Investigates whether teacher modeling improves fifth-grade students' attitudes toward poetry. Finds that students exposed to modeling had a greater enthusiasm/appreciation of poetry. Acknowledges that appreciation of literature, including poetry, must be developed over a long period of time through a variety of means. (RS)

Investigates the efficacy of a metacognitive instructional strategy for use with basal readers in improving reading comprehension, strategy use, and attitude toward reading. Finds that children can be taught how to use metacognitive reading strategies and techniques during basal reading instruction. (RS)

Investigates the effects of an experimental set of reading lessons focusing on strategies applied to social studies textbook material. Finds that, in three of four comparisons, students receiving weekly strategy lessons were better at summarizing social studies material than were control subjects. Finds no differences between groups in terms of…

Uses inconsistent expository and narrative passages presented one at a time. Finds that good readers were better able to verbally report on passage consistency following reading; students were more likely to look back at inconsistencies in narratives but not expository passages; and students were less able to recall expository passage information.…

Investigates the validity of the Reading Anxiety Scale. Finds that (1) reading anxiety shows a stronger negative correlation with reading achievement than does general anxiety; and (2) although general anxiety and reading anxiety correlate substantially, reading anxiety measures something beyond general anxiety. (RS)

Investigates the effects of asking interspersed questions or no questions in three full-length stories on the summarization behaviors of sixth graders. Finds that the approach students used in writing summaries may be influenced by the structure and length of the story and that interspersed story-focused questions influenced selection and accuracy…

Explores aesthetic responses to literature by examining the responses of fifth graders to a variety of books and films. Finds three main characteristics of students' responses: picturing a story in their minds; extending a story or hypothesize about it while reading; and relating associations and feelings evoked while reading and responding.…

Tests the effectiveness of an instructional graphic (frames) on fourth and fifth grade students' ability to learn from reading their social studies textbooks. Finds that, for fifth grade students, framing was a more effective instructional technique than was the instruction suggested in the teacher's edition of the regular classroom social studies…

Investigates the effects of purpose for reading and frequency of encounters with unknown words in written context on learning from context tasks performed by 119 sixth grade good and poor reading comprehenders. Finds no significant interactions, resulting at least partial support for Robert Sternberg's model of verbal comprehension. (MG)

Finds that, in making "good reader" judgments, upper-elementary children mentioned 15 separate criterial categories, clustered into four major category groupings, most frequently referencing the "public performance/fluency" category (word recognition, word analysis, and reading rate), but also mentioning "teacher practices,""affect," and…

Examines the effect of training fourth-grade children to use the regulation strategy of rereading as a means of answering questions about previously read text. Finds that subjects trained in the rereading strategy used the strategy more often and were more likely to produce correct responses than were control subjects. (RS)

A study explored 97 less proficient fifth graders' use of imagery when given oral prompts to image or general memory directions (control) and when reading explicit or implicit texts. The effects of imagery on story comprehensions and affective responses were measured by immediate and delayed story recalls, cued recall questions, and an open-ended…

This edition of "NAEPFacts" highlights findings from the first attempt by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) to measure elementary students' oral reading on a large scale. This article presents data on 1,136 fourth graders' oral fluency and its relationship to 3 other aspects of reading ability: comprehension,…

This report provides a description of the design for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 1994 Trial State Assessment in Reading and gives an overview of the steps involved in the implementation of the program from the planning stages through to the analysis and reporting of data. The report does not provide the results of the…

A study examined the levels of comprehension generated by questions in story-related and story-retell activities in the Cooperative Integrated Reading and Composition (CIRC) program. A sample of 500 questions from CIRC materials for grades 4, 5, and 6 were classified. Results indicated that the majority of story-related and story-retell questions…