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Reading management programs have become very popular in elementary schools. Students select a title from a prescribed reading list, then are tested for recall of facts and events in the story. Students are motivated to read as many titles as possible since they must achieve a certain score to win prizes. Although there have been reports that this increases voluntary independent reading, programs like Accelerated Reader[R] do little to increase comprehension or enhance reading instruction. Generative strategies use integration and organizational activities to increase both recall and comprehension of textual information. For this study, students were assigned two different book titles for independent reading. Using thinking maps, the students analyzed the information in the books then used these to generate test questions for a mock Accelerated Reader test. The results show marginal differences between pre and posttest scores, however there was a significant improvement when students tested each other with their own test items. In addition, students' test items were aligned with the Levels for Thinking model used by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction for end-of-grade tests for higher level thinking. Half of the student-generated test items matched higher level thinking categories. Students were able to generate multiple choice test items, distractors, and correct answers at a high level of thinking. Three models were used to compare student-generated and criterion reference test items: Generative strategies (Wittrock), Thinking Maps (Hyerle), and Dimensions for Thinking (Marzano). (Contains 16 references.) (Author/AEF)

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