Research Note 85-82

Q BASIC SKILLS RESOURCE CENTER:

Teaching Reading Comprehension To Adults

1in Basic Skills Courses

M.C. Wittrock and Richard Kelly

University of California at Los Angeles

for

Instructional Technology Systems Technical Area

Zita M. Simutis, Chief

TRAINING RESEARCH LABORATORY

Harold F. O'Neil, Jr., Director

ELECTE

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CIOU. S. Army

SResearch Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences

August 1985

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BASIC SKILLS RESOURCE CENTER: Interim Report

Teaching Reading Comprehension to Adults July 1982 - Sept. 1984

in Basic Skills Classes 6. PERFORMING ORG. REPORT NUMBER

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M.C. Wittrock and Richard Kelly

MDA 903-82-C-0169

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IS. SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES

Richard P. Kern, contracting officer's representative. M.C. Wittrock and

Eva L. Baker, principal investigators. The University of California at Los

Angeles was the subcontractor for this report. The contractor for the overall

series on the "Basic Skills Resource Center Project" is (over)

19. KEY WORDS (Continue on reverse side if necessary amd identify by block number)

Learning Strategies Generative Learning

Reading Comprehension Instruction

Basic Skills Training

Literacy Training

Computer-Assisted Instruction

20. A TRACT (Cm"flue m reverse af iFf neclemy and identify by block number)

In a series of three research efforts, three written curricula and one microcomputer-assisted curriculum were developed and used in order to teach reading

comprehension to soldiers in Basic Skills classes on four Army bases. Compared

with a control Basic Skills class, and with pretests, the experimental curricula, using readings selected primarily from Army manuals, increased reading

comprehension by 20 % in nine hours. The microcomputer-assisted instruction

reduced learning time from nine hours to five hours, a saving of 45 %.

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" 1
Acknowledgements

The author wishes to thank the research assistants, all doctoral

students in the UCLA Graduate School of Education, who worked on the

project. Richard Kelly worked on all phases of all studies of the

project, wrote the instructional materials and and the tests in all

studies, gathered and scored data in the first two studies, and taught

classes in the second study. Kathy Kenderski and Patti Finn taught

classes and scored data in the second study. In study three, Richard

Fiefer, assisted by Dean Oisboid, prepared the graphics and the visuals

for the microcomputer materials from text written by Richard Kelly.

Steven Wheeler scored and recorded data in the third study. Jahja Umar

performed the statistical analyses of the data from all three studies.

Barbara Birney contributed to the final phase of the study, including

the compilation of the data and the preparation of the final report.

Thanks are also due to the officers, soldiers, teachers and

administrators at Fort Ord, Fort Hunter-Liggett, and Ford Irwin in

California and at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii, whose participation and

cooperation made the study possible.

At Ford Ord, California we wish to thank Willard Call and Joseph

Cain, Education Services Officers, Vera Beck and Carla Barnes, BSEP

Coordinators, and Janice Cork, Lorraine Goodrich, Judith Howard, and

Arthur Ferguson, BSEP teachers, and Wayne Downey, Director of the

Monterey Adult School Program. We also want to thank Roy Avant, Wendy

McGuire, and Jack Hiller of the Army Research Institute, Monterey,

California.

iii
At Fort Hunter-Liggett, California we want to thank John Martinson

and Sharon Witkowski, Education Services Officers.

At Fort Irwin, California we want to thank Andrew Cugal, Education

Services Officer, William Wiseman, Director of the Adult Education

Program of the Barstow Community Colleges, Lynna Lawhorn, BSEP

Coordinator, and Karen Faggioli, Virginia Lightner, Victoria Thompson,

and Mary Willcox, BSEP teachers.

At Schofield Barracks in Hawaii, we want to thank Max Templeman,

Head, Education Branch, Mahlon Hungerford, ESO, Naomi Itakura, Manager

of the Education Center, Mary Schwoppe, BSEP Administrator, and Luis

Compo, Assistant BSEP Administrator. We also want to thank Lawrence

Wakui, State Director and Richard Ooka, Assistant State Director, of the

Employment Training Office of the University of Hawaii. A special thank

you goes to all of the soldiers who participated in the study and who

worked with us in the study of reading comprehension.

At the UCLA Center for the Study of Evaluation, I want to thank

Eva Baker, Joan Herman, and members of their staff for the many contributions they made to the project from its beginning to its completion.

I also want to thank Harry O'Neil and Richard Kern of the Army

Research Institute and Rocco Russo of Interamerica for their valuable

ideas and continuous support throughout all phases of this 2 -year long

project.

iv

...
Foreword

Illiteracy among young adults continues to be a major unsolved

problem in modern America. Functional illiteracy among young adults in

our technologically advanced 20th century society reduces job performance, limits educational opportunities, and retards the development of

a healthy concept of self. In the military, literacy is important for

success in war, where precise communication and the ability to read and

understand language are critical, and also for success in learning during

peacetime, when complex technological skills are acquired during weeks or

months of study in specialized military training courses.

This research note reports on the success of attempts to teach

marginally literate soldiers to increase quickly their ability to read

* Army texts, magazine articles, and newspaper rjports with comprehension.

The teaching procedures, written curriculum materials, and microcomputerbased curricula developed in these efforts make use of principles of generative learning which provide a new understanding of how to teach reading

- comprehension to marginally literate soldiers in regular basic skills

classes.

v ". ,o .
Executive Summary

In a series of three studies conducted in Basic Skills classes

taught at Ford Ord, Fort Irwin, Fort Hunter-Liggett, and Schofield

Barracks, low reading ability soldiers regularly enrolled in Basic

Skills classes learned in nine hours to increase their reading comprehension of Army manuals and texts as well as non-technical materials.

The teaching procedures and curriculum materials developed and presented

in this research project were based on the principles of generative

learning developed by the author, which are that low ability readers

need to learn (1) to relate sentences in Army manuals and texts to one

another in an organized way, and (2) how to relate sentences in Army

manuals and non-technical materials to their experience and knowledge.

In the first and second of the three studies, five different

curricula, each using paragraphs from Army manuals and from magazines

and newspapers, were used in Basic Skills classes. A comparable control

group of soldiers given customary Army Basic Skills instruction, taught

by regular Basic Skills teachers, and also offered on the same Army

bases in the same classrooms for the same amount of classroom time, was

used to evaluate the effectiveness of the new materials and teaching

procedures. Pretests and posttests were also given to all experimental

and control classes to provide a second measure of effectiveness of the

experimental curricula and the generative teaching methods.

The soldiers in each of the experimental groups showed statistically

significantly greater improvement in reading comprehension than did the

soldiers in the control group. The second measure of effectiveness, the

gains from the pretest to the posttest, also showed the same statistically

vii

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,

significant increase in reading comprehension only in the experimental

treatments. The control treatment showed no gain.

In the third study in the series, the curricula and teaching procedures developed in the first and second studies were rewritten for use

with microcomputers. The rewritten materials were presented in microcomputers to regularly enrolled Basic Skills (BSEP) students at Ford Ord

ard Fort Irwin. Statistically significant gains in improvement in

reading comprehension again occurred. In addition, the time needed for

the instruction dropped sizably, from an average of 450 minutes (nine

50-minute class hours) to an average of 251 minutes (about five

50-minute class hours).

The research indicates that reading comprehension can be sizably

increased with some soldiers at no added cost using written materials in

typical Basic Skills classes offered on Army bases by regularly employed

BSEP teachers working with normally enrolled BSEP soldiers. Under these

realistic and typical conditions, the reading comprehension instruction

and curricula should teach soldiers how to generate meaning by relating

their knowledge and background to the manuals and other texts they read,

and by generating relations among the sentences in the text. These two

basic principles can lead to inexpensive but useful modifications in

teaching and to increases in ability to read with comprehension. The

research also implies that with microcomputers and appropriate curricula,

reading comprehension can be increased and training time can be markedly

reduced, at least with some soldiers.

viii
Table of Contents

The Problem . .......................... 1

The Objective and the Method .. ....... ...........2

The Theory and the Data Base of the Project .. .... ......

Classroom Studies. .. ....... ........ .......

Laboratory Studies. ..... ........ ........ .. 8

The Facilitation of Reading Comprehension .. .... ....... 14

Generative Instructional Activities .. ........ .. ...... 18

The Purpose of the Studies. .... ......... ...... 18

Pilot Study. .. ..... ....... ........ ...... 20

Study One .. .... ........ ......... ...... 24

Design .. .......... ... ......... ...... 25

Participants .. ........ ........ ....... 25

Treatmens and Materials.................2

Procedure. .. ....... ........ .......... 26

Results and Discussion. .... ......... ...... 27

Study Two. .. ....... ........ ......... .. 44

Design .. ....... ......... ........ .. 44

Participants .. ........ ........ ....... 45

Treatments and Materials .................. 4

Procedure. .. ....... ........ ..........45

Results and Discussion .. ....... ......... .. 48

ix
Study Three. ... ......................... 63

Design ... .......................... 64

Participants ..... ..................... 64

Materi a ls...........................64

P r c c Et re. ... ........................ 65

Kesu;'Its and Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

PEterences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Appendix A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Appendix B.............................91

Apeni C- . . . . .u95
[,

List of Tables

STUDY 1

Table I Means, Standard Deviations, and Gain Scores of

the Experimental and Control Groups ... .......... .. 28

Tatle 2 TABE Score Means and Standard Deviations of the

Experimental and Control Groups Prior to Treatment 31

TaD)e 3 Planned Comparisons cf Treatrent Groups' Gain Scores 32

Table 4 Planned Comparisons of Treatment Groups'

Posttest Scores ........ .................... 33

-ETale 5 Ef-ects of Covariates on Posttest Scores . ....... 35

Table 6 Analysis of Covariance of Posttest Scores with

Pretest Scores as the Covariate ..... ............ 36

Tatle 7 td.usted Means and Standard Errors of Posttest

Scores with Pretest Scores as the Covariate ... ...... 37

Table 8 Correlations Among Measures of Reading Ability,

Pretest, and Posttest Scores; All Treatments Combined 39

S -DY 2

Table 9 Means, Standard Deviations, and Gain Scores of

the Experimental and Control Groups .... .......... 50

Table 10 TABE Score Means and Standard Deviations of the

Experimental and Control Groups Prior to Treatment 51

Table 11 Planned Comparisons of Treatment'Groups' Gain Scores 53

Table 12 Planned Comparisons of Treatment Groups'

Posttest Scores ........ .................... 54

Table 13 Effects of Covariates on Posttest Scores . ....... ... 55

Table 14 Analysis of Covariance of Posttest Scores with

Pretest and Vocabulary Scores as Covari3tes. ......... 57

xi

- - , , . w , , , - o ° . . . . . . - - - .
Table 15 Adjusted Means and Standard Errors of Posttest

Scores with Pretest Scores as Covariates . ....... ... 58

Table 16 Correlations Among Reading Ability Scores, Pretest

Scores, and Posttest Scores; All Treatments Combined 59

STUDY 3

Table 17 Means, Standard Deviations, and Gain Scores of the

Experimental Groups ...... .................. ... 67

Table 18 TABE Score Means and Standard Deviations of the

Experimental Groups Prior to Treatment . ........ ... 68

Xii

.

. . .--.. . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
TEACHING READING COMPREHENSION TO ADULTS IN BASIC SKILLS COURSES

The Problem

Many young adults in our society cannot read with comprehension.

Their inability to understand adequately the words they read complicates

their daily lives in profound ways. Some of these young people leave

high school, occasionally elementary school, before graduation. In the

job market, where they find themselves after leaving school, many of

them face repeated rejection and frustration, especially for the

positions they find attractive and stimulating.

The consequences of being a young adult unable to read with understanding in our society extend beyond the job market, and surpass the

feelings and thoughts these comments can only suggest here. Imagine the

effects of learning in your teens that all professions, nearly all

businesses, and most occupations will remain permanently beyond one's

grasp. Consider also that an inability to read with understanding

induces a reluctance to marry and to have children. Marriage and a

family entail personal relations and financial responsibilities that

exceed one's ability to meet. Think also of the consequences of

realizing that all knowledge and information stored in books, magazines,

newspapers and letters will never be understood nor enjoyed.

Perhaps the most devastating result of the inability to read with

comprehension is the cumulative effect upon one's self-concept of these

occupational, social, and personal consequences. They lead to a feeling

of helplessness and frustration, which often produces a feeling of

hopelessness. We found these thoughts and feelings to occur commonly

among the young adults with reading comprehension problems that we

studied in the research summarized in this report.

1
Some of these consequences of inability to read with understanding

may be more perceived then real among the people we studied. Nonetheless,

the problems are real to the people who perceive them. The problems

also are part of the difficulty of teaching reading comprehension to

young, marginally literate adults, who feel that they cannot, and will

not ever, learn to read with understanding. Behind their pessimism is

the awareness that since they were six years of age someone has been

trying to teach them to read. No one has ever succeeded at it. As a

result, they believe that for unknown reasons no one will ever teach

them to read.

To teach reading comprehension to these young adults presents a

formidable challenge to educators interested in cognitive and affective

learning. Many of these learners have not developed learning strategies,

study skills, and models of comprehension necessary for getting meaning

by juxtaposing text and knowledge. Many of them do not use simple

verbal or imagery strategies, control their attention, nor understand

the active, generative nature of reading comprehension. For many of

them comprehension means "memorizing the meanings of all the words in

the sentences."

Their elementary model of reading comprehension contains a strong

point. Vocabulary learning is critical for reading comprehension. But

their model of reading comprehension is only the beginning of the

complicated process of learning to read with understanding.

The Objective and the Method

In the research studies presented in this final report we facilitated

reading comprehension among marginally literate army enlisted personnel.

Our primary goal was, in a series of empirical studies with marginally

2
literate soldiers on active duty, to design, write, use, and evaluate

teaching procedures and written curricula that enhance their reading

comprehension of text in Army manuals and in books and magazines. Our

written materials and teaching materials were designed for practi.al use

by teachers and students in Army basic skills classes, taught during

regular hours on several Army Bases that represented a variety of

student interests, backgrounds, and abilities. In addition, the

materials and the teaching methods were designed to teach reading

comprehension efficiently under severe time constraints. A total of

nine hours of classroom instruction time limited the length of the

remedial curriculum we designed.

Last, we wanted to develop and test the reading comprehension

materials and procedures under actual teaching conditions on Army Bases,

where soldiers and teachers face realistic day-to-day demands that

influence the nature and effectiveness of instruction. For this reason

we devoted considerable time, energy, and financial resources to contacting

Army Bases, gaining permission and access to reading classes on these

bases, traveling to five Army Bases, two of which were over one thousand

miles from UCLA, and none of which was located in the Los Angeles area,

and working on-site with the teachers, administrators, students, and

other Army personnel involved in the classes and in the instruction.

