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Comprehension: Strategy Instruction
*K-3* *• 4-6* • *7-8 •* *9-12*

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Comprehension: Strategy Instruction

K-3 • 4-6 • 7-8 • 9-12

Grades K-3

Study Name	Design Rating	Strategy, Subjects, Effects	Topics
Table information is abbreviated. Click "Read full review" links below for full citations of author and journal names and for details about the studies.
Study: Idol, L. & Croll, V.J. Story-mapping training as a means of improving reading comprehension. Read full review reading_k-3_113	Added 8-10-05 2	Strategy: Story-mapping Subjects: Five students (grades 2-5) from three elementary schools in a medium-sized Midwestern city were selected by their special education teachers because they exhibited serious reading comprehension problems despite adequate decoding skills. One student was in a self-contained classroom; the others were receiving services from learning disabilities resource teachers. Results: 4 of the 5 students demonstrated statistically significant net comprehension gains from baseline to maintenance. Improved reading comprehension did significantly maintain after removal of the story mapping.	Reading Topics: • Comprehension – Strategy Instruction – Text Structure – Graphic Organizers Diverse Learners Grades: 2 - 5 Keywords: Story-mapping; learning disabled
Study: Rasinski, T. & R. Oswald, R. Making and writing words: Constructivist word learning in a second grade classroom. Read full review reading_k-3_186	Added 8-10-05 2	Strategy: Making and Writing Words Subjects: Initially, 9 2nd grade students – 3 high, 3 average, 3 struggling readers. Control classroom with 9 students identifies with the same criteria. Orville Ohio public schools. When the study was extended to a follow-up, the same teachers and a new group of 32 students. Results: Pending	Reading Topics: • Comprehension – Strategy Instruction Grades: 2 Keywords: making words, writing, decoding
Study: Dahl, K. & Scharer, P. Phonics teaching and learning in whole language classrooms: New evidence from research. Read full review reading_k-3_133	Added 8-10-05 3	Strategy: Whole Language program Subjects: 216 children in 8 first grade classrooms, including 34 African American, 179 Caucasian, 2 Asian and 1 Latino. 178 children completed both the pretest and posttest and formed the database for analysis. Results: Pending	Reading Topics: • Comprehension – Strategy Instruction Grades: 1 Keywords: phonics, whole language
Study: Idol. Group story mapping: A comprehension strategy for both skilled and unskilled readers. Read full review reading_k-3_105	2	Strategy: Group Story Mapping Subjects: 27 3rd-4th graders; medium-sized Midwest city. 2 groups of 11 and another of 5 additional students. One group of 11 - 2 LD students. Second group of 11 - 2 low achieving & one LD. Effects: Both experimental groups improved on daily story comprehension. All 5 low achieving and learning disabled children showed similar improvement. Most children were able to maintain an independent level of effective comprehension. This included the low achieving students. The only measure that did not show improvement was on the Nelson Reading Skills Test.	Reading Topics: • Comprehension – Strategy Instruction – Graphic Organizers Grades: 3-4 Keywords: story mapping; schema

Grades 4-6

Study Name

Design
Rating

Strategy, Subjects, Effects

Topics

Table information is abbreviated. Click "Read full review" links below for full citations of author and journal names and for details about the studies.

Study:
Wigfield, A., Guthrie, J.T., Tonks, S., & Perencevich, K.C.

Children’s motivation for reading: Domain specificity and instructional influences.

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reading_3-5_140

Added
8-10-05
5

Strategy: 1) Concept-Oriented Reading Instruction (CORI) 2) Strategy Instruction (SI)
Subjects: CORI was implemented in 2 schools with all 150 3 rd graders in eight classrooms. SI was implemented in 2 schools with all 200 3 rd graders in 11 classrooms.
Results: Comparison of the effect of Concept-Oriented Reading Instruction (CORI) on reading self-efficacy. Effect Size = .25

Reading Topics:
• Comprehension
– Strategy Instruction

Grades: 3-5

Keywords:
concept instruction, motivation, science, inquiry

Study:
Judy, Alexander, Kulikowich, & Wilson.

