A study tested a theory of inferencing strategies. Subjects were 40 sixth grade students of average intelligence from a large Western Canadian city who were divided according to reading proficiency and background knowledge. Six passages, three familiar to the students and three unfamiliar to them, were written by the researcher in such a manner…

Presents the results of a research study which was designed to determine gains or losses in reading proficiency during summer vacation, investigate the characteristics of those students whose proficiency increases or decreases, and aid in planning summer reading programs which maximize gains and minimize losses. (RB)

Twenty-four sixth grade students participated in a study that adapted earlier reading research to determine whether students would demonstrate sensitivity to the presence or absence of a relevant schema in a passage and whether skilled readers would show more use of the schema than would less skilled readers. Six skilled and six less skilled…

Finds support for the efficacy of a direct instruction paradigm for teaching children reading comprehension skills. (FL)

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 REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE RELEVANT TO THE PROBLEM OF PURPOSEFUL READING AND COMPREHENSION REVEALS THE NEED TO HELP CHILDREN ESTABLISH A MENTAL SET OR PURPOSEFUL ATTITUDE PRIOR TO READING. TO EVALUATE A THOUGHT-DIRECTING QUESTION AS A PURPOSE PRIOR TO READING AT DIFFERENT LEVELS OF DIFFICULTY, 279 SIXTH GRADERS FROM THREE SCHOOLS IN HAMMOND,…

The purposes of this study were to determine if cloze tests would yield reading instruction levels identical to those obtained with an Informal Reading Inventory (IRI) and if there would be discrepancies in the reading levels yielded by the two instruments for subjects from a lower socioeconomic level. The investigator, with the assistance of one…

To determine the effect of oral responses on cloze test, particularly at the primary grade level and with students of below average reading ability, was the purpose of this study. A total of 135 students from second, fourth, and sixth grades were included in the study. At each grade level the students were divided into above-average, average, and…

The purpose of this study was to determine whether statements of the main idea of a paragraph made by elementary school children could be enhanced if a content relevant picture accompanied the paragraph or if simplification of the paragraph was undertaken. One hundred and ninety-two subjects were selected from among the third and sixth grade…

This study reports the findings of a 1971 assessment of the reading achievement of 22,000 sixth grade students in Texas. The study used the Prescriptive Reading Test (PRT) and a Pupil Identification Form (PID). Results from the PRT are reported in terms of the percentage of pupils who achieved each of 48 reading objectives. Nineteen objectives…

Compares use of two decoding strategies in fifth-sixth grade normal and dyslexic children, and younger normals reading-aged-matched to the dyslexic students. Finds dyslexics lag behind age-matched normals in use of both strategies, and behind reading-age-matched normals in use of analogies, but not rules. (RS)

Investigates the degree to which practice in isolated word recognition affects children's speed of recognizing words presented within a sentence context. Finds that increased speed of word recognition interacts in a compensatory fashion with reliance upon context as an aid to word recognition. (RS)

A study investigated the effect of training Dutch students to learn to derive word meanings from written context. Subjects, 64 grade 6 primary school children, were randomly divided into control and experimental groups. The experimental group followed eight lessons in their mothertongue (Dutch), while the control group followed their regular…

THIS BULLETIN PRESENTS RESEARCH STUDIES IN READING ON THE UPPER ELEMENTARY GRADE LEVEL DURING THE PERIOD FROM 1955 THROUGH 1960. THIS COMPILATION WAS UNDERTAKEN BY THE OFFICE OF EDUCATION IN AN ATTEMPT TO BRING TOGETHER THE UNPUBLISHED AS WELL AS PUBLISHED STUDIES OF THAT 5-YEAR PERIOD. THE 238 STUDIES WHICH ARE OUTLINED, SUMMARIZED, AND ANNOTATED…