Reports the results of a study in which community college students were found to be unable to summarize adequately without considerable training. (AEA)

Argues that student centered pre-reading activities can convince students they know more than they do about their textbooks. (RB)

A study explored the effects of prequestions (questions provided prior to reading) and the influence of a prediction strategy upon the amount and types of information recalled by children in grades three through six. Subjects, 188 students in grades three through six who were reading at third grade level or above, read a 900-word expository…

Of 21 studies on the effect that question placement had on reading comprehension, ten favored and eleven opposed the use of prequestions. A review of these studies suggests that the issue is not whether prequestions or postquestions produce greater gains in reading comprehension. What remains to be examined is the change in reading comprehension…

The major purposes of this study were to determine the effect of a specific cognitive organizer, the Structured Overview (SO), on reading comprehension and to assess the effect of accompanying the overview with a set of directions for its use. One hundred twenty-four undergraduate members of a developmental reading course were randomly assigned to…

Two instructional strategies to help mildly learning handicapped students read and understand textual material are described: (1) previewing (use of introductory paragraphs, including questions, that provide a cognitive framework for approaching a textbook passage); and (2) text summarization by students themselves as a follow-up activity.…

The effects of pictorial advance organizers presented before reading a passage on the retention of passage information were examined for 48 children in grade 5. Those given an integrated pictorial advance organizer recalled more than did others on both immediate and delayed tests of recall. (SLD)

Illustrates how advance organizers can be used to aid the second-language decoding process. Devices considered include cognate recognition, syllable-morpheme information, contextualized meaning, chronological ordering, time-frame reference, cross-cultural differences, redefinitions, and direction of discourse. (CB)

A discussion of pre-reading exercises in second language reading instruction looks at the theoretical justification for advance organizers in particular, examines the types of background knowledge that fluid reading requires, and gives models for exercises designed to activate this knowledge. Examples are from French texts. (MSE)

Anticipating the information contained in a text is a skill which needs to be practiced in order to aid the reader's overall understanding, thus allowing the teacher to concentrate on new items of language. The "two-phase speculative" approach assists in teaching and unifying thematic aspects of a reading passage. (Author)

Reports on a study to determine whether questions asked prior to reading or questions asked before and after reading would improve elementary school students' word recognition and reading comprehension performance. Concludes that no significant differences existed in favor of the prequestion task on word recognition or comprehension performance.…

A study focusing on anxiety and its interaction with reading explored the undetermined potential of prequestions for treating high reading-related anxiety. The research sample was comprised of 151 members of the freshman nursing classes at a large southeastern university. Evaluation materials included commercial reading tests as well as questions…

Gloss, or marginal notations in a text, and other similar techniques can be used by reading specialists both as they attempt to develop meaningful content area reading programs and as they review what is already known before attempting to learn new information. For example, several social studies teachers began their gloss activities by…

A study was conducted to determine whether explicit instructions could be as effective as paraphrased adjunct questions in enhancing subjects' reading comprehension. Eighty-six United States Navy enlisted men were assigned to one of four groups and given a lengthy passage from the "Naval Orientation Manual" to read. Following the…

This paper describes the composition of one particular kind of study guide called a pattern guide that can be used by content area teachers to aid their students in reading and understanding their textbooks. The purpose of the guide is stated as highlighting the reading and thinking skills to be used as well as the most important concepts to be…