This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The five titles deal with the following topics: (1) a comparison of manuscript writing at the beginning of first grade with reading achievement at the end of first grade, (2) using text comprehension as a metaphor for understanding…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 6 titles discuss the following topics: (1) the effects of comparison/contrast writing instruction on the reading comprehension of tenth-grade students; (2) an exploration of the role of language awareness in high school students'…

Notes that poor readers often equate reading difficulty with failure and exhibit stress reactions, and suggests that teachers take these feelings into account to help with remediation. (JC)

This thesis investigated the attitudes toward reading of elementary students in 3rd and 6th grade at a small, rural western Kansas school before and after implementing a read-aloud program. The sample consisted of 58 students--33 boys and 25 girls, including both the study group (n=30) and control group (n=28). Independent variables were…

Reading evaluation should (1) be a continuous process using many samples of a learner's work, (2) allow students to engage in uninterrupted reading, (3) constitute a learning situation, and (4) indicate new directions for improvement in an open-ended manner. Current practices for evaluating children's reading processes are usually based on samples…

Focusing on remedial reading instruction for primary level students (grades K-3), this handbook presents training materials for teachers and coordinators of Chapter 1 reading programs. After a discussion on the nature and purpose of the program, the handbook describes a model of Chapter 1 programming, presenting three combined approaches that are…

Although grounded in theory and research, this book is a practical text that specifies how to assess students and how to use assessment results to provide effective instruction for low achieving readers and writers. Forty sample lessons, described in step-by-step fashion, cover virtually every major skill or strategy. The emphasis is on teaching…

To explore question-answering strategy differences between young "good" and older "poor" readers, 60 fifth and sixth grade good readers and 60 ninth and tenth grade poor readers responded to questions about passages read and reinspected. Strategies used were inferred through analysis of response errors. Implications for reading…

Twenty third-grade teachers and their low ability reading group students participated in a naturalistic study to test how teachers' explanations during a year of reading instruction affected either metacognitive awareness or student use of strategies while reading. The 10 teachers in the treatment group were trained to be explicit when teaching…

For Mexican American students, grade-level reading and overall academic achievement decline, as measured by standardized tests, as they progress through the educational system. By grade seven, 65% of Mexican American students fail one or more grade levels below expected achievement. To reverse this trend of academic failure, teachers need to use…

A study investigated the effect of instruction about conventional expository text structure on fifth-graders' ability to learn from similarly structured social studies material. Subjects, 82 fifth graders from four heterogeneous classrooms in two schools in a small midwestern city, were assigned to either a structure training group which received…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The eight titles deal with the following topics: (1) the effect of medium of instruction on the listening comprehension and retention of community college speech students, (2) the relationship between reading ability and on-the-job…

Extending Beginning Reading was a research project based at the School of Education, University of Manchester, England, from September 1973 to December 1977. The project, aimed at helping readers seven years and older improve their reading skills, is detailed in this book, in which most of the seven sections contain implications for teachers. The…

Papers in this yearbook cover a variety of topics in the field of language arts instruction, such as creative writing instruction, reading assessment from a Whole Language perspective, journal writing, and strategies for modifying commercial reading materials. Papers and their authors are as follows: (1) "Let's Get Creative about Creative…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 12 titles deal with the following topics: (1) conceptualization of main idea by special admission college freshmen; (2) the interactive effects of field dependence and adjunct questions on learning from prose; (3) an art based…