Describes how a reading specialist used metacognition as the basis of her teaching of middle school remedial readers. Describes various ways she worked with embedded questions to get students thinking while they were reading. Describes final student projects on short stories that demonstrate that embedded questions combined with lots of classroom…

Describes how a sixth-grade teacher modified the reciprocal teaching strategy to use with a group of struggling readers. Describes implementing the strategy, reviews data on effectiveness with her students, and recommends modifications for students engaged in silent reading. (SR)

Describes a strategy adaptable to middle school, high school, and college levels that helps to motivate students to want to read and gain information; promotes discussion and fosters students' learning from one another; helps below-grade-level readers understand content; and encourages higher order thinking. (SR)

A reading program utilizing five components (a shortcut to phonemic awareness, Adapted Dolch words, Bridge lists and the Bridging process, reading comprehension, and American Sign Language development/language experience stories) resulted in dramatic gains in the reading levels of 48 elementary students at a residential school for the deaf.…

Four experiments tested the self-teaching hypothesis of word learning. Findings indicated that: (1) minimizing phonological processing significantly attenuated orthographic learning; (2) reduced orthographic learning was not attributable to alternative factors; and (3) contribution of pure visual exposure to orthographic learning is marginal. It…

Today, less than one-third of America's high school students read or write at grade level. Literacy skills are alarmingly low even among those students who plan to go to college. Clearly, vast numbers of middle and high school students need help with their reading and writing skills. The question is: Whose job should it be to teach them? Among…

Targeted primarily for students in grades 4-8, this document presents a variety of structured overview, mapping, and story frames strategies for integrating writing across the curriculum and to help students gain and retain information from texts. The paper includes a rationale for content area reading lessons, a list of reading lessons to bridge…

In a basic-level writing course at the University of Minnesota, students were asked to read and engage in intelligent conservation about Keith Gilyard's "Voices of the Self." The book is about education but alternates autobiographical material with scholarly analysis. Literacy researchers expect students to read a text, understand what…

A study examined the effects that a metacognitive strategy, self-questioning prediction, had on the improvement of reading comprehension. The sample included 17 eighth-grade students in a South Amboy, New Jersey middle school. The Gates MacGinitie Reading Comprehension Tests were administered as both pre- and posttests. There were three weekly…

A study investigated whether comprehension would be affected by utilizing prereading strategies. Subjects were 57 students (low level 11th graders) in 4 classes. Two classes, totaling 29 students, utilized prereading strategies before 2 units of study. In the other 2 classes, with 28 usable subjects, no prereading activities were used prior to…

An intervention program in the area of sixth grade social studies was implemented for the purpose of increasing reading comprehension levels of average ability students in a large, urban school district. Five metacognitive strategies were employed to improve understanding of the adopted textbook. The strategies included outlining, sentence…

The study investigated retention of gains in reading/language skills after one year by 378 eighth-grade students in 18 health studies classrooms. Six classrooms were assigned to each of three groups, two experimental and one control, taught by health science teachers who were: (1) trained in reading/language techniques; (2) not trained in…

Presented in three sections, this document contains recommendations based on the conclusions drawn in the Commission on Reading's final report "Becoming a Nation of Readers." Results reported generally indicate that many of America's students could become skilled readers if (1) teachers improved reading instruction, (2) parents spent…

Intended for teachers of Reading 10 (a Canadian developmental reading course in secondary schools), this monograph provides background material as well as suggestions for implementing the program, which was designed to improve students' strategies for learning from text. The document deals with structural, philosophical, and practical aspects of…

Discusses possible limitations to the use of context for word learning (such as poor reading skills and text complexity). Recommends that content area teachers be aware of these limitations and provide specific instructions in determining word meaning from difficult contexts. (SKC)