Effects of two instructional approaches and peer tutoring on gifted and nongifted sixth-grade students; analogy performance.

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reading_4-6_31

Strategy: Direct Instruction vs. Inquiry Approach to the teaching of analogical reasoning
Subjects: 194 gifted & nongifted 6th-grade students in 2 public school systems in Central Texas
Results: There were strong direct effects for training on 6th grade students' analogical reasoning. The direct instruction approach was better than inquiry at enhancing analogy performance. Gifted students consistently outperformed their non-gifted counterparts. Students' analogy performance improved from the immediate to the delayed posttest. Peer tutoring had positive effects on the receiver and those who received peer tutoring did significantly better at solving analogy problems than those who did not. Subjects who were trained by peers in two sessions performed comparably on the analogy test to those who had been trained by researchers in three sessions.

Reading Topics:
• Comprehension
– Strategy Instruction
• Vocabulary

Grades: 6

Keywords:
peer tutoring; gifted students; analogies

Study:
Taylor & Frye.

Comprehension strategy instruction in the intermediate grades.

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reading_4-6_57

Strategy: Reciprocal Teaching
Subjects: 150 fifth and sixth graders from four classrooms in tow elementary buildings several miles apart. 8 teachers with 10 more years of experience
Results: Three of four experimental groups were better at summarizing social studies materials than the control groups. No differences were found between the groups in terms of the ability of the students to generate questions on the social studies material.

Reading Topics:
• Comprehension
– Strategy Instruction

Grades: 5, 6

Keywords:
monitoring; reciprocal teaching; questioning; summarizing; social studies

Study:
Baumann.

The effectiveness of a direct instruction paradigm for teaching main idea comprehension.

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reading_4-6_56

4.5

Strategy: Direct Instruction paradigm for comprehending main ideas
Subjects: 66 6th-grade rural Midwestern students
Results: Effect Size for Explicit Paragraph Main Ideas= +2.05
Effect Size for Implicit Paragraph Main Ideas= +1.13
Effect Size for Details that Support Main Ideas= +1.36
Effect Size for Explicit Passage Main Ideas = +1.20
Effect Size for Implicit Passage Main Ideas = +1.01

Reading Topics:
• Comprehension
– Strategy Instruction

Grades: 6

Keywords:
main idea; direct instruction; explicit and implicit

Study:
DeLaPaz & Graham.

Explicitly teaching strategies, skills, and knowledge: Writing instruction in middle school classrooms.

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reading_7-8_103

4.5

Strategy: SRSD- Self-Regulated Strategy Development Model
Subjects: 58 7-8 graders , 2 suburban schools in SE. Schools' demographics: 500 students, 94% White, under 1% ESL, reduced-fee lunch - 18% and 12% at the 2 schools.
Results:
Planning
   Posttest Effect Size = +1.17
   Maintenance Effect Size = +1.04
Length
   Posttest Effect Size = + .82
   Maintenance Effect Size = +1.07
Vocabulary
   Posttest Effect Size = +1.13
   Maintenance Effect Size = + .94
Quality
   Posttest Effect Size = +1.71
   Maintenance Effect Size = + .74

Reading Topics:
• Comprehension
– Strategy Instruction
– Misc (writing)

Grades: 6-8
Diverse Learners

Keywords:
writing; explicit teaching

Study:
Symons, S., MacLatchy-Gauget, H., Stone, T.D., & Reynolds, P.L.

Strategy instruction for elementary students searching informational test.

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reading_3-5_110

Added
8-10-05
4

Strategy: Strategic reading and monitoring while reading informational text
Subjects: Studies 1 to 3 included 180, 57, and 92 rural elementary students respectively. None experienced significant academic difficulties according to their teachers
Results: Strategy plus Monitoring compared to control on accuracy

Study 1	1.0
Study 2	0.85
Study 3: Category selection, extraction, and monitoring v. control on accuracy	1.71

Reading Topics:
• Comprehension
– Strategy Instruction
– Text Structure

Grades: 3-5

Keywords: self-monitoring, informational text; answering questions; locating information; factual text; 3rd, 4th, 5th graders

Study:
Dole, Brown, & Trathen.

