Integrates readings from primary sources into introductory psychology courses by means of short writing assignments. Uses content-oriented feedback to focus and facilitate conceptual mastery of primary sources. Includes tables of student responses and notes positive evaluations endorsing writing as a means to introduce original sources. (Author/NL)

Analyzes elementary teachers' interactions with students during guided reading of basal reader selections to determine the extent to which the interactions promote students' metacomprehension abilities. Finds that teachers assumed most of the responsibility for students' comprehension themselves rather than conducting the lessons in a manner that…

The paper discusses (1) sources of difficulty in comprehending technical writing, (2) distinctions between content structure and text structure, (3) building blocks for expository writing and techniques of text design, (4) contrasts between American and Japanese science and social studies texts, and (5) suggestions for promoting comprehension.…

Reviews the literature on the effectiveness of computer-controlled videodisc and videobased technology in the presentation of story information. An adult mediator can enhance young children's understanding of a story. (BB)

Reports on a content analysis of four popular first-grade basal series, examining decoding and comprehension instruction in teachers' manuals, student texts, workbooks, and supplementary activity packages. Reports that none of the programs present a balanced approach to teaching decoding and comprehension with very comprehensible stories. (MM)

A pattern of teacher-student interactions during reading is presented to illustrate use of an instructional approach which: (1) provides poor readers with information about skills and strategies helpful during real reading tasks, and (2) provides teachers with specific guidelines for focusing instructional efforts on critical reading processes…

Two instructional treatments to increase oral reading and reading comprehension were evaluated with 5 Hispanic students (ages 11 and 12) with speech and language impairments. For all students, preliminary discussion of key words was more effective than listening to the story prior to reading but not more effective than the combined treatment.…

The Interactive Teaching Project was designed to test an instructional model to help students with learning disabilities comprehend content area concepts. This paper describes the theoretical model and the effective interactive teaching and learning strategies used, including semantic feature analysis, semantic mapping, and semantic/syntactic…

Reports a study involving interviews with 20 physics teachers to determine their awareness of student alternate conceptions in the areas of force and gravity. (PR)

Describes the development of an approach to reading comprehension by teaching 9- and 10-year-old language-disabled and learning-disabled children to think about their thinking. The juxtaposition of reading books and watching videos of the same stories stimulates these children to process written information into a sequence that communicates…

Asserts that literature extension activities are an important part of any literature-based reading program for young children. Describes exercises based on the children's book "The Wolf's Chicken Stew" that enhance vocabulary, build higher-order thinking skills, improve comprehension, and develop writing and mathematical skills. (PRA)

Asserts that poetry can extend reading comprehension skills and promote basic reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills, as well as creative thinking and imagery. Presents activities that provide the basis for teaching comprehension processes and writing conventions. Offers an adaptation of the Directed Reading Activity used in many basal…

This article illustrates some of the characteristics of the Chinese language from the perspective of how the language is learned by American students. The article also makes recommendations to help practitioners when teaching and designing reading and curricula for both beginning and advanced learners of Chinese. (SM)

Outlines a rationale for using movies in modern language classes. Films in the target-language are useful in promoting listening comprehension and target-language culture. Films in students' native language may also be useful. The paper identifies ways for teachers to develop content-rich units that foster language learning. Two appendixes list…

Presents the shared, exclusive and modified components of college and precollege (elementary and secondary classroom) reading instruction in order to facilitate in-service and preparation for college reading instructors. Presents the reasons for differences and exclusive components after discussing shared components. Reveals components of…