)

Examined effects of instructional components for studying literature on limited-English-proficient and English-proficient students, part of an ongoing program to estimate effects of several individual components of a Spanish-to-English language-arts transition program. Found that combined effects of literature logs and instructional conversations…

Examines one teacher and her first graders' interactions around information book read-alouds. Reveals that the comprehension strategies the teacher modeled reflected the same categories as those suggested by more systematic but decontextualized research. Suggests that there may be a developmentally appropriate time to begin formal comprehension…

This study examined whether factors affecting first language reading acquisition also affect English Foreign Language (EFL) reading acquisition. Hebrew (L1) and EFL reading related measures were administrated to 145 fourth graders from the north of Israel who were beginning their first year of English instruction. Results from a Linear Structural…

This book presents a study of the ways in which home and school experiences affect the literacy achievement of a group of elementary school children from low-income families. Chapter 1 describes how the study differs from other literacy research. Chapter 2 describes the community where the research took place, some of the families studied, and the…

Results from the 1993 administration of the Wisconsin Third Grade Reading Test are presented in a 43-page table that lists the results for each school district and school in Wisconsin. Statewide, over 52,000 students from over 300 districts took this test. The following categories for each 4-digit district code and each 8-digit school code…

The Cognitive Education Project conducted a 3-year longitudinal evaluation of two cognitive education programs that were aimed at teaching thinking skills. The critical difference between the two experimental programs was that one, Feuerstein's Instrumental Enrichment (IE) method, was taught out of curricular content, while the other, the…

The Galbahe Language Tests C1 and C2 measure the Spanish language proficiency of children aged 7 to 8 years (C1) and those aged 10 to 11 years (C2). Equivalent tests E1 and E2 measure the Basque language achievement of the same age groups, respectively. Both tests were designed as part of a study of teaching of the Basque language in parts of…

The reading learning objectives for fifth graders contained in this volume are congruent with the Texas "State Board of Education Rules for Curriculum." These objectives and the measurement specifications are provided for use by teachers and other educators responsible for student instruction and for test development specialists involved…

This study was designed to examine the extent to which Illinois Goal Assessment Program (IGAP) constructing meaning scores correlate with Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS) reading scores and with performance on ITBS items dealing with literal meaning, inferences, and generalizations. In addition, this study assessed the ability of the IGAP reading…

This study investigated the relationship between dialect usage and performance on four language tasks designed to reflect features developmental in nature: articulation, grammatical closure, auditory discrimination, and sentence comprehension. Predictor and criterion language tasks were administered to 90 kindergarten, first-, and second-grade…

This study involves the collaboration of researchers with 24 teachers in a 3-year intervention study aimed at investigating and improving vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension of fourth and fifth grade students for whom English is a second language. Cross-sectional and longitudinal data were collected on various aspects of vocabulary…

Discusses the experience of Grade four students transitioning from Spanish to English in reading a short story in English and then participating in one of two story-related videotaped lessons: an Instructional Conversation and a basal-like reading comprehension lesson. Findings reveal that the quality of classroom talk can be traced into eventual…