The effects of strategy instruction on the comprehension performance of at-risk students.

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reading_4-6_5

Strategy: Student - centered Strategy
Subjects: 67 5th & 6th graders from a year-round elementary school; in large western city; 45% minority, 67% free and reduced lunch
Results: Effect Size for Delayed Testing= + .57

Reading Topics:
• Comprehension
– Strategy Instruction

Grades: 5, 6
Diverse Learners

Keywords:
narrative text; at-risk students: story content

Study:
Schunk & Rice.

Strategy fading and progress feedback: Effects on self-efficacy and comprehension among students receiving remedial reading services.

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reading_4-6_53

Strategy: Comprehension strategy fading and progress feedback and (use of) strategy value feedback
Subjects: 44 fifth graders receiving remedial reading-comprehension instruction Chapter I reading program predominately lower-middle class, 25% ELL
Results: Self-efficacy yielded significant treatment effect F(3, 40) - 16.82, p<.001
Comprehension skills yielded significant treatment effect F(3, 40)= 14.97, p<.001
Self-reported strategy use was significant F(3, 40) = 16.81, p<.01

Reading Topics:
• Comprehension
– Strategy Instruction

Grades: 5
Diverse Learners

Keywords:
low ability students; feedback; main ideas; fading

Study:
Lysynchuk, Pressley, & Vye.

Reciprocal teaching improves standardized reading comprehension performance in poor comprehenders.

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reading_4-6_26

Strategy: Reciprocal teaching
Subjects: 71 fourth and seventh graders considered to be poor comprehenders in Canada
Results:

Standardized Comprehension and	Standardized Vocabulary
Fourth Graders+.56	+.44
Seventh Graders+.54	-.41

Reading Topics:
• Comprehension
– Strategy Instruction

Grades: 3-5, 6-8
Diverse Learners

Keywords:
reciprocal teaching; questioning: summarizing; predicting

Study:
Gambrell & Bales.

Mental imagery and the comprehension-monitoring performance of fourth-and fifth-grade poor readers.

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reading_4-6_28

Strategy: Mental imagery for comprehension monitoring and improvement
Subjects: 124 fourth and fifth who scored 1-2 years below grade level on CAT (1978) from 5 public elementary school in Maryland
Results: The use of mental imagery was positively associated with comprehension-monitoring performance.

Reading Topics:
• Comprehension
– Strategy Instruction

Grades: 4, 5
Diverse Learners

Keywords:
mental imagery; comprehension-monitoring

Study:
Carnine & Kinder.

Teaching low-performing students to apply generative & schema strategies to narrative and expository materials

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reading_4-6_29

Strategy: Schema treatment and Generative treatment
Subjects: 27 fourth, fifth and sixth graders poor (2 grade levels below) comprehension and receiving special services for reading
Results: No significant difference between the two interventions. Comparison on the overall effect of training was significant. Low-performing students made significant improvements in comprehension in a relatively short period of time.

Reading Topics:
• Comprehension
– Strategy Instruction
– Activating Background Knowledge

Grades: 4, 5, 6
Diverse Learners

Keywords:
imagery; summarizing; student questions; narrative text; expository text

Study:
Jenkins, Heliotis, Stein, & Haynes.

Improving reading comprehension by using paragraph restatements.

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reading_4-6_30

Strategy: Paragraph Restatements
Subjects: 32 elementary learning disabled students: (4) third, (12) fourth, (11) fifth and (5) sixth graders who had significant deficits in decoding and comprehension
Effect size for:
Test of Training on Questions = +.69 and Retell =+.61
Near Transfer Test Questions = +.80
Remote Transfer Test Questions =+.47 Retell=+.89

Reading Topics:
• Comprehension
– Strategy Instruction
– Misc (writing)

Grades: 3 - 6

Keywords:
narrative text; writing; restatements; summarizing

Study:
Rosenshine & Meister.

Reciprocal teaching: A review of the research.

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reading_4-6_34

4
Meta-analysis

Strategy: Reciprocal Teaching (Cognitive Strategy Instruction)
Subjects: Subjects for the collection of research varied from first grade to college level.
Results: The overall results indicated that gains were made by students in the treatment groups on comprehension measures.