These expensive and time consuming data collection procedures

contributed immeasurably to the validity and utility of our instructional

materials and teaching materials. Our direct contact with the teachers

and students quickly taught us the reading interests and abilities of

the students, the needs of the military services, and the requirements

of the teachers and their supervisors. Although our studies lost some

3

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of the advantages of control afforded by a laboratory, our curricula and

teaching procedures gained a real-world validity and a vigorous test

under actual conditions found on several Army Bases. As a result, these

materials and procedures are useful for the Army, and they have been

demonstrated to be effective on Army Bases under regular, everyday

teaching conditions using Army-employed teachers and Army-selected

students reading typical passages taken from books, magazines, and

especially from Army Manuals.

The Theory and the Data-Base of the Project

In the preceeding section on the problem, we mentioned the shortcomings of the "vocabulary learning" model of reading comprehension,

commonly found among the soldiers we studied. They are not the only

people who have had difficulty understanding the complexities of reading

comprehension. Prior to the recent resurgence of interest in the cognitive processes of reading comprehension (Wittrock, 1981) teachers of

reading also had little understanding of reading comprehension and few

ideas about how to teach it.

Within the last twenty years, reading comprehension has increasingly

become a focus of research on cognitive learning, knowledge acquisition,

and students' thought processes. Within that focus, educational implications for facilitating reading comprehension acquired new importance

and became a center of interest among researchers studying the cognitive

processes of reading comprehension.

During the last twenty years, my students and I have studied the

facilitation of reading comprehension. Our studies, all of which were

experiments with random assignment of learners to treatments, consistently

indicate that reading with comprehension is a generative process. From

4

•...... ......... . .. . . -. . . ....... .. . . ....
these research studies we have learned several important facts about the

teaching of reading comprehension and about the nature, variety, and

development of the generative processes of comprehension.

Classroom Studies

In several experiments (e.g., Doctorow, Wittrock, & Marks, 1978;

Linden & Witrrock, 1981; Wittrock, Marks, & Doctorow, 1975) we have

consistently improved reading comprehension among public elementary

secondary school students by 25 to 100% with our instructional strategies.

In these studies, time across the control and experimental treatments

was always held constant, a variety of commonly employed commercially

published reading materials was used, and our learning and instructional

strategies were practical for use in the classroom.

In several studies we asked the learners to compose and to write a

summary sentence for each paragraph they read. In other experiments we

asked them to write paragraph headings, to draw simple diagrams, to

relate the parts of the text to one another, to relate the text to their

knowledge, or to think of and to write examples of the text, as they

read it. These generative learning strategies regularly enhanced reading

comprehension or retention by sizable amounts, without increasing the

time given to the reading.

In one study of reading comprehension among sixth graders (Marks,

Doctorow, & Wittrock, 1974), we hypothesized and found that sentence

comprehension was markedly improved by substituting one high-frequency

synonym per sentence for its low-frequency counterpart in the commercially

published text. The effect occurred across all three levels of reading

ability and with all different stories and tests used in the experiments.

m 5

. .,. . . . . . . . . .
In another study (Wittrock, Marks, & Doctorow, 1975) of reading as

a generative process, we predicted and found that a familiar story

context sizably increased reading comprehension and the learning of

undefined new vocabulary words. The students apparently generated the

meanings of the words from the familiar story context, in accord with

the model of generative learning. Again, the results occurred with all

three levels of reading ability and with all stories and tests used in

the experiment.

In a study of the effects of generating pictures upon vocabulary,

Bull and Wittrock (1973) found that the drawing of simple diagrams by

fifth graders facilitated their learning and retaining of the meanings

of the vocabulary words, when compared with the copying of the verbal

definitions of the words. When children are mature enough to construct

imaginal representations of the words they read, these representations

can facilitate their vocabulary learning.

A related effect occurs with verbal generations, and the size of

the effect is sometimes large. In one set of three classroom experiments,

Doctorow, Wittrock, and Marks (1978) asked 400 sixth graders to read

stories from commercially published reading materials. Some groups of

children were also given headings for the paragraphs of the stories.

Other groups were asked to generate summary sentences for the paragraphs

after they read them. Other groups were given paragraph headings and

were asked to generate summary sentences for each paragraph. The model

of generative learning predicted that the groups given the paragraph

headings and asked to construct summaries should produce the highest

comprehension followed, in turn, by the groups asked to generate summaries,

the groups given the paragraph headings, and last, the control groups

6

.- , 2,
given only the same commercially published stories read by all the

groups. The data closely agreed with these predictions. The group

given the generative instructions and the paragraph headings doubled the

comprehension and retention attained by the control groups. Time to

learn was held constant across all experimental and control groups.

Linden and Wittrock (1981) developed an instructional sequence

designed to teach reading comprehension according to Wittrock's model of

generative learning. In the study, 58 ten-year-old school children were

taught to construct imaginal and verbal elaborations as they read texts

in their reading classes. Compared with a control group of school

children given the same amount of time and given the same tests, the

verbal and imaginal generations constructed by the children in the

experimental group increased reading comprehension by about 50% of their

pretest score.

From these classroom studies there is support for the hypothesis

that reading comprehension and retention can be improved by inducing

low- or high-ability learners to generate relations among the parts of

the text or between the text and their experience and knowledge. Either

the characteristics of the text, such as the frequency value of the

words, its headings, or its familiarity, or the generative activities

children are asked to perform upon it, such as to summarize it, construct

a heading for it, or draw a picture of it, can be used to induce children

to construct meaning as they read. The result is often an enhancement

of reading comprehension and retention. For further discussion of these

and related studies see the recent book on Pressley and Levin (1983a)

especially Chapter 4 by Cook and Mayer.

7

L"••-.-°. . . . .. ............................... k.-_.._.:.. : ',, '..'......'...'..'..'... ,..'................ ........ ... .. -.. ..-..--.. ..............
These applied studies raise important questions about the processes

of reading comprehension. Why are we more likely to comprehend sentences

we generate or compose than sentences we read? How do the generative

cognitive processes produce their effects upon comprehension? Do they

increase effort, attention, or encoding?

Several laboratory studies, often with college students learning

word lists and pairs, have investigated the generation effect and have

tried to explain it.

Laboratory Studies

Wittrock and Carter (1975) gave college students hierarchially

arranged words and asked the learners to process them generatively, that

is, to relate them to one another and to construct the proper hierarchical

relations among them. Whether the words were conceptually related to

one another or were chosen at random from a dictionary, generative

processing of them sizably increased, usually doubled, their retention.

In two experiments, Wittrock and Goldberg (1975) studied children's

and college students' learning and memory of words they were asked to

put into sentences, or into a story, or into an interactive image. The

high-imagery words were best remembered by the adults and the children.

The directions to group the words into stories, sentences, or images

facilitated recall for the children but not for the adults. The results

imply that the effectiveness of the directions depends upon the learner's

developmental level and upon the cognitive processes they have learned

to use. Instructional aids, such as these directions, can help learners

only if they are not already spontaneously performing the generative

activities mentioned in the instructions.

:. 8

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In three experiments with fourth and fifth graders, the type of

instruction necessary to teach the children to learn and to transfer a

simple concept depended upon the previously learned relevant concepts

(Wittrock, 1978). When the training focused upon a relevant but not

highly salient concept, transfer increased quickly and markedly.

In five experiments with college students, Slamecka and Graf (1978)

compared memory for words that were read or were generated. In all

measures in all five studies, the generation of words enhanced memory.

The generation phenomenon held across different rules and materials,

across timed or self-paced learning, and across different types of tests

and different experimental designs.

In experiment three they tested selective attention as the sole

explanation for the generation effect. The responses, which were

generated, but not the stimuli, which were not generated by the learners,

were better recognized later. If selective attention were the sole

explanation of the generation effect, then the stimuli would have been

as well recognized later as the responses, since the learners selectively

attended to both of them. However, the data in their experiment five

are less clear cut on this issue. From their data no firm conclusion is

possible now on the role of attention in generation.

But the authors do conclude that their data eliminate overt responding, frequency, exercise, time to learn, and levels of processing as

explanations of the generation effect. Distinctive encoding is still a

possible explanation; so is effort.

Jacoby (1978) compared reading with generating solutions to simple

word problems. Compared with reading the words, generating the response

words increased their recall when the problems were seen only once

9

i ...:, -~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.-.-..-.-.-.. ??. -. . .. ....-... -..... .. ,-... ..... -.... ........ ........................ .- . ....... ,, .. . .
earlier or were seen repeatedly in a spaced pattern. In massed practice,

reading or generation made no difference in recall, apparently because

massed practice trivializes generative reading. The learner can recall

the answer directly from short-term memory. When the interval between

presentations of a problem is longer than short-term memory, the learner

must construct rather than recall the solution. Jacoby concludes that

overt responding is not enough to facilitate learning. Reading the

answer immediately prior to the problem reduced performance. He concludes

that effort was critical to improving recall in this study. These two

results seem incongruous. Apparently something more than effort is

necessary for generation to be effective, otherwise overt responding,

which is effortful, would be a sufficient explanation.

In five experiments with college students, Graf (1980) compared

generating meaningful and anomalous sentences from words given to learners

with simply reading the same sentences constructed by the experimenter.

Generation of the sentences enhanced word recognition with meaningful

and anomalous sentences. Generation enhanced word-pair recognition, a

measure of sentence organization, with meaningful sentences but not with

anomalous sentences. The results indicated that generation enhances

intraword organization with both types of sentences, but enhances integration of sentences only if they are meaningful. He concludes that

reading should stimulate bringing words to mind simultaneously and

constructing meaningful relations among them.

McFarland, Frey, and Rhodes (1980) compared the effects upon memory

of learner-generated words missing in sentences with experimenter-given

words in the same sentence. The generation of the missing words by the

college undergraduates consistently increased their free recall, even

10
across different types of congruity between the word and its context,

and different levels of processing, such as a phonemic level or a

semantic level.

McFarland et al. conclude that generation is distinct from the

phenomena called elaboration and levels of processing, such as phonemically processed and semantically processed words. In their study,

phonemically encoded words, as well as semantically encoded words,

evidenced a generation effect. For example, learner-generated rhymes

(phonemically processed) were remembered better than experimenter-given

semantically related words, a result not predicted by levels-of-processing

or elaboration theory, which predicts that semantic processing but not

phonemic processing enhances long-term memory.

Another interesting finding in the McFarland et al. study was that

the usual encoding congruity effect, in which a word must be well

integrated with its context, was reversed for the learner-generated

words. The generation of semantic incongruities facilitated recall

sizably. These authors disagree with Slamecka and Graf (1978), who feel

that generation enhances the congruity between a word and its context.

McFarland et al. feel that congruity is important for experimenter-given

words, but not for learner-generated words. They also feel that Jacoby's

(1978) and Slamecka and Graf's (1978) data can be explained by an effort

hypothesis, an explanation which is difficult to defend.

In sum, the more impressive interpretations of McFarland et al. are

that reading, as different from generation, does not insure a phonemic

or semantic analysis of words, nor an integration between words and

their context. I would add that reading also does not insure an

integration between words and the learner's experience and knowledge.

m1

...................-..-..-- l -.. .
McFarland et al. conclude that generation is independent of depth

or type of processing. Generation produced a bigger effect than did

semantic over phonemic encoding, although the semantic encoding effect

did occur with experimenter-given words. They conclude that the actual

operations performed on the words, more than their phonemic or semantic

characteristics, determines learning from generation. What are these

operations? They conjecture (1) personal relevance and (2) effort used

in connection with episodic memory. They offer little explanation for

the processes involved in generation from semantic memory, as it differs

from episodic memory.

In summary, McFarland et al. agree with many earlier studies in the

classroom and in the laboratory when they conclude that "an individual's

memory will improve dramatically if he provides some of the to-be-remembered

information himself" (p. 224).

Stein, Morris, and Bransford (1978) also find that semantic processing

of sentences is not always more effective than other types of processing

at enhancing comprehension and retention. The enhancement depended upon

the relation between the learner's elaboration and the rest of the

sentence. When the elaboration made the sentence meaning more precise,

comprehension increased. Other types of semantically congruous elaborations debilitated retention. In a related study, Stein and Bransford

(1979) compared learner-generated and experimenter-given elaborations.

Again, when the elaboration contributed to the development of the tested

meaning, or when learners were led to generate relevant questions that

lead to precise relations among the parts of the sentence, comprehension

increased.

12

2..7.

. . . . . . . , . . . . . . . . . .. ... . . .
Dee-Lucas and Divesta (1980) gave college students, or asked them

to generate, headings, related sentences, or topic sentences as they

read a text about minerals. These instructional aids enhanced most

types of learning only when they were generated by the learners.

Generation of topic sentences produced the greatest enhancement of

learning from the text. Giving learners these instructional aids

enhanced learning of subordinate information but not of the structure of

the passage. The learning of structural information was enhanced or

reduced by generation, depending upon the relevance and appropriateness

of the generative activity to the learning measured on the test. Fluent

learners sometimes learned as much from given information as from generated information. The results depend upon what the learners know and

what they do spontaneously. In this study, generation seems to facilitate

selective attention. Generative activities worked primarily when learners

would not have spontaneously performed them. The learning of material

already salient to the learner did not profit from generative activities

that enhanced selective attention.

Dee-Lucas and DiVesta report important findings about the teaching

of generative activities. By definition any instructional intervention

enhances learning or comprehension only when it induces learners to

perform activities they would not otherwise perform, or not perform as

well. It is not enough then to induce generative processing. In addition

one must enhance the learner's generative processes appropriate for the

situation, in this case to read with comprehension. For further discussion of these and related studies see the recent volume by Pressley

and Levin (1983b), especially Chapters 2 and 3. For further discussion

of strategies of reading comprehension see the volume by vanDijk and

13

fi " -_ -- - . -:" " .- i- i-- . : .-. . -. . -. . . .- ..- . . . -. -. .- . . - . -. . . ., . .
Kintsch (1983), and the edited volume by Mandl, Stein, and Trabasso

(1984), especially Chapters 8 and 10.

From this review of studies on the generation effect, at least two

findings are supported. First, the generation effect is a real one. It

is not synonymous with semantic processing or elaboration, although it

produces a sizable impact on reading with comprehension and on retention.

Second, the nature of the generation effect is only partially understood.

It seems to involve a number of cognitive processes, in much the same

way that language production, as in speaking or writing, inovlves them.

Reading does not always involve these same constructive processes. When

we can make reading become more like writing, and engage generative

activities, it seems that we can increase reading comprehension.

