Describes a program that surveyed the extent of reading problems among 11,311 children in 12 rural Georgia school systems, employed remedial instruction with the most severely disabled, and reported significant gains made after a 9-month period. (MD)

Reports on an examination of intermediate level basal readers in eight series, concluding that they reflect reasonably well the interests of intermediate children. (DD)

Reports results of a study in Latvia of students ages 10 to 13 in grades 5 to 7 and their interest in different literary genres, their favorite books, and people who influenced their choices of reading material. (SR)

Investigates four developing readers' text processing by asking them to think aloud as they read five narratives and five expository texts over the course of a school year. Identifies five general categories of processing. Finds that while reading narratives, students hypothesized most of the time; and while reading expository texts, they…

Investigates the effect of directed discussion of character perspectives on children's ability to respond in terms of the perspectives of major characters. Finds that sixth graders involved in such discussion received higher ratings for their responses to stories than fourth and fifth graders in the experimental group and sixth graders in the…

Compares effects of teaching words in either semantic random groupings. Finds that the treatment had very strong effects, but student performance was not affected by whether the words were grouped in categories. Suggests that, given rich and elaborate instruction, semantic grouping is not necessary. (RS)

Examines the effects of 2 levels of prior knowledge and 2 types of text structure on the recall and question performance of 90 fifth graders who were average readers. Finds that prior knowledge has a greater effect on question performance than on recall performance and that it only enhances the recall of one section of the text information. (MG)

A study examined three variables derived from earlier research on comprehension and recall of narrative text: time in short-term memory; causal connections allowed; and referential connections allowed. Subjects, 84 randomly selected fourth graders in three suburban public elementary schools, read 8 short texts that each contained 4 embedded goals,…

This paper analyzes the relative contributions of general reading comprehension and domain knowledge to subject matter text learning. The paper points out the limits of each factor in explaining text learning and summarizes some recent studies that support the complementary role played by each factor. A two-factor account of text learning (general…

Two studies examined children's misunderstandings in using dictionary definitions to comprehend the meaning of a new word. Subjects in the first study, 38 male and 22 female fourth-grade students from four classes in a medium-sized midwestern town, were given two similar judgment tasks: (1) students were given a definition for a new word and asked…

A sample of 12 recent and older sixth grade social studies textbooks was examined to determine their level of explicitness, one of the criteria used to determine the "friendliness" or comprehensibility of a text. Researchers randomly selected three samples--usually chapters--from each of the 12 textbooks. The Explication Inventory…

A study investigated the effectiveness of semantic mapping as a technique to improve recall of word meaning versus the traditional method of teaching vocabulary. Eight intermediate-level students from grades 4, 5, and 6, five of whom were identified as learning disabled students, were subjects. They were tested using vocabulary subtests of the…

The Fry Readability Graph was used to determine the validity of the publisher's recommended grade usage for four reading series at the fourth, fifth, and sixth grade levels. Three samples were analyzed from each text, and these results were compared with the publisher's stated grade levels. The majority of the basals investigated had an average…

A study extended word association methodology beyond isolated word stimuli to investigate the effects of written context on the meanings that proficient readers impart to words. A repeated-measures design was used to assess the responses of 62 sixth grade readers to target words at three levels: no context, limited context, and expanded context.…