The purpose of this qualitative research was to examine how a service learning literacy course impacted preservice teacher perceptions of intermediate-aged high-ability children in a mid-high poverty school, and how the educators in the partnering school viewed the experience. Pre- and post-experience responses from preservice teachers and…

A study was conducted to determine whether using the schema method for vocabulary instruction would be significantly greater than using the dictionary method for vocabulary instruction. Subjects were 12 sixth grade students who were divided into two sample groups and received different forms of vocabulary instruction for 10 weeks. Each sample was…

Examines the relative importance of vocabulary difficulty and prior knowledge on comprehension of narrative passages. Finds that knowledge-based preinstruction can significantly improve comprehension of a text dealing with an unfamiliar topic, but cannot compensate for difficult text vocabulary. (RS)

This study investigates the effect of word frequency on reading comprehension, in relation to type of content, vocabulary instruction method, student sex, and question type. Subjects, 120 sixth-grade readers, responded to three types of comprehension questions after reading two types of stories. Each subject had previously received one of three…

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)

"The Later Middle Ages: Civilization Reborn" in Ginn's "Our World," a chapter from a sixth grade social studies textbook, was assessed by the author, who used specific evaluation criteria. Although four strengths were indicated, the author dealt primarily with weaknesses of the text and made many suggestions for improvement.…

Two experiments assessed the effect of vocabulary difficulty on three measures of text comprehension--free recall, summary recall, and sentence recognition. In the first experiment, the effect of differing proportions of rare-word substitutions were examined in 79 sixth grade students. It was found that a high rate of difficult vocabulary (one…

This study investigated the effectiveness of teaching specific rather than global comprehension skills; the correlations among sex, intelligence level, and comprehension gain when taught global or specific comprehension skills; and the correlations between the factors of intelligence, comprehension, and vocabulary without regard for the teaching…

This curriculum unit, developed by the Montgomery County Public Schools, Maryland, was designed for use in an elementary level foreign language immersion program. It is geared toward the sixth grade social studies classroom. The unit includes instructional and performance objectives, necessary vocabulary lists, optional language structure…

Two experiments assessed the effects of text cohesion and schema availability on sixth grade children's comprehension of social studies passages that varied in vocabulary difficulty. The purpose of the experiments was to test the compensation hypothesis within the interactive theory of reading, which assumes that reading involves many…

This study compared the use of traditional methods and the use of reconstructive elaborations on learning specialized science vocabulary, involving two sixth-grade students with emotional disturbances. The reconstructive elaborations were pictures that linked together information to make it more familiar and meaningful, most commonly through the…

During the fall and spring, 20-24 high school students volunteer as Junior Counselors at the Outdoor School, which provides approximately 7,000 Multnomah County (Oregon) sixth grade students with an opportunity to live and study at 1 of 5 leased resident camp sites. Junior Counselors are recommended by their high school counselors and selected by…

Results of a survey using norm referenced tests of reading and mathematics for a large sample of sixth grade students throughout Texas are reported in detail. Statewide results are reported in terms of percentile ranks of average partial and total scores and in the percentage of students in each quarter of the norms. For each of 20 districts in…

This study examined where, how often, and how effectively vocabulary instruction occurred in 23 ethnically diverse upper-elementary classrooms in Canada. Data revealed that only 6 percent of school time was devoted to vocabulary knowledge development, with 1.4 percent devoted to vocabulary development in academic subjects. Most instruction…

A music teacher used the Minnesota Educational Computing Corporation (MECC) study guide to implement a 10-week practicum intervention designed to increase sixth graders' retention of musical terminology. A total of 12 beginning band students used a computer-aided instruction program to review questions drawn from workbook materials they had…