The Facilitation of Reading Comprehension

From the brief review of related research, there is substantial

support for the reality of the generation effect and for its practical

utility in improving reading comprehension among school children. There

are also good reasons to believe that effective generative activities

interact with the developmental level and ability of the learners, the

type of reading material, and the teachers and curriculum writers' goals

in the design of the instruction. We know, for example, that prior to

about age eight, children do not often increase their reading comprehension by generating pictures appropriate for the text. However, we do

know that children use pictures and high imagery words quite effectively

prior to that age to improve their reading comprehension (Levln, 1981).

We also know that when they are asked, children five years and older can

construct their own verbal aids--headings, summaries, inferences, and

answers to questions--to enhance their reading comprehension. In

14

. . -
.. -- . . .. ..I. . . . . . . . . . . . . : . ! . . . . _... I_ .I - p . -: ., ., :

addition, we know that children can use these same verbal organizational

aids, when they are given to them in a text or by a teacher, to facilitate

their reading comprehension.

To facilitate reading comprehension, the model of generative reading

implies that we stimulate the learners to construct relations (1) among

the parts of the text and, (2) between the text, on the one hand, and

the reader's knowledge and experience, on the other hand. To facilitate

comprehension these constructed relations should have the following

characteristics. First, they must be relations which the reader would

not equally well construct without our intervention. Second, the

relations must not trivialize comprehension. They must involve more

than the learner's short-term memory and more than the surface structure

of the text. They should involve the learner's long-term memory of

experience, or the learner's knowledge, or both of these. They should

involve the text's deep si.jnificance in the construction of one or more

of its legitimate meanings.

We can stimulate the construction of relations having these two

characteristics by designing the reading materials appropriately for the

interests and abilities of the learners and by directing them to generate

meaning for the text as they read. Whether we should make the relevant

relations explicit or ask the learners to construct them is not the

central issue. In either case, so long as we do not trivialize learning,

the learners can and should be actively engaged in the understanding of

the relations and in the text's meaning. When the learners can attend

to the task and can construct the text's meaning or meanings, then they

should be given the instructions and the direction appropriate for their

developmental level, knowledge, and background. When the learners

15
cannot adequately attend to the task or cannot construct Important

meanings from it, then they should be helped to attend to the meaning of

the text, and they should be given the relations to be learned, which

they can elaborate upon in an attempt to understand and to remember

them.

More precisely, the model implies that when the readers cannot

attend to the text, then training in self-management techniques, in

cognitive strategies of focusing attention, and in rehearsal techniques

are appropriate ways to improve the learners' attention, as are appropriate goals and objectives. The model also implies that the text can

be changed to provide more interesting or more appropriate reading

materials for the learners' objectives.

When the readers attend to the text, have the appropriate focus and

knowledge, decoding skills and vocabulary, but cannot generate the

significant relations discussed in the previous section of this paper,

the, the relations should be given to the learners in verbal statements

or in pictures, diagrams, graphs, and the like. To avoid trivializing

learning, the readers should not be asked to memorize these verbal

statements nor to copy these spatial representations. The readers

should be actively engaged in testing these relations against the parts

of the text or against their knowlege and experience.

When the readers attend to the text, have the appropriate background

and knowledge, decoding skills and vocabulary, and can but do not generate

legitimate meaning for it, then teachers can question them about its

meaning; give them objectives to attain; ask them to draw pictures; make

predictions; look for main ideas, sequences, cause and effect relations;

draw inferences; infer conclusions; construct summaries; make comparisons;

16
and evaluate the significance of the text. In addition, the text can

include metaphors, similies, analogies, pictures, questions, objectives,

inferences, comments, and comparisons that do not state the relations to

be learned but that do lead to their construction by the learners.

Last of all, when the readers attend to the text, have the appropriate background knowledge, decoding skills, and vocabulary, and do

generate legitimate meaning for it, then the teacher, or the directions

in the text, can subtly suggest alternative, deep meanings that might

otherwise be omitted.

The abilities and background knowledge of the readers influence the

choice of generative activities, as this progression of teaching methods

clearly indicates. Other considerations also influence the choice and

use of generative reading tasks. First of all, the type of text or

discourse will influence the choice of generative activities. For a

technical manual, the generative activities will sometimes be different

from those chosen for an expository text. The type of comprehension of

the skills of comprehension emphasized in a given problem will also

influence the choice of generative activities.

Even more important than the choice of a generative task is the

understanding of the nature of a generative task. Almost any of the

above tasks or activities can be trivialized. Take metaphor for example.

In a well written chapter on generative metaphor, Donald Schon (1980)

shows the significance for social policy of metaphors which lead to a

new understanding of old social problems. An urban area often described

as a slum receives quite different treatment from a city government that

has learned through generative metaphor to view it as home to people

whose dislocation because of urban renewal would destroy stable social

I

relations and disrupt individuals' lives.

17

. ' o -. ' . ... -.. . . (o. . .. . . ..-... 
Not all constructions are generative for every reader. A generative

activity must lead to a new or better understood relation. When we

discuss reading comprehension, in a non-trivial sense a generative task

must also lead to the construction of a relation among the parts of the

text or between the learner's knowledge and the text.

Generative Instructional Activities

We selected several activities to teach learners, to generate

relations (1) among the parts of the text, or (2) between the text and

their knowledge. For example, headings, summaries, and objectives are

useful for teaching relations among parts of the text. But examples,

paraphrases, applications, and metaphors are useful for teaching

relations between the text and the learner's knowledge.

At a deeper level, the design of the instruction involves organizing

sequences of activities that in combination will attain the types of

comprehension and the level of retention necessary for understanding the

particular text we ask the students to read. We combined instruction in

relating the parts of the text to one another with instruction in

relating the text to practical problems that occur in their experience.

The Purpose of the Studies

In sum, the major objective of the series of three studies is to

develop, try out, compare, and evaluate different generative instructional

methods and curricula for teaching reading comprehension to marginally

literate Army enlisted personnel. Each nine hour instructional treatment employed a verLal or imagery generative teaching procedure. Some

generative treatments also taught metacognitive strategies to the

students. A control group was included in the first two studies to

compare the generative treatments to instruction provided in the regular

Army classes in basic skills.

18

,.,......_..,.,., .. ,...~~~~~~.......... .,... ,... .,.... ... .. ... . . ..... . .. ,. ., .. ,, ,
Another objective of the series of three studies was to test the

hypothesis that the generative treatments increase reading comprehension

under realistic teaching conditions in basic skills classes taught on

Army Bases. The hypothesis was tested at several Army Bases in California

and at one base in Hawaii, using intact basic skills classes. In studies

one and three Army employed BSEP (Basic Skills Education Program) teachers

provided all of the instruction in the experimental and control groups.

In study two, the instruction was presented by UCLA employees, who were

experienced reading teachers enrolled in doctoral programs in the

Graduate School of Education.

However, the central objective of the studies was not to test

hypotheses about generative teaching. It was to develop, try-out, and

evaluate, under realistic conditions, curricula and instructional procedures that teachers in military basic skills classes could use to

teach reading comprehension. The purpose of both objectives is to

improve the teaching of reading comprehension.

The three studies were preceded by a pilot study in which three

sets of curriculum materials, each providing nine hours of classroom

instruction, and one to two hours of testing, were written and used to

teach three different strategies of reading comprehension. The series

continued with the first major study, in which two more sets of nine-hour

long curriculum materials were written. They were designed to teach

verbal or imagery generative reading comprehension strategies.

In the second study of the series, three more sets of nine-hour

long curriculum materials were written. They compared a verbal

generative strategy, a metacognitive verbal strategy, and a metecognitive verbal strategy with examples.

19

'"" "'";' " '" ;'-, , ,;., ' ": , i . - ; - : . : 7: 
IN

A control group of directly comparable learners was used in the

pilot study, the first study, and the second study. In the first and

second studies, the control group received the regular reading instruction taught in the Army basic skills classes. Time to learn was held

constant across all experimental and control groups in the Pilot Study,

Study One, and Study Two.

The third and final study of the series centered on the writing,

tryout, and evaluation of a nine-hour long curriculum on reading comprehension prepared for use, and presented to the learners, in Apple II

microcomputers.

Pilot Study

Design. The participants were assigned individually at random to

three reading comprehension self-instructional treatments. The dependent

measure was a reading comprehension posttest prepared for this series of

studies. See the Appendices for a copy of the test.

Subjects. The participants were 25 Army enlisted personnel enrolled

in two BSEP classes taught at an Army Base in California.

Treatments and materials. There were three self-instructional

treatnents: verbal, metacognitive, and control.

The

first treatment instructed learners in the use of generative verbal

comprehensive strategies. The second treatment instructed learners in

the use of generative verbal comprehension strategies and metacognitive

monitoring strategies. The third treatment provided learners only with

the practice readings used in the first and second treatments. The

practice readings included technical military material from Army manuals

and excerpts from newspapers magazines, and short stories. The practice

20
readings were held constant across all three treatments, as was the

amount of time given to learn.

The Generative Verbal Strategies treatment concentrated on

instructing learners to find the main ideas and topic sentence and to

construct metaphors and analogies, sequences, hierarchy diagrams, and

summaries. The first part of the 98-page booklet included 48 pages of

instruction in the various skills. Each of the skills was taught in a

discrete unit with accompanying examples of skill application followed

by practice readings and exercises. The second part of the booklet was

composed of 50 pages of practice readings and exercises designed to

demonstrate how certain skills could be used in conjuction with others.

Instruction and practice were self-paced.

The second treatment, the Metacognitive and Generative Verbal

Strategies, involved the same instruction in skills acquisition and

utilization as the Generative Verbal Strategies treatment, but also

included training in metacognitive skills for self-monitoring procedures.

All practice readings and exercises were identical to the first treatment.

with the exception that all practice exercises also included a series of

"reading manager" questions. Because of the addition of the metacognitive

skills instructional Lnit and the expanded response categories in the

practice section, the booklet for the second treatment was 125 pages in

length.

The third treatment, the Control Treatment, which was presented in

a booklet 48-pages in length, consisted of only the readings used in the

first and second treatments. The only instructions in the booklet asked

students to read the passages.

21

.

. :* .""Z. _', " t."; ." ." .- .. ... . -.. -.. ''. . ". "" -".. . -" ." "." "- - .- ' - -.-.- ' -. .. -.. " .""- ."-". ".".
Procedures. Prior to individual random assignment of learners to

treatments, the students were given a 45-minute reading comprehension

test developed in this experiment. Questions in this test were typical

of most standardized tests of reading comprehension, involving both

literal and inferential reading comprehension multiple-choice items

based on one or two paragraph readings. A total of 36 items was used in

the test, a copy of which is in the Appendices to this report.

Immediately after the pretests, and for the eight class days

following it, students were given approximately 45 minutes per day to

work on the treatment booklet they had been assigned. Instruction by

the basic skills teachers was limited to answering questions about

procedures. Teachers were instructed not to provide instruction beyond

what was included in the booklets.

On the 10th class day, students were given a posttest, an identical

copy of the pretest, except for the addition of questions following each

reading that asked participants to record what skill(s) they used in

answering the questions. Following the adminstration of the posttest,

participants were asked to fill out a two-page questionnaire which

included questions on the difficulty level of the instruction and the

readings. The questionnaire also asked participants to evaluate their

performance and understanding of the materials. Lastly, the questionnaire asked participants to evaluate how well, or poorly, they had

learned each of the skills.

Results. The pilot study provided significant information for the

extensive revisions implemented for the first study. It was clear

through both personal interviews and the qualitative data generated in

the questionnaire that the written self-instructional format of the

22
booklets would not best serve the needs of the soldiers in the basic

skills program. Much-needed classroom interaction among learners and

between the teacher and the students was hindered by this approach. The

soldiers generally felt ineffective in their learning efforts because of

the self-instructional technique. Teachers also felt encumbered by this

change in classroom format.

Some of the soldiers found the booklets overwhelming in length,

which created initial negative feelings toward the materials. Few

participants were able to complete their treatments in the allotted

time. In addition, the reading and vocabulary levels of the treatements

were too difficult for a number of the participants.

There were mixed reactions about the relative usefulness of the

comprehension strategies. Most positive responses favored the "Topic

Sentences," "Summaries," and "Getting the Main Idea" sections, although

several soldiers commented favorably about the "Analogy and Metaphor"

strategies. Many soldiers perceived the learning of particular strategies

as informative and beneficial to their reading proficiency.

Though this small sample size did not permit the effective use of

statistical analyses, gain in comprehension occurred in some treatments.

One basic skills class showed sizable gains in both the Generative

Verbal Strategies and in the Metacognitive and Generative Verbal Strategies

treatments, while the other BSEP class showed no consistent pattern of

changes across the three treatments. The control group showed no gain

in comprehension.

23
.UStudy One

From the findings of the pilot study we made several decisons about

the design, materials, and procedures to be used in the first of three

studies on the teaching of generative reading comprehension techniques

to young adults in basic skills courses. First, we decided to retain

group instruction, with experienced and supportive basic skills teachers

instructing intact classes of learners with comparable reading abilities.

Intact groups and reading teachers provide a familiar and relatively

secure environment that enhances motivation and minimizes anxiety and

fear of failure. Intact groups and reading teachers introduce variance

across treatments that complicates data analysis. However, intact

groups and live reading teachers also add the important elements of

practical and representative actual teaching and learning environments

that exist in basic skills classes. As a result, our results gain some

utility and meaning from the natural and realistic environments used in

the study.

Second, reading materials were selected because of their utility to

the Army, interest to the participants, and because of their appropriate

reading level. Because the participants in Study One, unlike the participants in the Pilot Study, were either largely new recruits or were

people wishing to reenlist in the Army, a majority of the reading selections were taken from the recently revised Army Manual of Common Tasks.

To add variety and generality to the reading passages, the remaining

selections were taken from general references other than Army materials.

Third, the instructional materials were completely rewritten,

greatly shortened from their 98-125 page lengths, and centrally focused

upon the generative reading comprehension skills that the research

24

i-: . . .. . .. . . .
literature and the pilot study indicated held the greatest promise of

success--summaries, inferences, main ideas, and examples. The written

Instructional materials were given one lesson at a time to the participants. These brief lessons of 5-10 pages each seemed more manageable to

the soldiers than the entire 100-page books given to the learners in the

pilot study.

Design. Within the constraints of time and the number of classes

available at any one time, Intact classes were assigned, at random, to

three treatments, two experimental and one control condition.

Participants. A total of 101 participants In basic skills classes

on three Army Bases in California were included in the study. In addtion,

several participants were dropped from the data analyses because they

failed to complete the instruction, often because they were reassigned

by their commanding officers to other duty.

