Background: A significant portion of adults struggle to read at a basic level. Word reading (defined here as decoding and word recognition) appears to play a pivotal role for this population of readers; however, less is known about how word reading relates to other important semantic processes (e.g., vocabulary, sentence processing) known to…

Research Findings: Prior research indicates that shared book reading is an effective method for teaching biological concepts to young children. Adult questioning during reading enhances children's comprehension. We investigated whether adult prompting during the reading of an electronic book enhanced children's understanding of a biological…

This tutoring guide contains eight short sections of instruction for tutors working with adult basic education students in Alberta, Canada. Each section, introduced by a question, contains tips for beginning tutoring and working with adult students in literacy education classes. The sections cover the following topics: (1) What is the problem?;…

Describes study of 80 preschool children in Canadian nursery schools and day care centers that addressed how children's learning of definitions is affected by two presentation variables: (1) questioning, and (2) the elaborateness of illustrations accompanying definitions. Results are analyzed, congruent versus incongruent recall is discussed, and…

A study investigated how a teaching approach that emphasized literature would affect children's writings and help them to apply elements of form and content. Six first grade classes in a rural Newfoundland school district participated in the study; the students performed similarly on overall readiness. The class randomly selected as the…