The organization of social studies classroom communication and the format for presenting such communication were investigated. High school students (n=282) were assigned to groups determined by the possible combinations of lesson organization, also referred to as lesson commonality (high versus medium versus low), method of reading (oral versus silent), and student ability level (above average versus average versus below average). After the students were presented an economics lesson, a test was administered to determine their comprehension of the lesson. The students who read the lesson silently scored significantly higher than students who received an oral presentation of the lesson. A significant interaction between lesson organization and student ability level indicated that highly organized lessons increased student learning under certain ability level conditions. These results are discussed in relation to previous pertinent research. (Author/LP)