Reading Topics:
• Comprehension
– Strategy Instruction

Grades: Diverse Learners

Keywords:
reciprocal teaching; summarizing; questioning; predicting

Study:
Collins.

Reading instruction that increases thinking abilities.

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reading_4-6_38

Strategy: Thinking Abilities.
Subjects: 168 sixth and seventh graders with average grade point of 2.36 on a 4-point scale in four large metropolitan schools in the southwest
Results: Effect Size for Reading Total on ITBS= +1.11

Reading Topics:
• Comprehension
– Strategy Instruction

Grades: 6, 8, 9

Keywords:
reasoning; thinking

Study:
Cote, Goldman, & Saul.

Students making sense of informational text: Relations between processing and representation.

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reading_4-6_59

Strategy: Think aloud whiled reading and physical backtracking (re-reading)
Subjects: Experiment 1: 24 fourth and sixth graders with range of reading levels
Experiment 2: 24 fourth and sixth graders with range of reading levels (different student than experiment 1)
Results: It was found that students rely on a variety of processing strategies; however, the processing tended to be sentence-by sentence level. The prevalent protocol was self-explanations; however, they varied in impact on recall. It was found that the relationship between processing activities and the quality of recall is quite complex and more research is needed. The Think-aloud protocol was found to be effective for the older students, but not for the younger students.

Reading Topics:
• Comprehension
– Text Structure
– Think Aloud

Grades: 4, 6

Keywords:
oral reading; silent reading; factual text; recall; prior knowledge

Study:
Lipson, Mosenthal, Daniels, & Woodside-Jiron.

Process writing in the classrooms of eleven fifth-grade teachers with different orientations to teaching and learning.

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reading_4-6_85

Strategy: Process approaches to writing from 4 different orientations to teaching and learning
Subjects: Eleven 5th-grade teachers selected for maximum diversity in geographic location, school size and configuration, familiarity with the state assessment program, and years of experience.
Results: Two predominant philosophical stances that influenced teacher instruction in writing process emerged: curricularist and inquiry-process. The Curricularist provided instruction that was teacher-led, whole group and focused primarily on the teaching and learning of the various steps of the writing process. The Inquiry-process provided instruction in the writing process that included both teacher-led and students -centered activities. Teachers provided writing instruction on a variety of topics in mini-lessons and students were allowed choice of topics, forms, and genres.

Reading Topics:
• Comprehension
– Strategy Instruction
– Misc (writing)

Grades: 5

Keywords:
writing; conferencing; peer conferencing;

Study:
Raphael & McKinney.

An examination of fifth- and eighth-grade children's question-answering behavior: An instructional study in metacognition.

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reading_4-6_47

Strategy: QAR - Question Answer Relationship
Subjects: 217 5th and 8th grade students from 4 comparable suburban schools in Salt Lake City
Results: Training does enhance children's performance on comprehension tasks, and is particularly effective with children of average and low-reading abilitiy levels, particularly with regard to implicit question types.

Reading Topics:
• Comprehension
– Questioning Strategies
– Strategy Instruction

Grades: 5, 8

Keywords:
questioning; facts; inferences; prior knowledge

Study:
Taylor & Beach.

The effects of text structure instruction on middle-grade student comprehension and production of expository text.

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reading_7-8_1

Strategy: Experimental group received 1 hour/week of instruction and practice in how to produce and study a hierarchical summary of social studies materials they had read. Conventional treatment group received directed reading lesson over same material. Control group received no special instruction.
Subjects: 114 7th-graders from 3 combination social studies/English classes at a suburban junior high school
Results: Mean increase of +8.16

Reading Topics:
• Comprehension
– Text Structure
– Strategy Instruction

Grades: 6- 8

Keywords:
study strategy; summarizing; social studies

Study:
Carr, Dewitz, & Patberg.

The effect of inference training on children's comprehension of expository text.

