Offers strategies by which teachers can accommodate individual differences in students' reading abilities by modifying students' experiential background, text content and mode of presentation, or assignments at three points in the reading process. (Author/SJL)

A series of Danish studies suggests that a great deal of prequestioning before students read may adversely affect students' reading processes. (DD)

Describes a study in which seventh graders who read a chapter in a science text along with a written handout explaining the major concepts (in simplified vocabulary) performed better on a post-test than the group that simply read the text. (MKM)

Offers explicit methods for the preparation, presentation, and utilization of handouts for lectures or seminars. Suggests that successful implementation of these methods can encourage students to take these handouts home, to read them, to refer to them again, and to recognize the contents when it appears later in the course of study. (JJK)

Investigates the differential effect of an advanced organizer on the meaningful learning and retention of information presented to the learner in a sequential, structured program of individualized instruction. (Author/GS)

Argues that student centered pre-reading activities can convince students they know more than they do about their textbooks. (RB)

This study investigated the effects of advance organizers on the English reading comprehension of six bilingual fifth and sixth grade learning disabled students whose primary language was Spanish. An alternating treatment design was implemented. Following each treatment, the students read an expository text written in English and answered eight…

This paper presents a detailed description of two information-processing tools, scripted cooperation and the use of knowledge mapping, and their potential application to deaf education. Scripted cooperation is a method for structuring the cooperative learning activities of student pairs. The roles and activities of the participants are scripted.…

A study investigated the effectiveness of using a small-group discussion as the main vehicle for the construction of an initial representation of a problem that activates previously acquired knowledge. College students (N=39) were randomly assigned to either an experimental condition or a control condition and asked to brainstorm about a presented…

Professors need to stimulate both sides of students' brain to allow for efficient increase of information absorption. As an alternative to linear outlines, mind maps can provide for more effective comprehension as related ideas are conceptualized from the center out to supporting details, as well as from top to bottom or left to right. The mind…

While most people know how conversations, narratives, and other types of discourse are created in their native language, it is difficult for students to know how they are created in a second language. To deal with texts in a new language, the learner needs extensive exposure to a variety of language in realistic situations. The immediate recall…

This chapter presents a review of the latest research on advance organizers, and provides instructions for constructing and using them. The theoretical background of the advance organizers research is presented, beginning with the work of Ausubel, and this work is related to the writings of Piaget. An outline of advance organizer research is then…

The review describes the advance organizer technique and reviews the empirical evidence on the effectiveness of advance organizers with both normal students and students classified as handicapped. Examples of advance organizers include the expository advance organizer, the comparative advance organizer, the graphic advance organizer, and…

Long term studies of advance organizers (AO) were analyzed with Glass's meta-analysis technique. AO's were defined as bridges from reader's previous knowledge to what is to be learned. The results were compared with predictions from Ausubel's model of assimilative learning. The results of the study indicated that advance organizers were associated…

A study explored the effects of prequestions (questions provided prior to reading) and the influence of a prediction strategy upon the amount and types of information recalled by children in grades three through six. Subjects, 188 students in grades three through six who were reading at third grade level or above, read a 900-word expository…