Although several different reading fluency intervention approaches appear promising for adolescents who are struggling readers, few studies have directly compared various approaches. The purpose of this study was twofold: 1) to determine the relative effects of word-oriented, fluency-oriented, comprehension-oriented, and multi-component…

Examines children's responses to nine works of realistic literature and film. Finds (1) between-text differences for stance and understanding; (2) book and film differences for stance but not for understanding; (3) most responses were written from an aesthetic stance; and (4) the use of an aesthetic stance is associated with significantly higher…

Fifty fifth-grade students read passages at three readability levels from four content areas, then answered vocabulary, literal, and interpretive questions based on each passage. Significant differences in comprehension were found across ability levels and content areas. One sample passage is appended. (FL)

Details a study designed to determine the effects of passage content (schemata) and syntactic structure (clause order) on the inferential comprehension of causal relations of fifth grade students. (FL)

Examines the effect of key concept mapping strategies on reading comprehension and writing performance of fifth grade students using basal reading materials. Concludes that key concept mapping enhances comprehension of factual/informative text, but has no effect on written composition. Finds that literary mapping strategies enhanced neither…

Examines the influence of pre-reading instruction versus prior experience on factual and inferential comprehension. Concludes that prior experience affects factual and inferential comprehension more than does pre-reading instruction, and that younger students need to have relevant knowledge externally activated, while older students can activate…

Notes that three groups of fifth graders either read an original social studies text, read a revised version, or were asked questions while reading the original text. Finds no differences among the three groups in amount of information recalled and the number of questions answered correctly, but students who were asked questions tended to recall…

Discusses separating good readers from poor readers. Defines strategies for accomplishing academic tasks. Finds that poor readers lack appropriate strategies to correct their comprehension problems. Reports results of interviews with 60 fifth-grade expert readers. Concludes that through direct, systematic teaching and guided practice of reading…

Evaluates five less-skilled readers in grades five and six. Uses a word-meaning acquisition task before and after instructional intervention to assess the effectiveness of students' process of deriving word meaning from context. Concludes that all five students improved on every component of the task. (SC)

Concludes that there is a relationship between imagery level and comprehension and that imagery level of text can be determined "a priori" of pupils reading text. (FL)

The validity of the Pearson-Johnson taxonomy is supported by the finding that the most correct answers was obtained on the textually explicit scale while the least correct answers occurred on the scriptally implicit scale. (FL)

Indicates that including philosophical skills in the reading program of fifth-grade students led to improved reading comprehension achievement for both above and below average readers. (FL)

Describes a model procedure for integrating direct instruction in story structure with reader response to literature in two settings: traditional storybook read-aloud sessions and nontraditional HyperCard computer sessions. (SR)

Describes a program where at-risk fifth-grade students were treated to a writing program that utilized prewriting activities to see if their written expression and writing anxiety would improve. Compares students' before and after papers utilizing their holistic scores on written expression. Demonstrates that student writing anxiety can be lowered…

Compares the self-perception (specifically in terms of writing) of fourth- and fifth-grade students whose teachers used a writing workshop approach with that of students whose teachers used a traditional approach. Suggests that individual teachers are more important than strategies or approaches in affecting the writer self-perception of…