Treatments and materials. The instruction in all three treatments

lasted for a total of nine 45-minute class sessions. A Generative

Verbal Strategy treatment, a Generative Imagery Stratey, and a Control

condition were the three treatments used in the first study. The

Generative Verbal Strategy treatment consisted of three main sections

which taught, respectively, how to compose (1) headings and subheadings,

(2) inferences, and (3) summaries. Throughout each of the nine lessons,

the learners were required to generate these three types of verbal

elaborations for each reading passage they encountered. Group work was

included in each lesson. The basic skills teachers were free to work

with any and all students throughout each class session.

The Generative Imagery treatment consisted of the same basic set of

materials and the same general procdure. However, instead of constructing

25
;

 F.

the three types of verbal elaborations mentioned in the discussion of

the Generative Verbal treatment, the learners were asked quickly to

construct interactive "stick figures," simple diagrams, or pictures to

summarize relations across sentences and paragraphs in the text.

The Control treatment was given the same amount of time as was

given to each of the two experimental treatments. However, the BSEP

teacher of each intact Control treatment class provided her customary

BSEP reading instruction in class, without the use of any experimental

treatments or reading materials.

Procedure. Where it was possible, the experimental treatments were

assigned randomly to BSEP classes. Often it was not possible to make

random assignment of classes to treatments. The BSEP classes were each

taught by experienced Army-employed BSEP instructors. The BSEP teachers

followed the standard Army reading curriculum for the control groups.

All instruction in experimental and control groups lasted nine classroom

hours (45 minutes per hour). The high rate of military personnel mobilization often made it necessary to teach small groups, sometimes of 5 or

6 participants, in Army classes scheduled according to the needs of the

Army over an 18 month period.

For each participant, the study lasted 11 hours class consisting of

a pretest (45 minutes), instruction for nine 45 minute classroom hours,

a posttest (45 minutes), and a questionnaire (5 minutes). The pretest

consisting of 36 literal and inferential reading comprehension multiplechoice items, was adminstered by the regular basic skills instructors

before the instruction began. (See the Appendices for a copy of the

pretest.) The tests and lessons used in the study were designed to fit

into the students' normal class period. Participants were allowed

45 minutes to complete the pretest.

26
For nine consecutive class days, participants in the experimental

groups received one unit or lesson per class period. Each lesson was

taught in a 45-minute class. Each lesson consisted of a 5-10 page

booklet, teacher's comments, and brief class discussions. Based upon

preliminary findings in the pilot study that the BSEP students preferred

group to individual instruction, the BSEP teachers provided daily group

instruction and individual and group guidance as hey proceeded through

each lesson. The group work was designed to increase student motivation

and assure completion of the assignments.

The posttest was administered during the last hour of the class.

The posttest was a repeat measure of the pretest. Participants had

45 minutes to complete the posttest. After the posttest, the participants were asked to fill out a questionnaire evaluating their own

performance, and also evaluating the materials.

Results and discussion. Data were collected from a total of 101

participants, including posttest data only on 38 participants from the

Verbal Strategies and Control Groups. The posttest data from these 38

participants were not included in subsequent statistical analyses. Data

from the remaining 63 individuals were used in all statistical analyses.

As shown in Table 1, highly statistically significant gains in

reading comprehension were found within each experimental group. Test

scores for the Imagery Strategy Group improved 20.3 percent (p -. O01)

from a pretest mean of 22.2 to posttest mean of 26.7). Test scores for

the Verbal Strategy group improved by 15.6 percent (p< .01) from a

pretest mean of 20.6 to a posttest mean of 23.8. The Control Group

showed no gain from pretest to posttest.

K" 27
Table 1

- Means, Standard Deviations, and Gain Scores of the Experimental and Control Groups

Level of % of gain

Treatment Pretest Posttest Gain t significance over pretest

-Imagery 22.2 26.7 +4.5 5.8 p.<. .O01 20.3%

*Strategy (4.6) (2.7)

(N=23)

-Verbal 20.6 23.8 +3.2 3.7 p .O1 15.5%

*Strategy (5.6) (4.5)

- (N=24)

-Verbal 24.2

Strategy (4.1)

Posttest Only

- (N=)

Control

Groups

*Control 21.1 20.8 -.3 -.4 n.s. -

(N=16) (5.4) (5.4)

*Control: 18.2

Posttest Only (7.4)

(N-19)

28
These differences in gain scores between the control group, which

showed no gain, and the two experimental groups, which showed 16%-20% of

gain, indicate that the generative treatments facilitated reading comprehension as a result of the nine class hours of classroom instruction.

The gain, approximately equal to one standard deviation, is sizable,

considering the brief instructional time of nine hours, and appears to

have practical as well as statistical significance.

The instruction was provided in standard basic skills classrooms on

Army Bases. All classes were taught by basic skills reading teachers

regularly employed by the Army on these bases to teach BSEP classes,

including reading instruction. One implication of these findings is

that the generative reading comprehension instruction provided in the

two experimental treatments improves reading comprehension when used

under the actual teaching conditions found on these two Army Bases.

The data of Study One were also analyzed by two other statistical

methods. Planned comparisons tests, contrasting each of the two experimental groups with the control group, and contrasting pretest and posttest

scores within groups, provide a useful way to examine the predictions of

the generative model. The model predicts, as discussed in the introductory

section of the paper, that each generative treatment should have a mean

higher than the control group mean. Analyses of covariance of the

posttest scores of the three treatments, with the pretest score as a

covariable, provide another useful way to examine the effects of the

treatments, using gain scores.

Because several intact classes of students were involved in the

study, as an added precaution before using planned comparisons to test

mean differences in posttest scores across experimental and control

29
groups, we examined the participants' initial levels of reading ability.

Table 2 presents the Test of Adult Basic Education (TABE) vocabulary,

comprehension, and total score means of the participants In the experimental and control groups. From these data it is clear that prior to

the beginning of the study, the soldiers in the three treatment groups

exhibited similar reading ability scores. Across the treatments, the

students varied less than one grade level, on the average.

The prestest scores also show that the participants in the treatments

averaged approximately the same initial level of reading comprehension

ability. An analysis of variance of the treatments' pretest scores

revealed no statistically significant differences among the three means

(F ,60 = .5, n.s.).

As we stated earlier, the hypothesis of the study was that each

experimental treatment would produce a higher mean posttest reading

comprehension score than would the control group. Planned comparisons

were performed to test this hypothesis, using gain scores (Table 3) and

using posttest scores (Table 4). The gain scores revealed highly

statistically significant differences between each experimental group

and the control group (p<.002 for the imagery group and p-:.O06 for

the verbal group).

When posttest scores across groups are used, the difference in the

means of the Imagery grou: -.-sus the Control group (p,.001) and the

Verbal group versus the Control group (p,.0O2) are again statistically

significant at high levels.

These planned comparisons, coupled with the analysis that Indicated

the initial reafIng ability was not different across the treatment

groups, indicate again that the generative imagery and verbal treatments

each facilitated reading comprehension in this study.

30
Table 2

TABE Score Means and Standard Deviations of the Experimental

and Control Groups Prior to Treatment

TABE SCORES

Treatments Vocabulary Comprehension Total

* Imagery 8.14 9.04 8.53

Strategy (1.38) (1.23) (1.24)

(N=23)

" Verbal 8.60 8.27 8.30

Strategy (2.31) (1.75) (1.73)

(N=-24)

Control 7.76 8.31 7.99

(N=16) (1.79) (2.18) (1.90)

31

. . . . . -- ..-. . ". A d' ' ,J d "- m , : , '. . .,' , ,. - , . , ," . . .-. "."* -'
Table 3

Planned Comparisons of Treatment Groups' Gain Scores

Treatment Level of

*comparison F Value df significance

*Imagery vs Control 15.68 1,60 p < .0002

Verbal vs Control 8.07 1,60 p <.006

* Error Mean Square =14.06

32
Table 4

Planned Comparisons of Treatment Groups' Posttest Scores

Level of

Treatment 55 df F value significance

Imagery vs. Control 261.41 1 27.99 p < .00O1

Verbal vs. Control 99.69 1 10.67 p< .0018

Error mean square =9.46

33
Analyses of covariance were also completed to test the statistical

significance of the differences on the posttest across the treatments.

The pretest and TABE scores were examined as covariates that may have

affected the interpretation of the posttest data (Table 5). TABE scores

were found to have no effect on the posttest scores, while pretest

scores were found significantly to affect posttest scores.

Therefore, an analyis of covariance using the pretest as a covariate

was conducted. Homogeneity of the covariate regression slopes across

the three treatment groups was tested to determine if the ANCOVA was

justified. The interaction between the pretest and the treatment was

not significant (F2 57 = 2.97; n.s.). Hence, the slopes of the pretest

covariate are parallel in all three groups and the use of the ANCOVA is

justified.

Table 6 presents the results of the ANCOVA. Even with the effect

of the pretest parceled out of the analysis, the treatment is still

highly statistically significant (F2, 59 = 14.01; p..001).

Posttest means are shown after they have been adjusted for the

covariate (Table 7). Posttest scores of participants in the Imagery

Strategies group are the highest followed by the Verbal Strategies group

and, lastly, the Control group.

By all measures, gain scores, planned comparisons of treatments

posttest scores, and analyses of covariance, the hypothesis of the study

was supported. The experimental treatments produced a statistically

significant, and a practical, increase in reading comprehension in nine

hours of group, classroom instruction taught by Army BSEP teachers

working under realistic instructional conditions representative of basic

skills classes on Army Bases.

34

-- .. --- -w . ,, ,d . .-- .. . ' - • . - - . . ,/ / '. , . . '.-.
Table 5

Effects of Covariates on Posttest Scores

Level of

Source ss df ms F value significance

Treatment groups 330.80 2 165.40 17.59 p < .0001

Posttest scores 534.72 1 534.72 56.85 p < .0001

Vocabulary .02 1 .02 p < .966

Comprehension 14.63 1 14.63 1.56 p <.218

TABE Total 9.74 1 9.74 1.04 p c-.313

Error 526.70 56 9.4

Corrected total 141.60 62

35
Table 6

Analysis of Covariance of Posttest Scores

with Pretest Scores as the Covariate

Level of

Source si df ms F value significance

Treatment groups (adj) 261.73 2 130.87 14.01 p C .0001

Pretest (adj) 534.72 1 534.72 57.25 p < .0001

Error (adj) 551109 59 9.34

Adjusted Total 347.54 62 21.73

36
Table 7

Adjusted Means and Standard Errors of Posttest

Scores with Pretest Scores as the Covarlate

Adjusted Unadjusted

Posttest Posttest Posttest Posttest

Treatment Mean Standard Mean Standard

Error Error

Imagery 26.20 .64 26.7 .56

Verbal 24.15 .63 23.8 .84

Control 20.92 .76 20.8 1.35

37
 

77 ,

Before discussing these findings further, several correlations

between tests used in this study should be mentioned. Pretest and

posttest scores were correlated across treatments with the TABE vocabulary and comprehension scores of the participants (Table 8). Participants scores on the comprehension measure used in Study One correlated

more highly with scores from the comprehension portion of the TABE test

(rpretest = .641; rposttest = .533) than with the vocabulary portion of

the test (rpretest = .537; rposttest = .366). Correlations were also

computed between the pretest or the posttest and the workbook scores,

which measured the number of generations constructed by the learners

during the instruction. In the Imagery Group, these correlations were

.45 and .26 between the workbook scores and the pretest and the posttest, respectively. For the Verbal Strategies Group the comparable

correlations were .42 and .43, respectively, both statistically

significant (p c .05).

Pretest and posttest scores were correlated within each treatment

group. Within the three treatment groups, posttest scores correlated

highest with pretest scores in the Control Group and lowest with pretest

scores in the Imagery Group (rcontrol = .834; rverbal .687;

rimagery 578).

We also computed a path analysis to determine if the number of

written or imagery responses constructed during the instruction related

to the posttest score. Although a large sample would have given a

better test of the effect on comprehension of writing responses during

instruction, the path analysis showed no statistically significant

effect.

38
Table 8

Correlations Among Measures of Reading Ability,

Pretest, and Posttest Scores; All Treatments Combined

TABE

Vocabulary Comprehension Total Pretest Posttest

Vocabulary 1.0 --

Comprehension .637 1.00------

TABE Total .903 .894 1.00--

Pretest .537 .641. .636 1.00

Posttest .366 .533 .475 .653 1.00

N=63

S 39
In our interviews of students and teachers, we found a sentiment

against constructing pictures or Images during instruction. The soldiers

viewed the construction of images, or drawings, as something children

would be asked to do in reading classes. In addition, we have no way of

knowing how many summaries and other relations across sentences were

generated but not written. Many of the students in these classes in

this study had great difficulty writing their ideas. Writing was more

than time consuming. It was a chore.

The effective part of the instruction may be due to the construction

of relations between text and knowledge, and among different parts of

the text. However, asking marginally literate readers to write these

relations does not seem to be the best way to get them constructed.

Drawing diagrams or pictures might be a better procedure, provided the

activity can be presented as one which is appropriate for adults, and

not like that of children in reading classes. It is clear that the

participants do not regularly generate relations between text and background knowledge as they read. That activity is not part of their model

of reading comprehension.

In summary, the statistical analyses of the data clearly support

the effectiveness of the treatments. Ironically, the imagery treatment,

which produced the larger mean gain of the two treatments was not as

well liked by the soldiers as was the more conventional, in appearance

at least, verbal strategy treatment. The latter treatment was well

received by nearly all of the participants.

In either case, the treatments emphasized the generation of relations

across sentences in the text, and between the text and the reader's

knowledge and experience. Both of these activities are somewhat uncommon

40
and unexpected. Many of the students did not think of these activities

as ways to enhance reading comprehension. These eltion-building

skills can be performed or quickly learned. But they are not initially

perceived as relevant to reading comprehension.

The statistical analyses support the hypothesis of the study.

However, support for the hypothesis of the study was a secondary goal of

the project. The primary goal of the study was to prepare, test, and

evaluate a curriculum that would, in realistic learning environments,

enhance readiing comprehension in nine hours. The study succeeded in

accomplishing its primary objective.

These reading

comprehension materials contain elements that we have learned are important in teaching reading comprehension in Army basic skills classes.

First, the subject matter of the reading materials is critical. The

soldiers in this study were quick to show interest in a few subjects,

and quick to show a lack of interest in many other subjects. We found

that they preferred to read passages taken from Army manuals, provided

the soldiers were trying to remain in the Army. They also liked to read

about currently popular people in sports and in other entertainment

fields. There was a very narrow window of interest that we learned to

accommodate in our selection of reading passages.

Second, we learned in the pilot study and in the first study that

the way the passages are written and bound is critical in gaining and

holding attention. The packaging of materials in brief, daily lessons

of a few pages, rather than in one book of 50-100 pages to be used over

10 days, was a critical factor. The size or bulk of the larger package

discouraged many of the students.

