Representative titles from the 59 articles published in this yearbook include: "Becoming a Nation of Readers: Reactions from the Media" (L. H. Ringler); "Extracting Important Information from Text" (J. P. Williams); "The Effects of Reading Instruction on the Restructuring Process" (C. J. Gordon and B. J. Rennie); "Prior Knowledge Activation in…

This report provides suggestions on how a language arts listening skills assessment program could be structured to ensure that school districts meet the Common Curriculum Goals of the public elementary and secondary schools in Oregon. This report includes: (1) a list of common curriculum goals that relate to listening; (2) general implications for…

Reading as a pastime is basic to creativity and intellectual mind expansion as well as to the appropriate development of listening skills. Reasons for the decline of listening and communication skills can be attributed in part to misuse of media, to latch-key children, to decreased support from parents for reading at home, to lack of sufficient…

The central purpose of storytelling in the classroom is for enjoyment, both on the part of the storyteller and the audience. On the other hand, especially when time is allotted for storytelling during reading instruction periods, teachers can integrate the art of storytelling with practical competence building activities. For example, the tale of…

A study investigated the relationships among educationally related characteristics and month of service entry for 77,347 Navy recruits who entered the Navy between June 1982 and May 1983. Data were obtained from monthly Computer Managed Instruction (CMI) reports on Navy recruit characteristics and performance on the Gates-MacGinitie Reading…

Prompted by concern that the State of New Jersey driver's manual was too difficult for many low-skilled readers to read and comprehend, a study was conducted in which chapter 6 of the driver's manual was rewritten, lowering its readability level from grade 8 to grade 6. It was hypothesized that significant differences in comprehension would result…

Assuming that the ability to interpret punctuation is basic to reading comprehension, a study was conducted to assess the junior high school reader's ability to interpret internal punctuation in a written passage. From an examination of texts, reference and research materials used at the junior high school level, six uses of three punctuation…

An examination of the introspective evidence of artists and scientists on their creative processes suggests that determining the causes underlying the transformation of material in thought is the key for understanding creativity. A similar problem underlies the transformational process of understanding metaphor. T.S. Kuhn's view of scientific…

Meaning does not reside in the text or the reader but results from interactions between text, reader, and the interpretive communities that the readers belong to or that influence them. These interpretive communities are those communities or authorities that influence the reader/writer in interpreting texts, with resulting ideational,…

The Fairview Reading Curriculum Based Assessment (CBA), which was used in a cross categorical elementary school resource program at Fairview Elementary School in Darien, Illinois, is described. The test measures oral reading accuracy, rate and comprehension on passages taken directly from the two basal reading series used in the school. As the…

As comprehension failure results whenever readers are unable to infer missing causal connections, recent comprehension research has focused both on assessing the inferential complexity of texts and on investigating students' developing ability to infer causal relationships. Studies have demonstrated that texts rely on four types of causal…

Flowcharting, a skill used to program computers, can be used to teach reading skills. Like programing, flowcharting requires knowledge of a particular content area and an understanding of how to process the information. Skills such as identifying the main idea and supporting details, sequencing ideas or statements, and distinguishing relevant from…

The Nelson Denny Reading Test (NDRT) is probably the most widely used test of reading comprehension at the college level in the nation. However, reviews of the test, as well as recent reports of its failure to adequately measure gain or lack of gain of college students enrolled in reading improvement courses, do not support the popularity it has…

For those analyzing oral interpretation performance, the theory of Symbolic Interactionism can be used to explain two interrelated phenomena that occur during the performance: expanded understanding of the text (emergent meaning) and expanded understanding of oneself (development of the self-concept). George Herbert Mead, a founder of Symbolic…

To help students in school develop a flexible understanding of subject matter, teachers need to foster understanding of the relationships within and across disciplines, what specialists in a field do, how knowledge in a discipline is generated, tested, and revised, and how knowledge in the discipline relates to the learners' environment.…