A study investigated the relationship between sixth grade students' reading attitudes and awareness of certain parameters of reading and their performance on a reading comprehension test. Subjects, 100 students scoring between the 5th and the 95th percentiles on the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS) comprehension section, completed a reading attitude and awareness inventory prepared especially for the study. Pearson Product-Moment Correlations and two-sample t-tests were used to determine differences between the performance of good and poor readers on the inventory. A significant correlation was found between scores on the inventory and the ITBS, confirming (1) the relationship between the defined components of reading schemata (attitude, knowledge, and self-concept) and reading comprehension, and (2) differences in the way good and poor readers perceive the reading task. Poor readers were found to be relatively unaware of reading as a search for meaning or of strategies necessary for proficiency. (A copy of the attitude and awareness inventory is appended). (FL)