41

.-.. -. . ..-.-. .--....... .-................. .. ..... .. . :.-. ... . .. . . . - . . .- .... . . . .
Third, the difficulty of the text was another important factor that

we think has been misunderstood in some earlier work with marginally

literate students. In our sets of materials we computed readability

using a standard formula. The formula was useful, but only partially

so. The qualities that made a text interesting and understandable

extended well beyond in sentence length and average number of syllables

per word. These addtional qualities included the learner's familarity

with the passages and the topics and their relevance to the soldier's

purposes in learning to read. Passages of relatively complex structure

and length can be interesting and understandable if they relate to the

learner's interest and background knowledge. Readability formulas omit

these important cognitive and affective characteristics of the relation

between readers and text.

Fourth, the self-concept of the learner is an important psychological

element in learning to read with comprehension. The reading materials

and the method of instruction should be designed to be appropriate for

young adults, their interests, and their need to retain dignity in a

situation that many easily find embarrassing. The reading materials

should deal with mature themes and topics, not simple, child-like

stories chosen to satisfy readability formulas. It is difficult, but

not impossible, to find stories and expository text that meet these

constraints, that are both interesting to young adults and written in

straightforward, familiar language they can understand.

Group instruction also contributed an important element to the

teaching. The soliders wanted to work in groups and to learn from

speaking with each other and with a teacher. In retrospect this feeling

is quite understandable. A main reason they are in the BSEP class is

42
that they have difficulty reading. They are better at learning from

conversation and from spoken language. The teacher and the class provide

these familiar and more effective means of learning. There is also a

feeling of belinging and support that comes from being one of a group of

people who face the same problem. The group interaction seemed important

in their classroom learning.

A talented and supportive teacher who understands reading comprehension, knows the soldiers' interests and self-concepts, and expresses

complicated ideas in straightforward, elegant language contributes

significantly to the learning. The students do not know or believe that

they can learn to read by reading about reading. They feel more confident

learning by listening to others. Computer-assisted instruction in

reading comprehension might also be designed with this point in mind,

using an audio component to explain some of the text, and a teacher to

provide some encouragement and discussion.

Last of all, the model of reading comprehension possessed by the

students influences their learning to read with comprehension. Comprehension involves learning strategies and generative processes that need

to be taught and learned. Reading comprehension is an active, thoughtful

process involving the generation of relations among the parts of the

text and between the text and knowledge. Many of the students we studied

viewed reading comprehension as the learning of new vocabulary words.

The teaching of reading comprehension to these students starts with

their model, which is useful as far as it goes, then leads them to

understand the critical parts of a more sophisticated and more effective

model of reading comprehension.

43

V S e * _ _ _ _ _ . . . ,_ , _ . . . . . .. .. ... ... .. . . ' ' ° '

. . -. .
V!

Stud:y Two

Design. Within reading difficulty levels, classes were assigned at

random to the four treatments. The dependent measure was a reading

comprehension posttest. The four treatments were (1) Summaries, Headings,

and Inferences, (2) Metacognitive, (3) Metcognitive + Examples, and

(4) Control. These treatments are described in the following section on

Treatments and Materials.

No Imagery treatment was included in Study Two, even though the

Imagery treatment was at least as effective as the Verbal Strategies

treatment studied in Experiment I. We deleted the Imagery treatment

because most of the soldiers in it thought that drawing simple pictures

or diagrams as they read was embarrassing and childlike, a task more

appropriate for elementary school children than for adults.

44

.. ' -..-
Participants. Twelve reading classes in the BSEP program at Sch field

Barracks, Hawaii participated in the study. A total of 149 enlisted

personnel were included in the pretest and initial instruction. A total

of 115 participants completed the instruction and posttest. Due to Army

requirements, a number of participants were ordered to other duties and

were absent for a large part of the study (two days or more). They were

deleted from the study. In addition, the Control Group was dropped from

the study because its members were Non-Commissioned Officers. None of

the experimental groups' participants were Non-Commissioned Officers.

In its place, the Control group of the first study was substituted. The

final number of participants in Study Two was 100.

Treatments and materials. Three experimental reading comprehension

strategy training treatments were used in this study, in addition to the

Control treatment. The first of the treatments, the Summaries, Headings,

and Inferences Treatment, attempted to teach three specific generative

verbal strategies--headings and subheadings (including topic sentences),

inferences, and summaries. This treatment was a revision of the Verbal

Strategies Treatment used in the first study of this series. The two

curricula are essentially identical. The second treatment, the Metacognitive Treatment, taught one unified strategy for constructing a

summary. The third treatment, the Metacognitive + Examples Treatment,

attempted to teach the same unified summary construction strategy as the

Metacognitive Treatment, but, in addition, also taught participants to

relate reading content to their past experience and their knowledge.

Procedure. The Summaries, Headings, and Inferences Treatment was

presented to participants as nine discrete lessons, averaging four pages

each in length. Learners were instructed in understanding reading as a

45

: '_ :..- . _. , • ' .....-.................. . ' ..-... '--.-... ,.......,.-.. .... ... ...
building or generative process (1 lesson), generating headings and subheadings (2 lessons), creating summaries using headings, sub-headings,

topic sentences, and main idea skills (2 lessons), generating inferences

(1 lesson), synthesizing all of the strategies in summary building

(1 lesson), and review and practical application of the skills (2 lessons).

The Metacognitive Treatment was also presented to participants in

nine discrete lessons, averaging four pages each in length. In both the

Metacognitive and the Metacognitive + Example treatments, the major

teaching emphasis was on the sequential presentation of three basic

elements in formulating a summary.

The introduction to each of the three treatments concentrated on

teaching the learner that reading is a process of building meaning by

relating sentences to one another. Unique to the Metacognitive + Examples

Treatment was the inclusion of training in the use of the learner's past

experience to facilitate reading comprehension, which was introduced in

the initial lesson and presented throughout the rest of the booklet in

all practice exercises.

The strategy training in the Metacognitive and the Metacognitive +

Examples treatments was identical. Rather than training comprehension

skills discretely and then instructing learners in how they could be

used in conjunction with one another, as was done in Summaries, Headings,

and Inferences Treatment, the two Metacognitive treatments followed a

sequential process of teaching learners summary building through a

three-question process. The second and third lessons instructed learners

in establishing "Who" or "What" a reading was about. Within the context

of these lessons, participants were taught how to identify and use a

topic sentence to answer these two questions. Lessons four and five

46
taught participants to answer the second of three questions in summary

building--"What Happened" in the reading. In conjunction with this

ability, learners were taught to identify the important parts of a

technical military reading and how to use order and sequence to build

meaning. Lesson six instructed the learners In the use of the last of

the three questions--"Why" did the events in the reading transpire and

"Why" did the author write what he did. Within this lesson the use of

inference was explained and the learners were asked to apply this skill

to answering the "Why" question. Lesson seven reviewed all of the

material that learners had been taught previously and demonstrated the

use of the three-quarters summary building technique. Lessons eight and

nine were used for practice in which learners applied the unified summary

building strategy to more difficult practice readings. Deliberate

emphasis was placed on technical military readings throughout instructional and practice lessons.

The Control Treatment subjects participated in their normal reading

classes in the BSEP program and used only the materials that are currently

in general use in that program. None of the experimental materials or

procedures were used in the Control Treatment.

Assignment to three levels of reading classes in the BSEP program

at Schofield Barracks is customarily done according to the individual's

reading level, as it is assessed through the TABE (Test of Adult Basic

Education) test. Level I classes include those participants assessed at

grade levels 5 and 6. Level II classes include participants assessed at

grade levels 7 and 8. Those learners assessed at grade level 9, or

above, are assigned to Level III classes. Because of this assignment

procedure, an unequal number of classes at each level is not uncommon.

47

" 'L~ " ''m,. m . .'': " ""•". " ' T 7 2 ' " '''''' ""•".".". .". '
At the time of this study, nearly all students were in Level II classes

or in Level III classes. Within the constraints of the teachers'

schedules, the three experimental treatments were assigned randomly to

classes within these reading levels.

Three UCLA graduate students, all experienced reading teachers,

participated in the project as the teachers of the nine experimental

treatment classes. Reading classes in the BSEP program at Schofield

Barracks met for one hour and 30 minutes on Monday, Wednesday, and

Friday, and one hour and 45 minutes on Tuesday and Thursday. Because of

economic and schedule constraints, it was decided that the entire period

would be used for five class days with two lessons being taught each of

the days.

The pretest consisted of 36 literal and inferential reading comprehension multiple-choice items. The pretest was administered by the

regular BSEP instructors the day before the instruction began. Participants were allowed 45 minutes to complete the instrument.

During the first four class days, the participants in the experimental groups received two lessons per class period. Each lesson was

taught in approximately 50 minutes. Participants were given a small

break between lessons. On the fifth class day, the ninth lesson was

taught during the first half of the class and the posttest was administered

during the second half of the class period. The posttest was a repeat

measure of the pretest. Participants had 45 minutes to complete the

instrument. Following the posttest the participants were asked to fill

out a questionnaire evaluating their performance and the materials.

Results and discussion. The data were analyzed by the same

statistical methods used in Study One. That is, experimental and control

48

"-?'-Z-"-., -? .; .?. .,. ii....-..-"-.......-.-..-.,-....-.............-.........-.-...,'.....-.........-..-...................- .. .,.'
groups' posttest scores were compared by analyses of covariance and by

planned comparisons tests. In addition, gain scores, from pretest to

posttest, were analyzed. Means and standard deviations of the variables,

as well as correlations among the major variables, were also computed.

For two reasons, participants with high TABE scores (10.0 or above)

or high pretest scores (27 or above, i.e., 75% of the possible score)

were not. analyzed. The first reason is to make the data more directly

comparable to the data of the first study. The second, closely related

reason was that the participants at Schofield Barracks fell largely into

the third or highest reading ability level. Because we want to develop

materials that are effective with lower and middle ability levels, our

tests were written accordingly. Participants who score 75% or better on

the pretest are not highly appropriate for our materials and our purposes,

and do not give them an adequate test.

Statistically significant gains in reading comprehension from

pretest to posttest were found for each one of the three experimental

treatments (see Table 1). Posttest scores improved by 19.6% for the

Summaries, Headings, and Inferences Strategy Group (p < .0001), 12.7%

for the Metacognitive Group (p < .001), and 22.9% for the Metacognitive

+ Examples Group (p < .0001). The Control Group showed no gain.

Table 2 presents the Test of Adult Basic Education (TABE) score

means and standard deviations for each treatment group. These data show

that, prior to the onset of the study, individuals in the experimental

and control groups all scored near the 8th grade level in reading ability.

An analysis of variance also revealed no statistically significant

differences among participants of different treatment groups based upon

their pretest scores (F 2 2.27, n.s.). This finding implies that the

49
Table 9

Means, Standard Deviations, and Gain Scores

of the Experimental and Control Groups

Level of % of gain

Treatment Pretest Posttest Gain t significance over pretest

* Summaries,

Headings, and

Inferences 18.9 22.6 +3.7 5.9 p c.0001 19.6%

-Strategy (4.1) (3.9)

(N4=29)

Metacognitive 20.5 23.1 +2.6 4.2 p< .001 12.7%

*Strategy (3.6) (4.2)

* (N=26)

* Metacognitive

+ Examples 17.9 22.1 +4.1 6.7 p< .0001 22.9%

*Strategy (5.7) (4.6)

* (N=29)

*Control 21.1 20.8 -. 3 .4 n.s. -

Group (5.4) (5.4)

(W416)

50
Table 10

TABE Score Means and Standard Deviations of the Experimental

and Control Groups Prior to Treatment

TABE SCORES

Treatment Vocabulary Comprehension Total

Summaries,

Headings, and

Inferences 7.86 8.20 7.99

Strategy (1.82) (1.53) (1.50)

(N=29)

- Metacognitive 7.86 8.03 7.93

Strategy (1.19) (1.33) (0.96)

i (N=-26)

Metacognitive

4 Examples 7.87 7.54 7.63

Strategy (1.81) (1.69) (1.56)

(N=29)

Control 7.76 8.31 7.99

Group (1.79) (2.18) (1.90)

(N=16)

51

K

-... -,, .. . . - . ,. . . , ,- . , .- . . .. . , . , , . . .. . . , , . . . . . . . _.. . .
groups were comparable to one another in reading comprehension ability

when the study began.

Planned comparisons among treatment groups were conducted using

gain scores (Table 3) and also with posttest scores (Table 4). Both

sets of statistical comparisons indicated that each experimental treatment group statistically significantly outperformed the control group.

In the gain score analysis, Table 3, the Summaries, Headings, and

Inferences, Metacognitive, and Metacognitive + Examples groups each

produced a mean higher than the mean of the Control Group (p< .0001,

p e .006, and p < .0001, respectively).

In the posttest scores analysis, the means of the Summaries,

Headings, and Inferences, Metacognitive, and Metacognitive + Examples

groups were each statistically significantly greater than the mean of

the Control Group (p < .0002, p c .003, and p -c.0001, respectively).

Analyses of covariance were used to compare posttest score differences across the experimental and control groups. The pretest and TABE

scores were used as covariates to determine if differences among them

across treatments may have had some effect on the posttest scores. As

Table 5 indicates, only the vocabulary portion of the TABE test and the

pretest score significantly affected the posttest scores (p < .05 and

p < .0001, respectively). Therefore, an analysis of covariance using

the pretest and vocabulary scores as covariates was conducted.

Homogeneity of the slopes for both covariates across the three

treatment groups was tested to determine if the ANCOVA was justified.

The interaction between the pretest and the treatment was not significant

(F3,8 = .60, n.s.). Similarly, the interaction between the vocabulary

scores and the treatment was not significant (F3 = .37, n.s.).

52
Table 11

Planned Comparisons of Treatment Groups' Gain Scores

Treatment Level of

comparison F Value df significance

Summaries, Headings, and

Inferences vs Control 15.74 1,96 p < .0001

Metacognitive vs Control 7.88 1,96 p - .006

Metacognitive * Example

vs Control 19.46 1,96 p C .0001

Summaries, Headings, and

Inferences vs Metacognitive 1.62 1,96 p < .206

* Summaries, Headings,

and Inferences vs

Metacognitive + Examples 0.28 1,96 p < .599

*. Metacognitive vs

Metacognitive + Examples 3.18 1,96 p c .078

Error Mean Square = 10.49

53

"..............

