This study investigated the effect of cloze item practice on reading comprehension, where cloze items were either created by humans, by machine using natural language processing techniques, or randomly. Participants from Amazon Mechanical Turk (N = 302) took a pre-test, read a text, and took part in one of five conditions, Do-Nothing, Re-Read,…

Intelligent tutoring systems for ill-defined domains, such as reading and writing, are critically needed, yet uncommon. Two such systems, the Interactive Strategy Training for Active Reading and Thinking (iSTART) and Writing Pal (W-Pal) use natural language processing (NLP) to assess learners' written (i.e., typed) responses and provide immediate,…

Cross-curricular objectives serve as a kind of "safety net" for core objectives. Firstly, cross-curricular objectives refer to competencies that do not pertain to the content of one or more subjects, but that can be taught, practised and applied in it, such as learning to learn and social skills. Secondly, certain cross-curricular final…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how literature discussion affects middle school struggling readers. The focus was on 16 middle school struggling readers in a rural Title I school in the southeastern United States. Findings indicated that (a) literature discussion increased student enjoyment of reading, and (b) students…

This paper reports on an innovative and action research project which focused on the use of the dictionary and the prior knowledge of Colombian high school students to improve their reading comprehension of short scientific texts. Data collection instruments included students' work gathered during two workshops, field notes, and a questionnaire.…

Neurologist and middle school teacher Judy Willis connects what you do in the classroom to what happens in the brain when students learn how to read, including: (1) Why a classroom has to be safe and supportive in order to overcome barriers to reading fluency; (2) How to jumpstart students who are not well prepared for reading with activities that…

This study investigates how, and to what extent, young readers (7-8 year-olds) use text information or their prior knowledge when answering comprehension questions about narrative texts. The children were asked to explain how they found out their responses by answering the following question: "how do you know this answer?" Their answers and…

Addresses the problem of finding a quick, easy, and effective way to teach necessary background knowledge for new topics so teachers can build the specific schema children will need to comprehend the text they read. Describes a mural lesson as an organized way for teachers to talk about and use pictures to provide students with information that…

Presents a modification of the traditional Anticipation Guide format (a reading comprehension strategy) that includes a prereading "I'm Not Sure" response option and helps students to differentiate the purpose for reading. (SR)

Reviews previous research on advance organizers (introductory text adjuncts intended to provide readers of expository text with a meaningful context within which to process unfamiliar, or difficult, new information). Shows that they inspire significant comprehension increases among readers whose prior knowledge "subsumers" are inadequate to…

Discusses briefly the process of comprehension. Argues that graphic organizers can be used as a practical tool while using basal readers, tapping into prior knowledge, cultivating active participation, and fostering an understanding of conceptual relationships, thus leading to a facilitation of comprehension. (SR)

This publication is a transcription of a forum held at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. on May 19, 2006 on background knowledge and reading proficiency. This topic goes to the heart of the education reform agenda, according to the first speaker, Eugenia Kemble, executive director of the Albert Shanker Institute, the sponsor of this…

The procedures described in this report are designed to help students both develop and apply effective behaviors for understanding expository text by means of gloss--a technique that involves the use of marginal notes and other intratext notations to direct readers' attention to places in the text where the application of specific skills and…

Reports on a study that examined whether students' comprehension and recall of an expository passage would improve if they were given information about the organization of the passage before they read it. (HOD)

Discusses the importance of developing disadvantaged children's background knowledge by using prereading strategies which focus on the text's central ideas. Suggests several guidelines for choosing prereading strategies. (MM)