Investigates the types and depths of cognitive complexity that 11th-grade readers of high, average, and low reading ability exhibited when given either text-based comprehension questions or reader-based journal response writing assignments. Finds significant differences between the groups in type and depth of cognitive complexity, engagement with…

Describes a study analyzing the effects of time patterns in three short stories on the level of engagement of four remedial reading college freshmen. Describes engaged and disengaged types of reader interaction. Indicates that stories featuring chronological order garnered similar responses from both types, whereas time-shifts discouraged…

Summarizes a descriptive naturalistic study of the literary competence of a class of first and second graders as suggested by their responses during read-alouds of picture books. Finds that the children were sophisticated literary critics, and the storybook read-aloud situation was an important site for the development of their literary…

Discusses reading with pre-teens Francine Pascal's "Sweet Valley Twins: Best Friends," one of a series of pre-romance novels featuring identical twin sisters. Interviews six girls using the Symbolic Representation Interview (SRI) about the good girl/bad girl dichotomy in novels and other media. Provides comments by Tom Romano and Diana Mitchell.…

A teacher-researcher observed the behaviors and discourse of second graders in a student-led literature discussion group. A group of five students who represented the predominantly white, rural/suburban middle class community in which they lived was studied. All 22 students participated in a unit on folk and fairy tales. The case study group,…

A study was conducted to identify strategies used by successful readers in comprehending and interpreting various kinds of texts. Seventy-three graduate students were asked to keep a journal (unedited and freely written) of what they were thinking as they were reading Umberto Eco's novel "The Name of the Rose." Selected journal entries…

To explore how instruction in questioning can enhance teachers' use of questions that promote comprehension and how teachers' instruction of students in such strategies can enhance their ability to comprehend content area texts independently, this paper looks at prereading, during-reading, and postreading questioning activities. The first major…

Forty-eight college students participated in a study that (1) explored the degree to which the reader response technique developed by W. F. Brewer and E. H. Lichtenstein to study artificial texts could be applied to natural texts, and (2) compared texts written over a wide time period and from two different literary traditions (six American and…

This report, the third of seven, part of an interdisciplinary project on the context of reading and reading research that explores similarities and dissimilarities in the response to literature in readers from different cultures, describes the empirical selection procedure used in order to identify the three tales which were to be used in future…

This paper, the fourth of seven, part of an interdisciplinary project on the context of reading and reading research that explores similarities and dissimilarities in the response to literature in readers from different cultures, describes the work on organizing texts from different cultures and nations (Denmark, Greenland, and Turkey) in the…

This paper, the fifth of seven, part of an interdisciplinary project on the context of reading and reading research that explores similarities and dissimilarities in the response to literature in readers from different cultures, describes the methods used for the construction of a questionnaire for readers' social, educational, financial, and…

This paper, the last of seven, part of an interdisciplinary project on the context of reading and reading research that explores similarities and dissimilarities in the response to literature in readers from different cultures, supplies the "Folktale project" with readers' statements which can be used for the construction of a…

Investigating the reading habits of adults in Egypt, East Africa, a study examined 294 Egyptians (233 males and 61 females) in post-secondary education in Cairo, and in the industrial cities of Shopra El-Khema, and Impapa, El-Giza. Marital status, sex, and occupation were used to group the subjects. Subjects completed a 29-item questionnaire…

As a first step in developing a research program that united several individual strands of comprehension research, this paper describes studies that relate to the effectiveness of direct instruction. Various sections of the paper discuss the following topics: (1) variables in the direct instruction model, (2) teacher performance variables, (3)…

In response to the tradition of examining a new test's validity by comparing it with a well-established multiple-choice test, a study investigated whether multiple-choice tests with one right answer can measure the reading comprehension process as defined by constructivists. The study compared the information obtained from two different…