A study measured the effects that direct instruction in narrative text structure using a story map (called "macrostruction") had on the comprehension of average and above average sixth-grade readers. A 2 x 2 x 2 repeated measures design was used with time, text, and treatment as the independent variables. The number of story grammar idea…

Developmental differences in summaries of expository texts were examined for fourth and sixth grade students in two experiments. Experiment 1 used texts that had a description content structure whereas Experiment 2 texts had a thesis/evidence content structure. Manipulation of the presence or absence of the topic sentence allowed the examination…

To examine the relationship between spelling and reading using full graphemic cues, a study administered tests of oral reading, verbal IQ, reading comprehension, knowledge of letter-sound correspondences, and spelling achievement to 47 fifth-grade students. In addition, data was collected relative to gender and time spent reading outside the…

To determine whether mastery of one reading comprehension task is a prerequisite to mastery of two or more reading comprehension tasks, a study examined the prerequisite relations existing in the item responses elicited from a sample of sixth grade students who took the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills, Form G, Level 12 reading comprehension test. Test…

A study is in progress (with posttesting planned for April 1989), which examines whether word processing enhances the particular benefits of sentence-combining practice on the reading comprehension and writing fluency of low-achieving intermediate students. Subjects are 80 low-achieving fourth grade students from a Florida school district,…

A study investigated the development of metacognitive strategy instruction on standardized reading comprehension measures with fourth grade students. Forty-one subjects were assigned to one of three criterion reading groups, based on pretest scores using the Stanford Diagnostic Reading Test (SDRT) and the Wide Range Achievement Test: (1)…

Ten randomly selected resource teachers participated in a five-weekend workshop course on questioning strategies, designed to help them ask higher cognitive level questions. Students were 60 learning disabled fifth and sixth graders with reading difficulties. A mini-computer collected observational data reflecting student-teacher interaction…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate seven reading comprehension tests according to the construct of comprehension which they claimed to measure. The 367 items from these tests were classified by two judges according to the following four levels indicated on a reading comprehension taxonomy: recognition and recall, inference, evaluation, and…

A study assessed whether young readers might be induced to use a memory strategy. Subjects were an intact class of 25 fifth grade students taught to use text structure as an organizational strategy, and 29 students in a second class who received no instructional intervention. On three occasions, the 54 students were required to read a test…

A study investigated the effectiveness of a story structure questioning strategy upon the reading comprehension of sixth grade students. An alternate questioning strategy was used as a comparison treatment, and involved more traditional literal, interpretative, and problem solving questions. On the basis of reading level scores, 100 students were…

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…

Based on the assumption that the active involvement of the reader is required to give meaning to the printed word, a study was devised to test whether reading comprehension can be increased if students are taught to formulate questions about what they read. The study had three phases: a pilot study during which fifth grade top readers were…

This paper describes some findings from language development research and from studies in which comprehension of certain sentence structures in written materials was examined. The paper is divided into four sections. "Language Development Studies" discusses research that looked at the sentence structures of produced language of groups of children,…

A comparison was made of normal and retarded subjects' (1) ability to utilize context to supply appropriate words in material which has been altered in its contextual properties, (2) comprehension of material read as a function of overtly using context versus covertly using context, and (3) reading comprehension as a function of material…