Downloads & Free Reading Options - Results

Effects of working with the deep comprehension and decoding activities supported by the software created by Brophy and colleagues to enhance literacy skills in young, at-risk children were studied. Subjects were 53 at-risk kindergartners from a public inner-city school (24 in the control group and 29 in the experimental group). The experimental group used the Multimedia Environments that Organize and Support Text (MOST) environment. This environment involved the subjects' having half-hour sessions each day on the sequencer and multimedia bookmaker software for about 3 months using the "Miss Emma Anchor" video. At the end of 3 months subjects were given a standardized test (the Metropolitan Readiness Test) and MOST assessments. Children in the experimental group gained more on the auditory and language skills portions of the standardized tests and performed better on the MOST assessments, indicating that the MOST software promotes deep comprehension and aids in development of listening comprehension, story production, and decoding skills. Nine figures illustrate the study, and three appendixes give narrative, episodic, and overall components. (Contains 3 references.) (SLD)

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