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

.. . ..--. .-" ,, ..... .- •. " ...-. - .- .... -. . .- -. ,.. . .- ....-. ...--.. --. ... .. '.. .... .-.-... . . ,... .. " .- .
Fil !!F 1 !- 1 !111!4. 111"-

Table 12

Planned Comparisons of Treatment Groups' Posttest Scores

Level of

*Treatment ss df F value significance

Summaries, Headings, and

Inferences vs Control 125.73 1 14.97 p < .0002

Metacognitive vs Control 77.45 1 9.22 p < .003

* Metacognitive + Example

vs Control 138.46 1 16.49 p < .0001

Summaries, Headings,

and Inferences vs

Metacognitive 7.53 1 .90 p < .346

Summaries, Headings, and

Inferences vs Metacognitive + Examples 0.79 1 .09 p <:. 760

Metacognitive vs Metacognitive + Examples 12.56 1 1.50 p 4Z .224

Error mean square =8.39

S 54
Table 13

Effects of Covariates on Posttest Scores

Level of

Source ss df ms F value significance

Treatment groups 56.60 3 18.86 2.23 p < .088

Pretest 1076.28 1 1076.28 127.18 p C .0001

Vocabulary 40.47 1 40.47 4.78 p -.031

Comprehension 10.60 1 10.60 1.25 p < .266

TABE Total 0.05 1 0.055 0.1p < .936

Error 778.58 92 8.46

Corrected Total 1962.58 99

S 55
Hence, the slopes of both covariates are parallel in all three treatment

groups and the use of the ANCOVA is probably justified.

The results of the ANCOVA are shown in Table 6. Even when both

covariates are considered in the analysis, the treatment is still significant (F3, 94 = 6.34, p<.0007). The means of the posttest scores

for each group are shown after they have been adjusted for both covariates

(see Table 7). The sequence of treatment effectiveness when unadjusted

means are used (Metacognitive> Summaries, Headings, and Inferences- Metacognitive + Examples > Control) changes once the means have been adjusted

for the covariates (Metacognitive + Examples> Summaries, Headings, and

Inferences> Metacognitive> Control), but the Control Group mean still

remains well below all of the experimental groups' means, which differ

only slightly among themselves.

Pretest and posttest scores were correlated with the TABE vocabulary

and comprehension scores of the participants (see Table 8) to determine

the relationships between these two TABE Measures and the comprehension

test we developed and used in this study. Participant scores on the

comprehension measure used in Study Two were found to correlate somewhat

more highly with scores from the comprehension portion of the TABE test

(rpretes t = 444; rposttest = 353) than with the vocabulary portion of

the TABE test (rpretest = .357; rposttest = .128). These data indicate

that all these tests are measuring different achievements, but that the

gains probably were occurring in reading comprehension rather than in

vocabulary or some other related reading ability or process.

Correlations between ihe pretest scores or the posttest scores and

the number of generations constructed in the instruction (the workbook

score) were also computed. The Metacognitive + Examples Group workbook

56

......................... ,...' -' .'
Table 14

Analysis of Covariance of Posttest Scores

with Pretest and Vocabulary Scores as Covarlates

Level of

Source 55 df ms F value significance

Treatment groups 159.65 3 53.22 6.34 p C .0007

Pretest 1047.66 1 1047.66 124.78 p r-..OO0

Vocabulary 40.47 1 40.47 4.82 p c.030

Error 789.24 94 8.40

Adjusted Total 2037.02 99 20.57

57
Table 15

Adjusted Means and Standard Errors for Posttest

Scores with Pretest and Vocabulary Scores as Covariates

Adjusted Unadjusted

Posttest Posttest Posttest Posttest

*Treatment Mean Standard Mean Standard

Error Error

* Summaries,

Headings, and

Inferences

Strategy 22.98 .539 -22.59 .73

(N =29)

* Metacognitive

Strategy 22.24 .573 23.12 .82

(N =26)

L Metacognitive

+ Examples

Strategy 23.22 .548 22.07 .86

(N 29)

pControl 19.44 .736 20.81 1.34

(N--16)

* 58
Table 16

Correlations among Measures of Reading Ability Scores,

Pretest, and Posttest Scores; All Treatments Combined

TABE

Vocabulary Comprehension Total Pretest Posttest

Vocabulary 1.0--------

-Comprehension .462 1.0----

*TABE Total .860 .819 1.0

*Pretest .357 .444 .445 1.0

Posttest .128 .353 .2S5 .730 1.0

N--83

59
score correlated .32 and .37 with the pretest and posttest scores,

respectively. The comparable correlations for the Metacognitive Group

were .42 and .20, and for the Summaries, Headings, and Inferences Group

the correlations were near zero (-.12 and -.08). Apparently re'ations

more closely associated with comprehension were constructed in the two

Metacognitive Groups than in the Headings, Summaries, and Inferences

Group. Correlations between the pretest and the posttest were also

computed. They were .64, .69, .82, and .83 for the Summaries, Headings,

and Inferences Group, the Metacognitive Group, the Metacognitive *

Examples Group, and the Control Group, respectively.

An analysis of the means of the questionnaire items indicated

complex findings, still being explored, and difficult to summarize. Few

statistically significant mean differences occurred across groups. All

groups felt that the instructional materials were neither difficult nor

easy, but that the vocabulary of the reading passages was difficult.

The groups felt that they learned metaphors, analogies, hierarchies, and

images better than they learned main ideas and summaries. All groups

liked the instruction and the materials, as measured by their responses

to a questionnaire. On a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 indicating "liked very

much" and 1 indicating "disliked very much," the Summaries, Headings,

and Inferences Group, Metacognitive Group, and Metacognitive + Examples

Group means were 4.3, 4.2, and 4.1, respectively.

In sum, the results of the second study support the findings of the

first study, with the best treatment, the Metacognitive + Examples

Treatment, producing approximately a 23% gain in reading comprehension

after nine hours (450 minutes) of instruction. The results support the

findings of Study One in another way as well. The Summaries, Headings, and

60
Inferences Treatment, which was a revision of the Verbal Strategies

Treatment of Study One, produced a posttest score of 22.6 and a gain of

20%. In Study One, the comparable Verbal Strategies Group produced a

posttest score of 23.8 and a gain of 16%. The revised Verbal Strategies

Treatment was included in Study Two because it was effective and well

liked by the soldiers in Study One, and because it would provide a

useful way to compare the effectiveness of the newly developed Metacognitive Treatments presented in Study Two.

These two Metacognitive Treatments contained elements that the

soldiers found different and sometimes puzzling. They apparently were

not accustomed to using learning strategies as they read, to being a

reading manager, to generating relations between parts of the text, and

to generating relations between the text and their knowledge. However,

with these learning strategies, the soldiers in the experimental treatments sizably improved their reading comprehension, especially in the

Metacognitive + Examples Treatment. In this treatment, the participants

were required to generate and to write relations between knowledge,

experience, and text. Their scores also improved, although we cannot be

certain that the written generations mediated their improvement. From

informal conversations with the BSEP teachers and with some of the

participants, it is obvious that they find writing sentences to be

difficult and time consuming. They are usually not proficient spellers

or good at composition. As a result, the treatments might lead them to

generate relations which they cannot or do not write. This possibility

is only a hypothesis for future study.

Nonetheless, the implication is that asking poor writers to compose

and to write relations is only one way to get them to generate meaning

61

.... ......... . . ...... ......
-u-u--

for text. We should try to find other, and perhaps better, ways to get

active generation of meaning, such as by saying the words, or perhaps by

use of constructed diagrams and simple pictures, such as were used in

* Study One with success. The generation of representations of relations

between text and experience seems to be an important learning strategy

in reading comprehension. The learners construction of overt representations of these relations is one effective but uncommon and somewhat

difficult way to build them. Its effectiveness implies that the learners

do not often spontaneously generate these relations and that instruction

can and does facilitate their construction.

The most encouraging results of Study Two are that with another

population of soldiers, this time at Schofield Barracks, analyses of

gain scores within treatments, differences in mean posttest scores

between all experimental groups and the control groups, including analyses

of covariance, without exception indicated support for the model of

generative learning, and for the finding that reading comprehension can

be sizably increased in a relatively short period of time.

It is also encouraging to find that these effects occurred in

realistic, actual classroom environments found at Schofield Barracks,

with their population of Basic Skills Students learning with paper and

pencil, and with inexpensive text materials. These learning effects

occurred with materials that contained a high percentage of reading

passages taken from Army manuals, along with a number of reading selections chosen from popular magazines and books. Although the expense,

time, and problems of control of applied research are formidable and

,K often lead to "no significant" results, the value of applied research

62

S ... -y .,. . -", -, .. , . - . .- ,-. . . . .. -, : -. - ... .-. .. .. . . -, .. . . - . ,. . . . .- ..
7 -7 1, 

-that does produce useful findings includes its utility and relevance to

the societal and practical problem it addressed, in this case the

improvem2nt of reading comprehension among soldiers enrolled in BSEP

classes taught on Army bases.

Study Three

In the Pilot Study, Study One, and Study Two our purpose was to

write experimental and control learning strategy curricula to test the

comparative effectiveness of generative processing of relations among

the parts of the text and between the text and knowledge. In the Pilot

Study, Study One, and Study Two we wrote and compared with one another a

total of eight different sets of curriculum materials, totaling about

500 pages. Each curriculum represented a different learning strategy

for improving reading comprehension.

In Study Three our major objective was not to compare different

curricula and learning strategies with one another. Instead, our major

objective was to prepare, revise, try-out, and evaluate, again in a

realistic military teaching environment, a reading comprehension

6

63

;I l' , , - ,, i M l d . i . , " , '" . .••".•"-* , ."."• • "- - •- '
- curriculum developed especially for use in microcomputers. Based on our

findings in the Pilot Study, Study One, and Study Two, we chose to

develop for microcomputer use the Metacognitive + Examples curriculum.

It was chosen because in Study Two it produced a high gain and was well

liked by the soldiers.

Design. A one-treatment, pretest, instruction, and posttest design

was used. Two samples of learners, one from Forz Ord and one from

Fort Irwin, were involved in the study. As in the earlier studies, TABE

(Test of Adult Basic Education) vocabulary, comprehension, and total

reading scores were obtained for the learners.

Participants. A total of 41 participants were included in the

- original sample, 25 from Fort Ord and 16 from Fort Irwin. The sample

from Fort Irwin represented a more advanced group of readers than did

the sample from Fort Ord, a basic training base. To make the samples

more comparable with each other, we deleted from the groups all soldiers

with TABE scores at or above the 10th grade level or with pretest scores

of 27 (75% correct) or better. As a result, data from 8 of the Fort

Irwin soldiers and 3 of the Fort Ord soldiers were dropped fror. the

study, leaving data from a total of 30 participants in the analyses.

Materials. Over a period of several months, averaging about

400 man hours per hour of curriculum materials, the text and the graphics

needed to adapt the Metacognitive + Examples curriculum for a microcomputer, the Apple II+ or the Apple lie, were prepared, revised, and

put onto discs. The Apple Superpilot Authoring Program was used to

prepare the materials and the discs.

64

" o%~..-.o'..'...o.........-,...-_............ .... .--- . . ....
In addition to the program, a 19-page Teacher's Manual was prepared

to accompany the microcomputer-assisted instruction. This teacher's

manual is also included in the appendices. The manual explains the

basic principles of generative learning involved in the materials, the

function of each of the nine daily exercises, and the use of a good

summary. The Teacher's Manual presents a day-to-day procedure for the

teacher to follow throughout the nine periods of instruction. Each

reading passage is presented along with a summary of the learners'

text, and with suggestions about teaching the points involved in each

exercise.

Based on our work with marginally 'literate soldiers in the earlier

studies of this project, we felt it critical that the soldiers engage

daily in learning from a teacher as well as in daily group discussions.

For this reason, each exercise begins with brief direct teaching of

the principles to be learned that day or hour. Each exercise concludes

with a brief group discussion and teacher summary of the points in the

exercise. For further detail please see the Teacher's Manual in the

appendices.

A Student Workbook, 11 pages long, was also prepared for use in

class. The workbook includes spaces for the learners to write their

summaries and related sentences evidencing the relations they constructed

between the text and knowledge, and among the parts of the text.

Procedure. The author visited Fort Ord and Fort Irwin and demonstrated the microcomputer-based learning strategies curriculum to the

Education Services Officers and to the BSEP Coordinators and teachers.

At both bases, these people liked the materials and approved their use

65
in their BSEP classes. To enable the Apple II+ microcomputers at these

two bases to use the UCLA reading comprehension curriculum, the author

purchased with project funds and installed at Fort Ord and Fort Irwin

16K memory cards in each of their machines. The reading comprehension

curriculum requires 64K of memory. Without the memory boards the

Apple II+ has only 48K of memory.

On the first day of instruction, each participant was given the

pretest, which lasted 45 minutes. On subsequent days the nine instructional exercises were presented. On the last day of the study, the

posttest was given, again with 45 minutes allotted for its completion,

followed by 10 minutes to answer the questionnaire. The posttest, which

was identical to the pretest, along with the questionnaire, appear in

the appendices. Both of them are identical to the test and questionnaire

used in the earlier studies in this series.

Results and discussion. Table 1 presents the mean pretest, posttest, and gain scores. The soldiers at Fort Irwin showed large gains,

4.2 points or 22% from the pretest score of 19.4 to the posttest score

of 23.6. This statistically significant gain (p < .01) compares

favorably with the gain shown in Study Two with the Metacognitive +

Examples Strategy, which was approximately 23% at Schofield Barracks

using written rather than microcomputer materials. However, at Fort

Ord, the gain, although still statistically significant, was lower, 1.4

points, than was the gain at Fort Irwin. We do no know what produced

these differences in gains at these two bases.

Table 2 presents the means and standard deviations of the TABE

vocabulary, comprehension, and total reading scores of the soldiers at

Fort Irwin and at Fort Ord. These means and standard deviations show

S66

% . ' ", .,.. .- . . . . . . . . . . . . . , . "o ....- . " ° ".. . • - . - . " -. ' . ° . . . .
Table 17

Means, Standard Deviations, and Gain Scores of the Experimental Groups

Level of % of gain

-Army Base Pretest Posttest Gain t significance over pretest

*Fort Irwin 19.38 23.63 4.25 4.7 < .005 21.9%

* (P=8)(6.57) (5.15)

*Fort Ord 19.36 20.77 1.41 2.2 .025 6.8%

(N-=22) (3.46) (2.83)

S 67
Table 18

TABE Score Means and Standard Deviations of the

Experimental Groups Prior to Treatment

TABE SCORES

*Army Base Vocabulary Comprehension Total Reading

Fort Irwin 7.7 7.8 7.7

* (N) (.2)(1.3) (1.1)

Fort Ord 7.6 7.2 7.4

(W=22) (1)(1.1) (0.8)

L 68
that the two groups of participants in this study were closely comparable

to each other in each of the three measures of reading ability.

