Tells how to teach students to follow directions in six different situations, thus improving reading skills. (RB)

Cites many cases where the necessary check on validity of instruments that measure attitude toward reading has been overlooked. (MKM)

Describes a 7-step 10-second previewing technique designed to increase reading comprehension of textbooks. Notes that the technique is adaptable to students at all levels. (RS)

Reviews the revised edition of the Test of Reading Comprehension (TORC). Finds the test to be an interesting and unique approach to the assessment of reading comprehension. Notes that the test is consistent with current philosophies related to the nature of reading comprehension. (RS)

Discusses teaching strategies to present the two most basic ways of organizing information about a steady state phenomenon: pictorial knowledge models and diagrammatic knowledge models. Presents ways of organizing these types of information according to known points of reference and observation. (SR)

Presents a teaching strategy which uses points of reference (or basic underlying concepts) to help students understand definitions, descriptions, and comparisons/contrasts, and models its use. Notes that understanding the importance of points of reference is one of the first steps in the technique called "knowledge modeling." (SR)

Describes how Multiple Response Techniques (MRTs) can be used before, during, and after reading to help students better comprehend content material. Argues that MRTs enhance comprehension by engaging all students, focusing on students' strengths, training students in reflectivity and self-monitoring, and allowing the teacher quick evaluation of…

Describes how prior knowledge, current text, future text, and prior text all play a part in knowledge acquisition. States that most content area reading instruction emphasizes only current text. Notes that future columns will address this issue by introducing a method for teaching comprehension of exposition called "knowledge modeling." (SR)

Reviews research, much of it conducted by the Center for the Study of Reading, on the role of schemata in the process of reading comprehension. (MKM)

Reviews research and informal experimentation on the use of the cloze procedure as an instructional tool to teach use of context. (MKM)

Describes the Semantic Analysis to Writing (SAW) framework in which students engage in a modified semantic features analysis of thematic words in a story, identify specific story events that relate to the definition they are constructing, and organize the material for a written response by ranking the supporting evidence. (RS)

Contributors present (1) a tactical approach to paragraph patterns and comprehension that can be used on all grade levels, (2) three objectives of an instructional framework, and (3) a plan consisting of two sequential hour-long lessons that are elaborated. (JK)

Provides a checklist that considers "learnability" factors as well as "understandability" factors to use as an alternative to readability formulas. (MKM)

Finds that many commercial reading comprehension test items are not passage dependent. (RB)