Downloads & Free Reading Options - Results

A study analyzed the relative effectiveness of three teaching strategies for enhancing vocabulary and reading comprehension. Sixty-eight students in three fourth-grade classrooms in a suburban southwestern public school were presented with a vocabulary lesson on weather from the reading text according to one of the following strategies: (1) basal discussion technique (schema theory); (2) discussion through hierarchical presentation of key terms and semantic webbing (hierarchical presentation theory); or (3) discussion through hierarchical presentation of key terms and pictorial webbing (dual coding theory). Following the vocabulary lesson, students read the target passage from their texts silently. After the reading was completed, students were given the multiple choice measure of comprehension from the teacher's edition of the textbook. The same measure was administered one week later. Results indicated that students in the classroom instructed with semantic webbing performed significantly better, especially on the delayed recall measure. Memory between low and high achieving students varied differentially according to instructional strategy. Combining pictorial and written stimuli appeared to interfere with retention, especially among low achievers. (Nine tables of data are included; 19 references are attached.) (SR)

1Boy Crusoe

By Allan Eric

Also published as" A Yankee Crusoe" . A 15 year old hard working and studious farm boy finds the lure of adventure on the seas as a merchant seaman more than he can resist. This is his story. " I was born in a little town in the State of Maine, near the close of the Civil War. My boyhood life did not differ materially from that of the average farmer's son in the remote country districts of New England--except, perhaps, that I read more and thought more. Hard work on the rugged soil, two terms each year in the little yellow country schoolhouse, a day's fishing now and then filled the early years of my life full to over-flowing. " What he gets is enough excitement and adventure to overflow his wildest dreams. How he experiences disaster and uses his wits and knowledge to overcome every problem makes for a great read. - Summary by Phil Chenevert