Prepared by members of the Institute for Research on Teaching and the Center for the Study of Reading, the papers in this collection examine reading comprehension as an interactive process and explore how comprehension instruction occurs in the complex workplace of the classroom. Specific topics discussed in 20 papers include the following: (1) the reader's perceptual processes, (2) a schema-theoretic view of the reading process as a basis for comprehension instruction, (3) teacher planning and reading comprehension, (4) the function of seatwork in a commercially developed curriculum, (5) the forms and functions of writing in a teacher-developed curriculum, (6) schools as a context for instruction, (7) readability formulas and comprehension, (8) workbooks that accompany basal reading programs, (9) children's preconceptions and content area textbooks, (10) direct explicit teaching of comprehension, (11) the quest for meaning from expository text, (12) verbal patterns of teachers, (13) question related activities and their relationship to reading comprehension, and (15) the problem of "inconsiderate text." (FL)