A study examined the relationships between retelling--an indicator of reading comprehension obtained through a student's oral recall of a story--and three other indicators of reading comprehension representing various viewpoints in comprehension measurement: miscues, a post oral-reading cloze test, and a passage dependent multiple choice test.…

A study evaluated the effectiveness of various models constructed to account for how children read and comprehended a story presented in a directed reading lesson. A commercial directed reading lesson was revised to introduce information related to the story and to help the children form a "map" of the central story content. Data were…

Results of a 1977 assessment of the reading abilities of approximately 1,250 adults (26 to 35 years old) are reported in this paper and are compared with results of a similar assessment made in 1971. After discussing a typical comprehension exercise used in the assessment, the paper presents the materials and multiple choice questions used in…

A study examined the concept of the universality or the cultural specificity of the ideal story structure using the J. M. Mandler and N. S. Johnson story grammar. Specifically, the study tested the effect of two different story structures, one a conventional fairy tale and the other a Cree Indian narrative, on the recall of Cree Indian children.…

The production of a book review journal by students is suggested as a way of encouraging reading and of developing clear, expository writing. Guidelines are provided for the sequential development of such a journal. Criteria are offered for evaluating fiction and nonfiction books, with examples of annotations featuring style, period or setting of…

A study was conducted to determine if context facilitated the understanding of idiomatic expressions and multiple-meaning vocabulary words presented in narrative passages and if the passages containing these linguistic elements were comprehended. Specifically, the study compared the performance of monolingual and bilingual sixth grade and eighth…

Two studies were conducted to determine the effects of specific reading strategies on content area comprehension and reading skills. The strategies tested were a specific study guide, directed reading questions, cognitive organizer, and structured overview. In the first study, 225 students enrolled in a community college history course were…

A study was conducted (1) to examine the development of comprehension and production in written language of two aspects of linguistic knowledge, knowledge of ambiguity and paraphrase; and (2) to examine the influences of reading ability as measured by currently used standardized reading tests and of sex on the development of this knowledge of…

A model of cognitive operations that children use in reading and comprehending a sentence was tested by using Sternberg's independent-process analysis on 64 second and fifth graders who were either high- or low-ability readers. Three specific component processes were examined: a decoding process, a word meaning process, and a comprehension…

A study was conducted to determine whether children give evidence of using any of six comprehension strategies and whether children of same and different ages use different strategies. It was studied how comprehension performance can best be predicted by other facts about the child, including his language and his language input. The six…

To determine the relationship between reading comprehension and the measures of logical judgement and concepts of language, forty-one adult basic education students were tested using the California Achievement Test and Peel's tests of logical judgement. The findings include the following: (1) concepts of language structure vary in adults; (2) the…

An outline is given of a model procedure by which teachers can ascertain the reading level of students so they may match the students' ability in reading comprehension with the subject content of a course. This six-step model may be viewed as a continuum of material and student assessment, teaching, evaluation, and reassessment of material and…

Students in 61 English classes at an urban high school participated in an investigation of the effects of sustained silent reading (SSR) on their reading comprehension skills and on their atttiudes toward reading. SSR calls for a systematic structured time in school for students to read books of their choosing without being tested when the reading…

This study indicates that the way in which stories are presented to children (verbal versus pictorial) makes little or no difference in the children's comprehension or recall of the stories. Ninety-six kindergarten and second grade children either looked at a series of pictures (and were told they formed a story) or listened to the story through a…

The purpose of this current research effort was to identify and validate the effectiveness of alternative learning strategies. Learners employing networking and interactive peer study substrategies achieved more than did no-treatment controls. Similarly, strategies-trained learners reported greater positive learning attitude changes than did…