Describes an art technique--creating paper dolls of main characters--to help remedial readers develop their comprehension of characters in novels. (MM)

Describes how performing Shel Silverstein's poems is an effective method to practice oral expression. Notes that although this activity was used in a fourth grade class, it could be adapted to any grade level. (MM)

Describes how semantic webbing exercises are useful for activating background knowledge, increasing organizational skills, focusing on the topic, and notetaking. (MM)

Explains how charting cause and effect in expository texts can increase students' knowledge of text structure. Provides a sample effect and cause chart. (MM)

Explains how to develop the independent use of literature response journals with remedial readers. (MM)

Recommends pretesting intermediate grade students' basal skills to eliminate unnecessary basal skill instruction. Provides guidelines for pretesting reading comprehension skills. (MM)

Identifies five basic types of cohesive ties--reference, substitution, ellipsis, conjunction, and lexical--and suggests strategies for teaching cohesion and cohesive ties to aid reading comprehension. (MM)

Presents a method for collecting, categorizing, and precisely analyzing spelling errors. Suggests several corrective spelling strategies. (MM)

Discusses the importance of reading aloud to young children. Suggests several books for reading aloud at the elementary level. (MM)

Examines current views on revision, and notes the importance of nurturing students' revision abilities. Presents three successful approaches to teaching revision, including: naturalistic classroom support, direct instruction in the problem-solving revision process, and procedural facilitation of revision. (MM)

Describes a Language Experience Approach (LEA) dictation given by sixth-grade remedial readers, and discusses some weaknesses in using LEA to teach remedial reading. Explains how LEA can be modified to produce a more effective model for reading comprehension and writing instruction. (MM)

Describes in detail a three-month class project focusing on fictionalized biographies and the life of Benjamin Franklin. Notes that in-depth integration of reading, writing, and content area instruction improves reading skills, as well as learning from content area textbooks, especially for low ability readers. (MM)

Notes the importance of developing listening skills through direct instruction. Identifies specific listening skills and suggests how to teach them. Describes how both teachers and students can develop a listening skills curriculum. (MM)

Asserts that experimental research articles are "explanatory minihistories," of reading containing elements of prescription, description, and prediction found in most histories. Argues that reading historians will have to select from among these minihistories to arrive at an explanatory history of the reading field. (MM)

Describes and evaluates the Woodcock Reading Mastery Tests--Revised (1987), discussing test administration, scoring, technical data, validity, and reliability. Concludes that this test is a reliable instrument for measuring some aspects of the reading process, but recommends its use in conjunction with more theoretically valid holistic-oriented…