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reading_4-6_41

3-4

Strategy: Inference Training
Subjects: 75 6th-grade students in intact classes at a suburban elementary school.
Results: Both treatment groups scored significantly higher than the control group. The performance of below average readers did reach the performance of average readers on the posttests and delayed transfer test.

Reading Topics:
• Comprehension
– Strategy Instruction

Grades: 6

Keywords:
structured overview; background knowledge; cloze; self-monitoring

Study:
Pelow & McVey Colvin.

PQ4R as it affects comprehension of social studies reading material

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reading_4-6_24

Strategy: Subject groups used the same text and workbook in daily 45 min. morning sessions.
Control group was given pages to be read, questions from the teacher, pages in the workbook, students’ oral and written reports. Experimental group was given the same as control with added teacher demonstration of each step of PQ4R. Students started forming questions prior to reading.
Subjects: 2 groups of 15 sixth-grade students from an independent co-educational school
Results: PQ4R Effect Size = .71

Reading Topics:
• Comprehension
– Strategy Instruction

Grades: 6

Keywords:
study skills; social studies

Study:
Reutzel.

Investigating a synthesized comprehension instructional strategy: The cloze story map

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reading_4-6_12

Strategy: Cloze Story Map (CSM)
Subjects: 101 Fifth graders in lower and middle class schools in Texas
Results: CSM treatment significantly affected the readers' comprehension of both text types, Narrative F(1,98) - 18.24, p< .001; Expository F(1,98 = 12.29, p < .001

Reading Topics:
• Comprehension
– Strategy Instruction
– Text Structure
– Activating Background Knowledge

Grades: 5

Keywords:
cloze technique; story map; narrative text; expository text

Study:
Peters & Levin.

Effects of a mnemonic imagery strategy on good and poor readers' prose recall.

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reading_4-6_25

Strategy: Mnemonic imagery strategy
Subjects: Experiment 1: 38 middle school students in a Midwestern university community with above grade level vocabulary
Experiment 2: 116 seventh graders from rural Eastern community; "good" and "poor"readers
Results: Experiment 1: Both good and poor comprehenders in the mnemonic imagery strategy condition performed significantly better than those in the no-strategy condition. 89% and 79% of good and poor comprehenders reported adopting their instructed strategy. Experiment 2: Statistically higher level of central-accomplishment recall for strategy group (both good and poor readers) vs. no-strategy. No differences in incidental recall. Good readers in strategy condition out performed counterparts in no-strategy. Poor readers receiving the underlined/highlighted passage provided higher effects than the strategy.

Reading Topics:
• Comprehension
– Strategy Instruction

Grades: 6-8
Diverse Learners

Keywords:
imagery; mnemonics; recall

Study:
Rinehart, Stahl, & Erickson. Some effects of summarization training on reading and studying.

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reading_4-6_27

Strategy: Summarization Training
Subjects: 70 sixth-grade social studies students in northern central West Virginia
Results:

Major Information Minor Information	Prep Time	Quality of notes
+.69 +.33	+3.61	+2.03

Reading Topics:
• Comprehension
– Strategy Instruction

Grades: 6

Keywords:
summarizing; study skills; recall

Study:
Gambrell, L., Koskinen, P., & Kapinus.

Retelling and the reading comprehension of proficient and less-proficient readers.

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reading_4-6_160

Strategy: Retelling
Subjects: 48 fourth graders (24 proficient readers, 24 less-proficient readers) from four schools in Maryland
Effect: Results indicate that proficient and less-proficient readers answered significantly more cued recall questions. Retellings improved in quantity and quality for both groups.

• Comprehension
– Strategy Instruction

Study:
Armbruster, Anderson, & Ostertag.

Does text structure/summarization instruction facilitate learning from expository text?

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reading_4-6_3

Strategy: Instruction on conventional expository text structure (problem/solution) and written summarization using the problem/solution text structure
Subjects: 82 fifth graders from small Midwestern city in four heterogeneous classrooms; remedial students and students who scored below the 4th grade level on Gates-McGinitie were excluded
Results: The results suggest that direct instruction of a conventional text structure can facilitate formation of a macrostructure for that type of text for high, moderate, and low ability groups.

