A study that compared two instructional strategies for teaching reading comprehension to fourth-grade students found no differences between a peer-assisted procedure involving 25 students working in dyads to ask and answer questions and a teacher-assisted procedure involving 23 students working alone to develop questions followed by class…

This project paper described a program for increasing reading comprehension. The targeted population consisted of sixth grade students at River Bend Elementary School in a middle class community located in western Illinois. The problem of a steady decline in reading comprehension was documented by the Illinois Goals Assessment Program, Iowa Tests…

Studied effectiveness of a cooperative-learning approach designed to foster strategic reading and social studies learning, in three heterogeneous, culturally and linguistically diverse, fourth-grade classrooms. Found that the experimental-group students made greater gains than control-group students in reading comprehension, and equal gains in…

Presents a strategy to improve students' comprehension of content material by having them read, discuss, and give written responses to items pertaining to short content texts. (MG)

This article describes a new technique for improving the reading comprehension of elementary students. The Coop-Dis-Q technique combines cooperative learning, discussion, and questioning strategies to create a synergistic instructional effect. The specific steps of the technique and successful use of the technique in a fifth-grade classroom are…

A study examined a comparison of the effectiveness of cooperative learning in small groups with whole classroom instruction using the Directed Reading Thinking Activity (DRTA) during reading. Subjects for the 8-week study were 53 sixth-graders from 2 classes in Brooklyn, New York. The stories used all came from the same basal reader. A reading…

This study investigated the effect of the study skill strategies of concept mapping and cooperative learning on students' academic achievement. Forty fifth grade students were placed in three groups: (1) cooperative concept mapping groups (N=9--3 students in each of 3 small groups); (2) a standard concept mapping group (N=11); and (3) a control…

This paper describes the experience of a fourth- and fifth-grade, first-year teacher's participation in the Book Club Project of the Center for the Learning and Teaching of Elementary Subjects. The Book Club included the use of high-quality children's literature, opportunities for response to literature in multiple ways, and instruction that…

A study examined how at-risk readers constructed meaning while reading, writing about, and discussing a full-length novel during Transactional Literature Discussions (TLD). Subjects were six fifth-grade students, four males and two females. Students chose the novel and participated in 15 group sessions of 45 minutes over 8 weeks. Scaffolded…

A 9-day study based on the framing strategy investigated the effects of using frames on low-performing students' (learning disabled or Chapter 1) comprehension of social studies text. Subjects were 14 fifth-graders from a large urban school district who were reading at least one year below grade level. All lessons were designed to involve students…

For this practicum, a program of multimedia peer dramatic presentations was developed to improve the vocabulary skills of middle school students. Each week for 10 weeks a target group of 18 randomly selected students viewed 5 short video skits (produced by broadcast arts students) which were designed to introduce and define new vocabulary terms;…

Middle level teachers are unique not just by virtue of the level of students they teach but also by the ways in which they teach. This monograph emphasizes strategies that actively engage students of all ability levels, promote collaboration, provide for various levels of concrete and abstract thought, and foster student inquiry. The monograph…

Addressing the many ways that literacy interacts with and supports learning, this book explores various aspects of middle and secondary school literacy instruction in subject area classrooms. The book presents a number of issues, instructional strategies, and classroom ideas for guiding students' literacy and language development in particular…

Detailing the many ways that reading and writing interact with and support learning, this book is about the role of literacy in subject area learning. Three features of the book are designed to guide teachers' reflective thought and assist them in transferring ideas from the book to their teaching repertoire and classroom: "double entry…

This ERIC/RCS Special Collection contains 10 or more Digests (brief syntheses of the research on a specific topic in contemporary education) and FAST Bibs (Focused Access to Selected Topics--annotated bibliographies with selected entries from the ERIC database), providing up-to-date information in an accessible format. The collection focuses on…