Presents an exploratory investigation of six case study subjects (bilingual 4th and 6th grade students, speakers of Spanish and Nahuatl from Central Mexico) that seeks to develop a typology of one aspect of text processing by second language readers that would be difficult to assess by other evaluation approaches that do not require oral reading:…

Investigates the effectiveness of main idea identification training by teachers who had been successfully trained in such identification. Finds that the experimental group of students (in grades six, seven, and eight) performed better than the control group on main idea identification and knowledge of strategies related to that process. Discusses…

Analyzes the discussion of four "struggling" fifth-grade girls and the researcher as they transacted with Mildred Taylor's "The Friendship." Shows how participants' responses to the text and adult and peer guidance created a response development zone. Notes the girls used reading, writing, and discussion to address comprehension difficulties and…

Finds an immediate and delayed effect of morphemic and contextual analysis instruction for lesson words; an immediate effect of the instruction for transfer words; no evidence the instruction enhanced students' text comprehension; and students were generally just as effective at inferring word meanings when the instruction was provided in…

This paper challenges the assumption that meaning is in some way magically encoded within texts and argues that questions, when they are used simply as tools to lead readers to a single meaning, are inadequate as a means of reading comprehension assessment. The paper then goes on to describe one of a series of micro case studies that explored…

A study examined how students use their prior knowledge and experience to help them understand a text, and how that influences what they recall from the text. Subjects, 46 sixth graders from 3 elementary schools in Nashville, Tennessee, were tape recorded as they thought aloud while reading either a passage on "sugar" or a passage on…

The addition of captions to television is a technological breakthrough that can be used to enhance the vocabulary and comprehension skills of young readers. Taken together, several studies suggest that captioned television is a motivating medium for below-average readers and bilingual students, and that simultaneous processing (audio/video/text)…

A study determined the effect of three types of text structures (attribution, comparison, and collection) on fifth graders' reading comprehension. Subjects, 71 students from 3 classrooms in 1 public elementary school in southern California, were randomly assigned to 1 of those 3 conditions. There was no instruction given. Students read…

A study tested the effectiveness of three instructional strategies in three expository text structures on students' reading comprehension and writing performance. Subjects, 173 fourth, fifth, and sixth graders, were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: mental modeling, graphic organizer, or a control read/answer group. They received…

The practicum described in this paper used an eclectic approach to promote word meaning vocabulary growth in 14 fourth-grade students from an urban elementary school who had scored below 74% on a vocabulary pretest. Students were tutored once or twice a week for a 10-week period with direct vocabulary instruction, utilizing semantic mapping and…

THE FOLLOWING IS THE FULL TEXT OF THIS DOCUMENT (Except for the Evaluation Summary Table): PRODUCER: Milliken Publishing Company, Instructional/Communications Technology, 10 Stepar Place, Huntington Station, NY 11746. EVALUATION COMPLETED: June 1982 by the Portland Public Schools, Portland, Oregon. VERSION: Level B, level H. COST: $425.00. ABILITY…

This study investigated the effects of advance organizers on the English reading comprehension of six bilingual fifth and sixth grade learning disabled students whose primary language was Spanish. An alternating treatment design was implemented. Following each treatment, the students read an expository text written in English and answered eight…

A study investigated whether basal reading instruction combined with whole language development instruction would help a group of sixth graders improve in reading skills as measured by the Metropolitan Reading Test. Subjects, 82 students from a metropolitan area in the Southwest, were given pretests and posttests which measured performance in word…

To determine whether story mapping would improve reading comprehension, five intermediate grade students with mild learning handicaps and poor comprehension were prepared to use story mapping procedures as a schema-building technique. As they were reading, students learned to identify the setting, problem, goal, action, and outcome of narrative…

The convergent and discriminant validities of tests designed to measure the subskills of literal and inferential reading comprehension in different content areas were assessed. A multitrait-multimethod matrix was generated, using three measuring methods: (1) a standardized reading test; (2) individually devised tests; and (3) teacher ratings.…