Reading Topics:
• Comprehension
– Text Structure
– Strategy Instruction

Grades: -

Keywords:
i

Study:
Graves.

Effects of direct instruction and metacomprehension training on finding main ideas

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reading_4-6_146

Strategy: Direct Instruction and Metacomprehension Training on finding main ideas
Subjects: 24 boys and 8 girls in the fifth through eighth grades, identified as learning disabled, scored at least 2 years below grade level on a standardized reading test, and had IQs within the normal range
Results: The significant results indicated that both metacomprehension(self-monitoring) plus direct instruction, and direct instruction alone are significantly more effective than the control training conditions.

Reading Topics:
• Comprehension
– Strategy Instruction

Grades: 5-8
Diverse Learners

Keywords:
direct instruction; main idea; metacomprehension

Study:
Garner & Reis.

Monitoring and resolving comprehension obstacles: An investigation of spontaneous text lookbacks among upper-grade good and poor comprehenders.

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reading_4-6_23

Strategy: Rereading the text or "looking back" in order to respond to improve comprehension
Subjects: 19 fourth thru tenth graders who were considered "poor-comprehenders" (pc) attending a summer reading clinic who could decode and 19 "good comprehenders" (gc) in grades six thru eight chosen the following school year who matched the pc group
Results: Poor comprehenders mostly failed to demonstrate monitoring and mostly failed to spontaneously use look backs. The study implies that readers' knowing they did not know (an answer to the question) preceded knowing what to do to resolve the dilemma (self-monitoring before solution).

Reading Topics:
• Comprehension
– Strategy Instruction

Grades: 3-5, 6-8, 9-12

Keywords:
narrative text; at-risk students; strategy

Study:
Idol.

Group story mapping: A comprehension strategy for both skilled and unskilled readers.

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reading_k-3_105

Strategy: Group Story Mapping
Subjects: 27 3rd-4th graders; medium-sized Midwest city. 2 groups of 11 and another of 5 additional students. One group of 11 - 2 LD students. Second group of 11 - 2 low achieving & one LD.
Effects: Both experimental groups improved on daily story comprehension. All 5 low achieving and learning disabled children showed similar improvement. Most children were able to maintain an independent level of effective comprehension. This included the low achieving students. The only measure that did not show improvement was on the Nelson Reading Skills Test.

Reading Topics:
• Comprehension
– Strategy Instruction
– Graphic Organizers

Grades: 3-4

Keywords:
story mapping; schema

Study:
Baxter, Bass & Glaser.

Notebook writing in three fifth-grade science classrooms.

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reading_4-6_84

Strategy: Notebook writing in science classrooms
Subjects: 83 students, 3 5th-grade classrooms in 2 urban schools with ethnic, economic, and language diversity. 55% female; 60% Latino; 22% African American, & 18% Anglo, Asian, or other.
Results: The author offers conclusions for using notebooks during science instruction, but no findings were supported by scientific evidence.

Reading Topics:
• Comprehension
– Strategy Instruction
– Misc. (writing)

Grades: 5

Keywords:
science; writing; explicit instructing; prompting

Study:
Deno, Kim, Diment, & Rogers.

Comparison of reading intervention approaches for students with mild disabilities

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reading_4-6_150

Strategy: Peer Tutoring, Reciprocal Teaching, Effective Teaching Principles, Computer-Assisted Instruction (CAI), direct instruction models ( DI/SRA and DI format from Direct Instruction in Reading (Canine and Silbert, 1979).
Subjects: 176 students with mild disabilities grades 1-6 and 37 special education resource teachers
Results: Students’ average achievement gains were greater for only two of the six research models: Computer Assisted Instruction (CAI) Effect Size= +.18 Direct Instruction with Holt Materials Effect Size= +.18

Reading Topics:
– Strategy Instruction

Grades: 1-6
Diverse Learners

Keywords:
Direct instruction; computer assisted instruction; peer tutoring; reciprocal teaching; effective teaching

Study:
Bretzing & Kulhavy.

Notetaking and depth of processing.