An analysis of the types of responses, verbatim versus relational,

made on the worksheets during instruction, indicates that both groups

made a preponderance of verbatim responses. They made few relational

responses, which according to the model of generative learning are

important for enhancing reading comprehension. This finding might

explain the lowered gain in the Fort Ord group, but it does not explain

the high gain in the Fort Irwin group.

S

The questionnaire data showed informative findings. Nearly all

questions about the materials, the instruction, the vocabulary, the

stories, and the reading skills (main idea, topic sentences, images,

metaphors, hierarchies, order and sequence, and summaries) were answered

more favorably by both the Fort Irwin and the Fort Ord populations than

were answered favorably by the soldiers in Study Two at Schofield Barracks.

On a scale of I to 5, with I being either "always easy," "always interesting," or "I learned all of it," and 5 being the opposite of "always

difficult," etc., all group means for the Fort Ord group were between

1.3 and 2.2. The Fort Irwin group means ranged between 1.3 and 3.0,

averaging about I point higher (less positive) than the Fort Ord group.

When asked about how well they learned metacognitive processes

(e.g., learning to act as a reading manager), the Fort Ord group mean

was 1.4 and the Fort Irwin mean was 1.3. Both groups felt they learned

to manage reading quite well.

The ironic part of these ratings of the materials, the instruction,

and their learning is that the group, Fort Irwin, that showed the greater

gain also had the lower self-ratings and ratings of the materials.

69

-A.*
Feelings of success at learning and performances on posttests of comprehension were not always positively correlated with each other. Perhaps

the learners at Fort Ord, who made many verbatim responses and still

received immediate feedback from the microcomputer, avoided generating

the relational responses but still felt that they were learning.

Perhaps the novelty of the microcomputer produced a positive feeling

about the instruction that influenced the ratings of the class. A

difference in attitudes toward the teachers at these two Army bases

might also have affected the ratings. In any case, the ratings seem to

be measuring results other than learning to read with comprehension.

From the highly positive, unsolicited comments of the teachers and

the students, especially at Fort Ord, it is clear to us that the microcomputer-based instruction was most well received, sustained interest

over the two weeks of instruction, and was very well liked by the soldiers

in it. The BSEP teacher at Fort Ord reported that several soldiers in

the microcomputer class did not want to stop the instruction after the

two hour classes were completed. They preferred to stay at the microcomputer to study reading rather than go to their next BSEP class.

Perhaps it was the novelty of the microcomputer that produced this

* -sustained interest at Fort Ord. However, the microcomputer-based

curriculum at Fort Irwin produced a sizable gain in reading comprehension, nearly identical in size to thet obtained with the comparable

written materials used in Study Two with comparable ability BSEP

students. But at Fort Irwin the soldiers' ratings of their learning

were somewhat (about one point) lower than the ratings of the soldiers

at Fort Ord.

70

,., ..... !!1. 
One of the interesting and important findings comes from the record

of time to learn maintained by the BSEP teacher at Fort Irwin. The

average time in minutes per lesson required by the students in her class

in Study Three are as follows, for lessons one through nine respectively:

29, 14, 26, 30, 41, 34, 19, 38, and 19. The total average time to learn

the nine lessons was 250 minutes, or 4.16 hours. That is, the use of

the microcomputer at Fort Irwin reduced the total time to learn from

approximately 435 minutes in Study Two and 450 minutes in Study One

(nine 50-minute hours) to 251 minutes, for a saving of 199 minutes or

almost exactly four of the nine 50-minute class hours used in Study One.

In percentage terms, the written materials curriculum added about 80%

(199 251) to the time needed by the microcomputer-assisted instruction

to obtain the same gain in reading comprehension! Stated the other way

around, the microcomputer-assisted instruction used only 55% of the time

needed by the written materials to obtain the same gain, for a savings

of 45%.

The microcomputer-assisted instruction also introduced major changes

in the motivation of the learners, in the amount they learned, as well

as in the time it took them to learn. The relations among these major

changes are not yet well understood, nor are they always positive, as

we found at Fort Ord where the gain scores were lower than those we

obtained with written materials in Study Two. But from our study at

Fort Ord and Fort Irwin, it is clear that over the short term, the

microcomputer-assisted instruction enhanced motivation, interest, and

perseverance. It is also clear that at Fort Irwin the microcomputerassisted instruction can produce the large gains in comprehension

occurring in Studies One and Two, and can greatly reduce the time needed

71

7 . ,1
to obtain the same sizable amount of gain shown in these two earlier

studies.

These results have implications for classroom usage of microcomputer-based instruction. They also deserve further study.

One other finding, not apparent in the summary tables or the

statistical reports, deserves mention. The gain scores of the learners

in this study showed large individual differences. Some learners showed

small or no gains in reading comprehension while other learners showed

large gains in reading comprehension. The average gain score blurs

these important individual differences in achievement that frequently

occur in training studies such as this one. These individual differences

in achievement deserve further study. No one method of instruction

seems best for all students, who respond differently to different

curricula and types of instruction.

In sum, in Study Three we found that the microcomputer-based reading

comprehension curricula used by experienced and competent BSEP teachers

also produced statistically significant gains in reading comprehension

at both bases we studied, Fort Ord and Fort Irwin. The gain in reading

comprehension was much larger at one Army base than at the other. In

addition, the use of the microcomputer-based instruction, along with the

BSEP teachers, reduced the time needed to learn by about 45%, from about

nine class hours to about five class hours, which represents a considerable savings of instructor and student time, as well as cost to the

Army.

72

o.' .
References

Bull, B. L., & Wittrock, M. C. (1973). Imagery in the learning of

verbal definitions. British Journal of Educational Psycholog, 43,

289-293.

Dee-Lucas, D., & DiVesta, F. J. (1980). Learner generated organizational

aids: Effects on learning from text. Journal of Educational Psychology,

72, 304-311.

Doctorow, M. J., Wittrock, M. C., & Marks, C. B. (1978). Generative

processes in reading comprehension. Journal of Educational Psychology,

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Graf, P. (1980). Two consequences of generating: Increased inter- and

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Flower, L., & Hayes, J. R. (1980). The cognition of discovery: Defining

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Jacoby, L. L. (1978). On interpreting the effects of repetition:

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Hayes, J. R., & Flower, L. S. Writing as problem solving. Paper read

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Levin, J. R. (1981). On functions of pictures in prose. In F. J. Pirozzolo

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Linden, M. A., & Wittrock, M. C. (1981). The teaching of reading

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Marks, C. B., Doctorow, M. J., & Wittrock, M. C. (1974). Word

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McFarland, C. E., Jr., Frey, J. J., & Rhodes, D. 0. (1980). Retrieval

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Peper, J. J., & Meyer, R. E. (1978). Note taking as a generative

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Pirozzolo, F. J., & Wittrock, M. C. (1981). Neuropsychological and

cognitive processes of reading. New York: Academic Press.

Pressley, M., Levin, J. R. (1983a). Cognitive strategy research:

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In A. Ortony (Ed.), Metaphor and thought. Cambridge, England:

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Slamecka, N. J., & Graf, P. (1978). The generation effect: Delineation

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Stein, B. S., & Bransford, J. D. (1979). Constraints on effective

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7

:- 74

- , , : % ' : "",. '- , " _ . , ", " -' . ', . ".. .' - '. ' - ' - "- - ' . -' ''.-," .-. ' . . . "'..' ." , -, * - -. '- , ," . -.
Stein, B. S., Morris, D. D., & Bransford, J. D. (1978). Constraints on

effective elaboration. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior,

17, 707-714.

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Wittrock, M. C. (1978). Developmental processes in learning from

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Wittrock, M. C., & Carter, J. (1975). Generative processing of hierarchically organized words. American Journal of Psychology, 88,

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Wittrock, M. C., & Goldberg, S. M. (1975). Imagery and meaningfulness

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75
7 

. . 

 

. . 

Page 76, blank
Append ix A

READING COMPREHENSION EXAMINATION

A- 77
Page A-78, blank
NAME:

SOCIAL SECURITY #:

READING COMPREHENSION

EXAM

Directions: Read each story. Read and answer each question that

follows each of the stories. Choose the correct answer and mark the

spot on the answer sheet that corresponds to the answer you have

chosen.

A commercial fisherman in California now has one of the

flashiest boats on the sea. A judge ordered him to paint it a

bright color as part of a sentence for illegally taking 110

abalone off Saddle Point in Mendocino County. The 18-foot craft

had been painted battleship gray, a color that had enabled the

poacher to slip past wardens in fog or darkness.

Now the boat won't be so easy to hide; it's painted

international orange with red lightning bolts.

1. The judge ordered the abalone fisherman to paint his boat

because--

1. He felt that riding around in a bright-colored boat would

be an embarrassing punishment.

2. He knew that it would be hard for the man to avoid

detection by law enforcement officers.

3. The boat needed to be brightly painted to catch more

abalone.

4. Apparently, it's the law in Mendocino County that boats

be brightly painted.

2. In this story, the word *poacher" means--

1. A commercial fisherman.

2. A sailor who can navigate in the fog and darkness.

3. Someone who loves bright colors.

4. Someone who fishes illegally.

What skill, or skills, did you use to answer the questions above?

A-79
CHICAGO 16 -- There really is one good song on this album.

Unfortunately, it's not the single, "Hard to Say I'm Sorry," which

sounds like "If You Leave Me Now," "Baby, What A Big Surprise," "Just

You and Me," and about 12 other Chicago songs we've all grown to hum

and hate. No, the hot one is "Chains," a semi-tough un-horny song

written by Ian Thomas who, it turns out, was not just a figment of Bod

and Doug McKenzie's suds-soaked imagination. Everything else on the

record is the usual Chicago air balls from the free-throw line; now

that they've added no-longer-a-Son Bill Champlin to the fold, maybe

they'll metamorphose into Illinois Speed Press before their twentieth

birthday. Sleeve credits of the year--"Lyrical assistance on 'What

Can I Say' by Dave Richardson." No songwriting royalties, mind you,

but a nice thank you note is in the mail.

3. The record reviewer--

I. Liked all the songs on the record.

2. Liked none of the songs on this particular record.

3. Liked one of the songs on this particular record.

4. Doesn't care for the songs of Ian Thomas.

4. When the record reviewer doesn't like a song, he is likely to

describe it as--

1. Semi-tough and un-horny.

2. An air ball from the free-throw line.

3. A figment of the suds-soaked imagination.

4. A hot one.

5. In the record review story--

1. There is one main idea and a lesser idea.

2. There are three main ideas.

3. There are no main ideas in the story, but several minor

ideas.

4. There is a topic sentence, but no main idea.

What skill, or skills, did you use to answer the questions above?

Two specifications you should know about before you purchase

your large screen television are light output and viewing angle. The

light output is measured in footlamberts. This spec isn't an

indication of how much light the projector prod' ces, but of how much

light actually reaches you from the screen in a true room

environment. As you might expect, the larger the screen, the smaller

the footlambert figure. If you have to decide between two similar

LSTs, choose the one with the higher footlambert rating. Most 4-foot

units (50 inches) have a figure of 120 footlamberts. The 6-foot LSTs

A-80

... .....-.......... ,.-...'...-.'.................... - .............. ....... .
range from 50 to 80 footlamberts. Believe it or not, this is quite

brighti most screens in movie theatres reflect only about 14 to 16

foot lamberts.

6. The main idea of this story-

*1. Concerns the importance of reflected brightness in a LST.

2. Is the explanation of footlamberts and viewing angle.

3. Centers on the differences between 4-foot and 6-foot

LSTs.

4. Is to get you to buy a LST.

7. A footlambert--

1. Tells us how much light the projector actually produces.

2. Is a way of comparing 4- and 6-foot LSTs.

3. Is a measure of how much light actually gets reflected

from the screen.

4. is a way of telling how large a screen may be when the

specs aren't given.

8. In a hierarchy diagram, if we were to put the more important

idea first, and the less important idea following it, which

of the following would be correct?

1. Movie theater screens reflect about 14 to 16

footlamberts.. light output is measured in footlamberts.

2. Four foot units usually reflect 120 footlamberts...you

should make your decision based on light output and

viewing angle.

3. Light output is measured in footlamberts...light that

actually reaches you from the screen.

4. The larger the screen...haa to do with light output and

viewing angle.

What skill, or skills, did you use to answer the questions above?

In the past 20 years, many pieces of equipment have helped

baseball's superstars in the on-deck circle. Former catcher for the

New York Yankees, Elston Howard, invented the leaded doughnut. Now a

common feature in major league ball parks, the doughnut is a heavily

weighted circle of metal that is slipped around the thicker end of the

player's regular bat. A bat with the doughnut helps the player

develop a powerful swing as well as a strengthened grip. By simply

tapping the bat handle on the ground, the doughnut slips off, allowing

the batter to use his regular bat at the plate.

9. Elston Howard was a catcher for the--

1. Chicago White Sox.

2. New York Yankees.

3. St. Louis Cardinals.

4. San Francisco Giants.

A-81 k . -- . o - - o " . .. , . .o' . - o ' , - . . . - o - . . . . .

.t -' , " " "I " " - ", " ", ' "__'.'.'. 3 _- ' -. - " .' - '. '. '. - . -' -', '. . ." .'
_ _ p

10. The doughnut in this story is helpful to the players

because--

1. Its added weight on the bat helps develop strength.

2. It slips off easily when the player goes to the batter's

box.

3. The players can eat them if they get hungry.

4. It usually results in the players' becoming superstars.

11. The inside radius of the leaded doughnut must be--

1. At least as big as the large end of the bat.

2. Smaller than the narrow end of the player's bat.

3. Padded in order to protect the player's bat from knicks

and scratches.

4. Large enough to fit over the small end of the bat but

small enough not to slip off the large end of the bat.

What skill, or skills, did you use to answer the questions above?

on a bitter cold day in Winnipeg, November 14, Blue Bombers'

quarterback Dieter Brock threw for 255 yards and two touchdowns as

Winnipeg dominated Calgary, 24-3. The victory sends the Bombers to

Edmonton November 21 for the Western Division showdown that will

decide the division's Grey Cup representative. Both head coaches, Ray

Jauch of Winnipeg and Hugh Campbell of Edmonton will leave the CFL for

USFL coaching jobs after their final game. Winnipeg's placekicker,

Revor Kennerd, accounted for 10 of the Bombers' points.

12. The coach of the Edmonton team is--

1. Revor Kennerd

2. Ray Jauch

3. Dieter Brock

4. Hugh Campbell

13. The main idea of the story is--

1. Winnipeg defeated Calgaey and now faces Edmonton in a

playoff game.

2. Ray Jauch and Hugh Campbell are more interested in

playing in the USFL.