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reading_9-12_64

Strategy: Note taking skills
Subjects: 180 male and female junior and senior high student volunteers
Results: The notes are worthwhile only if the notes are of a semantic nature, which increases the depth at which material is processed and strengthening memory recall.

Reading Topics:
• Comprehension
– Strategy Instruction

Grades: 9-12

Keywords:
notetaking; prose text

Study:
Sjostrom & Hare.

Teaching high school students to identify main ideas in expository text.

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reading_9-12_16

Strategy: Identification of main ideas in expository text
Subjects: (19) Hispanic and African-American 9th and 10th graders
Results: Results were nonsignificant according to the authors

Reading Topics:
• Comprehension
– Strategy Instruction

Grades: 9-12

Keywords:
main idea; summarizing

Study:
Lee.

Is October Brown Chinese? A cultural modeling activity system for underachieving students.

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reading_4-6_51

Strategy: Cultural Modeling Project
Subjects: Intact class taught by the researcher at an all-African American high school; 69% were from low-income families.
Results: Despite low scores on standardized reading tests, under-achieving students are capable of higher order thinking and application of this skill to literature.

Reading Topics:
• Comprehension
– Questioning Strategies
– Misc.

Grades: 9-12

Keywords:
low ability students; scaffolding; modeling

Havens. Project CRISS:

Reading, writing and studying strategies for literature and content.

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reading_4-6_106

Strategy: CRISS
Subjects: CRISS developmental site (Kalispell, MT.) and two replication sites. Grades 4, 6, 8, and 11. Note: no description of participant or demographics.
Results: Significant gains were made by each of the Project CRISS groups at each site. Students in CRISS groups were able to recall twice as much information as students in the control group. Students' posttesting paragraphs explaining what they did to read and learn differed. Experimental students used a rich assortment and often used multiple strategies.

• Comprehension
– Strategy Instruction

Grades 7-8

Study Name

Design
Rating

Strategy, Subjects, Effects

Topics

Table information is abbreviated. Click "Read full review" links below for full citations of author and journal names and for details about the studies.

Study:
McCormick, C. and Levin, J.

A comparison of different prose-learning variations of the mnemonic keyword method.

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reading_7-8_160

Added
8-10-05
4.5

Strategy: Which of 3 Keyword Methods (Integrated, Paired, Chained) is best suited for prose-learning tasks?
Subjects:
Experiment 1:
220 eighth-grade students (ages 13-15) from 2 midwestern university communities:
11 classrooms; 6 tested according to one question order and 5 in another; 5 instructional conditions (3 keyword and 2 control); 44 students in each of 5 instructional conditions
Experiment 2:
82 seventh & eighth grade students (ages 12-14 and 13-15) from a different Midwestern community
Results: Pending

Reading Topics:
• Comprehension
– Strategy Instruction

Grades: 7-8

Keywords: mnemonics, keyword method, recall, prose, illustration prompts

Study:
Lysynchuk, Pressley, & Vye.

Reciprocal teaching improves standardized reading comprehension performance in poor comprehenders.

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reading_4-6_26

Strategy: Reciprocal teaching
Subjects: 71 fourth and seventh graders considered to be poor comprehenders in Canada
Results:

Standardized Comprehension and	Standardized Vocabulary
Fourth Graders+.56	+.44
Seventh Graders+.54	-.41

Reading Topics:
• Comprehension
– Strategy Instruction

Grades: 3-5, 6-8
Diverse Learners

Keywords:
reciprocal teaching; questioning: summarizing; predicting

Study:
Rosenshine & Meister.

Reciprocal teaching: A review of the research.

Read full review

reading_4-6_34

4
Meta-analysis

Reading Topics:
• Comprehension
– Strategy Instruction

Grades: Diverse Learners

Keywords:
reciprocal teaching; summarizing; questioning; predicting

Study:
Collins.

Reading instruction that increases thinking abilities.

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reading_4-6_38

Reading Topics:
• Comprehension
– Strategy Instruction

Grades: 6, 8, 9

Keywords:
reasoning; thinking

Sturm & Rankin-Erickson.

Effects of hand-drawn and computer-generated concept mapping on the expository writing of middle school students with learning disabilities

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reading_7-8_158

Strategy: Concept Mapping, both hand-drawn and computer-generated (Inspirations™ software)
Subjects: 765 middle school English/reading classroom in a medium-sized Midwestern city (89.5% Caucasian, 4.4% African-American, 2.9% Asian American, 1.8% Hispanic, 1.3% Native American; 36% Free and Reduced lunch,)
12 eighth graders with primary disability as learning disability with needs in written expression with IQs between 85 and 120 and two years below grade level
Results: Student essays in all 3 conditions demonstrated significant improvements both qualitatively and quantitatively throughout the study with gains continuing to increase throughout the durations of the study. It’s not clear if the strategy instruction along (without mapping) may have accounted for the improvement or if the concept mapping instruction carried over even when the no mapping conditions was instituted. However, the Writing Attitude Survey revealed significantly more positive results with computer-mapping than the other two conditions.

• Comprehension
– Strategy Instruction

Also Diverse Learners

Study:
Raphael & McKinney.

An examination of fifth- and eighth-grade children's question-answering behavior: An instructional study in metacognition.

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reading_4-6_47

Reading Topics:
• Comprehension
– Questioning Strategies
– Strategy Instruction

Grades: 5, 8

Keywords:
questioning; facts; inferences; prior knowledge

Study:
Denner.

Comparison of the effects of episodic organizers and traditional notetaking on story recall.

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reading_7-8_65

Strategy: Episodic Organizers (story maps, graphic organizer) and traditional note taking
Subjects: 111 7th-grade students from regular reading classes in a suburban junior high
Results: The episodic-organizer group (made their own) outperformed all other groups in recall of high-importance information. Both completion of an episodic-organizer and active note taking after reading the passage enhanced free recall performance when compared with the study of an episodic-organizer or simple re-reading.

Reading Topics:
• Comprehension
– Graphic Organizers
– Text Structure
– Strategy Instruction

Grades: 7

Keywords:
notetaking; short stories; graphic organizer; recall

Study:
Peters & Levin.

Effects of a mnemonic imagery strategy on good and poor readers' prose recall.

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reading_4-6_25

Reading Topics:
• Comprehension
– Strategy Instruction

Grades: 6-8
Diverse Learners

Keywords:
imagery; mnemonics; recall

Study:
Graves.

Effects of direct instruction and metacomprehension training on finding main ideas

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reading_4-6_146

Reading Topics:
• Comprehension
– Strategy Instruction

Grades: 5-8
Diverse Learners

Keywords:
direct instruction; main idea; metacomprehension

Study:
Margosein, Pascarella, & Pfaum.

The effects of instruction using semantic mapping on vocabulary and comprehension.

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reading_7-8_37

Strategy: Semantic mapping and its effect on vocabulary and comprehension
Subjects: 44 7th & 8th-grade parochial school students in a Mexican-American community
Results: Pre/Post with Control on Gates MacGinitie

Vocabulary	+ 0.32
Comprehension	+0.12

Reading Topics:
• Comprehension
– Strategy Instruction
– Graphic Organizers
• Vocabulary

Grades: 7, 8
Diverse Learners

Keywords:
mapping; direct instruction; context

Study:
Garner & Reis.

Monitoring and resolving comprehension obstacles: An investigation of spontaneous text lookbacks among upper-grade good and poor comprehenders.

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reading_4-6_23

Reading Topics:
• Comprehension
– Strategy Instruction

Grades: 3-5, 6-8, 9-12

Keywords:
narrative text; at-risk students; strategy

Study:
Cramer & Smith.

Technology's impact on student writing at the middle school level

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reading_7-8_88

Strategy: The Movie Project (use of technology in writing)
Subjects: 139 6th - 8th graders (88 from Movie Project School; 51 from Traditional School)
Results: At the end of the school year, the students in both schools improved their scores but there was no statistically significant difference between the two schools’ scores. There were statistically significant differences between the pretest scores of the sixth graders in all three areas, but not for the seventh or eighth graders.

Reading Topics:
• Comprehension
– Misc (writing)

Grades: 6-8

Keywords:
writing; technology