3. Placekicking will play an important role in the final

game between Calgary and Winnipeg.

4. Touchdowns are easier to throw in cold weather than in

warm weather.

0 A-82

:. : -.", .-..... .. -. $'i..'- -.-- ....-..- . .... ........... ]'-. ....... ...... . .. .
fN

14. According to the story--

1. The winner of the Western Division wins the Grey Cup.

2. The winner of the Western Division gets to play for the

Grey Cup.

3. Winnipeg won the Grey Cup and now plays for the Western

Division Championship.

4. The Grey Cup is an award that the winning coach from

Calgary receives.

What skill, or skills, did you use to answer the questions above?

I came out of the Museum of Natural History and was crossing

the street on my way to the subway, when I saw the crowd about halfway

down the block; and the police cars, too. I could hear the whine of

an ambulance. For a moment I was blinded by the reflection of the

setting sun in the back of the police cars' windows.

For a indnute, I hesitated, but then I walked on. The crowds

of curious just get in the way of officials trying to save lives.

Dad, who's a detective on the force, complains about that all the

time.

I just kept my mind on the term paper I was going to have to

write on air pollution for my class, and mentally arranged the notes I

had taken during the museum program on the subject.

Of course, I knew I would read about it in the afternoon

papers. Besides, I would ask Dad about it after dinner. He sometimes

talked about cases without telling too much of the real security

details.

15. Which way was the youncq person looking when he looked toward

the crowd on the street?

1. North

2. South

3. East

4. West

16. When the young person said that he would read about it in the

afternoon papers, he was referring to...

1. Air polution.

2. The reason the crowd was on the street.

3. The program that was going on at the Museum.

4. The trouble that people cause when other people arp

trying to save lives.

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" i. iIi - i.i .. ..
Although tank crewmen are more likely to be injured when

exposed, they prefer to keep hatches open and remain exposed until

they come under fire because, when buttoned up, the crew must operate

with increased visual deadspace. By taking advantage of this visual

deadspacae, dismounted elements can approach and destroy a tank using

numerous antitank devices.

17. When tank crewmen are exposed--

1. They are more likely to be injured.

2. The enemy is more likely to be hidden.

3. They are less likely to be seen by the enemy.

4. Dismounted elements can more easily destroy the tank.

18. In the story, the word "deadspace" means--

1. An area where there is no noise to be heard.

2. An area where the tank crew cannot see.

3. The extent to which the tank can destroy other enemy

positions.

4. Parts of the inside of the tank that are not used for

anything.

What skill, or skills, did you use to answer the questions above?

She lay quietly in the dark attic, just barely able to see

through a knothole in the floor. At first she saw a man's back as he

built a fire in the fireplace. The wood smoldered and smoked for a

time, and then he disappeared, probably into the kitchen, taking the

lamp with him. After that there was only a slight glow from the

fireplace, not even enough to warm the chimney. She could hear

someone talking, but she couldn't make out what was being said. She

shuddered and wished she had her warmer shawl. Her hands and feet

were numb with cold.

It seemed long ago that she had looked out the kitchen window

to see three strangers on horseback ride out of the woods. And now it

was night, and they were down there, using the last of the precious

coffee--she could smell the rich, warm smell--and probably starting on

the ham which she had left out in plain view. She hadn't eaten since

early morning, and then only a bit of bread, and she was beginning to

feel lightheaded. She rolled back and forth against an upright post

and tried again to work the rope loose from her wrists.

19. The best description of the attic is--

1. Cozy and warm.

2. Cold and dark.

3. Happy and peaceful

4. Big and empty.

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20. Downstairs, the room below was--

1. Warm and comfortable

2. Loud, with talking and singing.

3. Filled with kindness and goodwill.

4. People telling "tall" stories.

What skill, or skills, did you use to answer the questions above?

Fire distribution is the quickest and best way to get fire on

all parts of a target. Fire must be distributed to keep all parts of

the target under suppressive fire. Fire team leaders put fire on

targets or target areas so that the enemy, whether visible or not, is

kept under fire. A squad SOP may call for the left fire team to

engage the left half of a linear target, or the front half of a column

target. This makes sure that the whole target is engaged, not just

those enemy soldiers nearest the squad firing.

21. Fire team leaders make sure that--

I. The enemy is kept under fire.

2. The troops around him are supplied with fire rounds.

3. Only part of the enemy troops are engaged by one squad.

4. Fire is distributed to linear targets.

22. In the story above, it would seem that "fire" means--

1. Disabling the enemy.

2. Shooting rounds of ammunition at the enemy.

3. Actually setting fire to the enemy troops.

4. Using artillery shells to engage the enemy.

23. The story above could be said to be a lot like--

1. Police chasing a speeder on the freeway.

2. A rough game of chess played by two championship players.

3. Taking the paper trash out to be burned

4. A hockey coach telling his players to keep shooting at

the goalie.

What skill, or skills, did you use to answer the questions above?

I had faith all along that Sugar Ray Leonard would make the

right decision. No sane man risks his eyesight for money he does not

need .... As for doctors, or anyone else who would have you believe that

a corrected detached retina can be 'stronger" than it was originally,

as was propagandized during Sugar's recovery period, I'd like other

A-85
damaged fighters to listen to Dr. Ferdie Pacheco. "When we operate to

repair any tissue, we usually will be very happy if we can restore 75

percent of what God achieved originally,* said the man known as the

Boxing Doctor. OThere is no such thing as making it better or

stronger."

24. The best name for this story is--

1. Sugar Ray Hangs Up the Gloves--Wisely!

2. Boxers Don't Heal Welli

3. The Boxing Doctor Speaks

4. Boxing and Damage to the Eyes

25. Once tissue is damaged--

1. It generally heals by itself.

2. A doctor needs to treat it.

3. It never gets better or stronger than it was.

4. Usually an operation is necessary to make sure healing

takes place.

What skill, or skills, did you use to answer the questions above?

Lisa opened her suitcase and began to put her belongings into

drawers. She propped up last year's class picture beside her mirror

and laid her diary beside her bed. She really should start to keep a

diary, she thought with quilt. It had been a present from her best

friend, Monica, back in Santa Aria.

She opened it and wrote:

September 1. We found a cottage today. It's called "Random.*

Dad says we've been living at random for weeks (joke). We're going to

stay in one place now so I can go to school.

Lisa stopped writing and stared out of the window. School...How

she dreaded the thought of going to a new schooll She would have to

wear some silly uniform, but that wasn't what worried her zost.

Suppose these English girls didn't like her? She had tried to tell

her parents how she felt, but her mother had only said, "You'll make

friends all right." And her father had added, "They'll be interested

to meet someone new." But Lisa didn't think that was the way it

worked out. She'd be new, and she'd be different.

She sighed, slammed the diary shut, and went down to see if her

parents were ready to think about preparing supper.

26. Lisa is in--

1. The kitchen of the house.

2. A classroom.

3. Front of the TV set.

4. A bedroom.

A-86
27. The house is located--

1. In Elizabeth's home town, Santa Ana.

2. Someplace in England.

3. A town called Random.

4. Outside a town called Elizabeth.

28. The time of day is--

1. Early morning.

2. Late morning.

3. The middle of the night.

4. Late in the afternoon.

What skill, or skills, did you use to answer the questions above?

JACKSON, MI -- Rock'n'Roll's favorite infrahuman, cartoon

caveman Ted Nugent, was hospitalized here recently after he took a

header into a tree when his Ford Bronco snapped an axle. Reportedly

terrible Ted was spending a pleasant summer afternoon running down

chipmunks for sport when the accident occurred. Things looked touch

and go for the beloved throwback briefly, as the hospital didn't have

any of Nugent's rare 30.06-negative blood on hand, but a vulture who

had flown into nearby Portage for the World Carnivore Freestyle Pro-Am

Championship games, heard about Nugent's plight on a local TV

broadcast, and rushed to the rugged woodsman's bedside to donate

enough pints to bring the red-meat glow back to the Terrific Theo's

cheeks. In the meantime, there were unconfirmed reports that the

Detroit Free Press had received a call from a "Rabbit Liberation

Front" spokesrodent who claimed responsibility for Nugent's crash and

who promised further vengeance in defending small, furry animals'

rights to self-determination. Nugent is reportedly sleeping with a

loaded bow and arrow beside his pillow from now on.

29. Ted Nugent was injured because--

1. His car was sabotaged by a rodent.

2. He shouldn't have been competing in the Pro-Am.

3. He crashed into a tree.

4. He was involved in a fight.

30. In this story, the word "throwback" probably means--

1. a reference to a caveman.

2. a musician.

3. someone who likes to destroy small animals.

4. someone who has been in an automobile accident.

A-87
31. The main idea of this story is--

1. A stranger donated blood to save Ted Nugent's life.

2. Ted Nugent intends to defend himself with a bow and

arrow.

3. Ted can't stand chipmunks and kills them when he can.

4. Ted was hospitalized after his Ford broke an axle and

crashed.

What skill, or skills, did you use to answer the questions above?

The T-10 heavy tank is rarely seen in Threat forward areas.

The tank stays in the rear and is used in counterattacks or with tank

killer units. It is equipped with infrared sights or devices for all

crewmembers, and has seven pairs of roadwheels.Its primary weapon is a

122-mm stabilized gun firing kinetic energy armor-piercing cap and

chemical energy high explosive antitank ammunition. It has two

12.7-mm machineguns, one for antiaircraft and another mounted

coaxially with the main gun. The strengths of these main battle tanks

are: a) low silhouette, which makes them harder to hit; b) simple

fire control, which makes them easier to operate and maintain; c)

infrared night vision devices, which increase effectiveness at night;

d) underwater snorkeling, which permits them to cross water barriers

quickly; and e) the high-velocity 115-mm APFSDS tank-defeating round,

which travels a mile every second. The accuracy of this round gives

T-10 tank crews a 50% chance of hitting a stationary target traveling

at a constant speed in the open at ranges to 1,000 meters.

32. A Threat forward area is probably--

1. The area where the opposing forces come face to face.

2. The front part of the tank.

3. Along the borders of the enemy country.

4. The area on the outskirts of Threat.

33. Altogether, the T-10 tank has--

1. I gun.

2. 2 guns.

3. 3 guns.

4. 4 guns.

When a runner threatens to steal a base, every player on the

field must move. Second basemen and shortstops converge to cover the

bag. Outfielders think about having to back up throws. Catchers

start to rise out of their crouches. Pitchers hurry throws to the

plate. uSpeed causes a lot of things to happen," explains veteran

manager Dick Williams. Other teams have to pitch out more. The

batter gets ahead on the count. We get more fastballs to hit."

A-88

........... . . . ... .. .

:,'.'.'.','.',' .', ., .... , '/'..'.."..","..'. .?..... -.... ........ ,,....... .. . ,..,. . .. . .•..,. . . .
The perfect stolen base results from a fine blend of speed

and concentration. Speed enables the runner to get to second bse

quickly, and concentration on the jump is the secret to stealing

bases. Timing the jump off first is something that begins before the

game actually starts. Mookie Wilson of the New York Mets discusses

pickoff moves and catchers' arms with the players and coaches before

the game. During the game, the study continues.

"While the game is going on, I check out the pitchers from the

dugout. Certain pitchers will change their delivery according to

who's on first base. Of all the pitchers I've run against, I guess

that Steve Carlton of the Phillies is the toughest. Carlton has the

same move whether he's throwing to first or home."

34. For the story above, the statement that best states the main

idea would be--

1. When a runner threatens to steal a base, every player

must move.

2. The perfect stolen base results from a fine blend of

speed and concentration.

3. Base-stealing demands speed and concentration from the

runner and also causes all of the fielders to move.

4. Pitchers change their deliveries depending on the batter

and the man at first base.

35. Only one of the statements below is correct. Circle the

answer that is correct.

1. Steve Carlton is the toughest... His move to first is

the same as his move to third.

2. When a runner threatens to steal a base...the batter has

to move out of the way.

3. Speed and concentration... Dick Williams of the Mets has

the most.

4. Timing a jump off of first...starts even before the game

begins.

36. "When a runner threatens to steal a base..." might be

compared to--

1. An automobile accident caused by a drunken driver.

2. A group of firemen trying to put out a fire.

3. A group of carpenters trying to finish a house before the

deadline listed in the contract.

4. A reaction by the military to an alien plane flying

dangerously close to our borders.

What skill, or skills, did you use to answer the questions above?

A-89

. . .-- ' " - -- L.,, " "": " " . " "_, ','.. ''"'.'.' '
ow page A-90, blank
Appendix B

QUESTIONNAI RE

B1-91
page B-92, blank

Po
NAME: Social Security #

In this questionnaire we would like to know how you felt about different

parts of the reading comprehension material that you used during the past two

weeks. Please fill in the appropriate responses where they are asked for.

1. 1 felt that the materials were... (Circle the answer you feel is

appropriate)

1 2 3 4 5

All of it was Most of it About half Most of it All of it

easy was easy and half was hard was hard

2. In the instructional part of the booklet, where the different skills were

presented, I feel that I...

12 3 4 5

Understood Understood Understood Understood Didn't Underall of it most of it about half a little stand any of it

3. The vocabulary in the booklet was...

1 2 3 4 5

Always easy Most Was Understood Most of it Always too

enough easy about half was too hard hard

4. The stories in the booklet were...

1 2 3 4 5

Always Mostly Some good Most were All of them were

interesting interesting some not uninteresting uninteresting

5. You are asked here to tell how well you feel you learned each of the

sections. Please show how well by circling the number you feel best tells

how well you learned.

Learned Learned Did OK, but Learned Didn't

all of most of still a lot a little learn much

it it to learn at all

Getting the Main Idea 1 2 3 4 5

Topic sentences 1 2 3 4 5

Images 1 2 3 4 5

Metaphor & Analogy 1 2 3 4 5

Hierarchies 1 2 3 4 5

Order and Sequence 1 2 3 4 5

Summaries 1 2 3 4 5

Acting as a Reading Manager 1 2 3 4 5

B-93

-7.......................................
6. In your booklet did you feel that there was...

1--Just enough to read, 2--Too much to read, 3--Not enough to read

1--Just enough writing, 2--Too much writing, 3--Not enough writing

- 7. After completing the booklet do you feel your reading skills are...

1--much better, 2--a little better, 3--unchanged, 4--a little poorer,

5--much poorer

B. We really need your help on this question. If you could make changes in the

booklet, what would you change and why?

9. What did you find most helpful in the booklet and why?

10. Wes it easy for you to follow the instructions in your booklet? What things

did you fird difficult?

B-94
Appendix C

TEACHER'S MANUAL

C-95
page C-96, blank
* UCLA-GSE*

*READING COMPREHENSION

* ENHANCEMENT* * PROGRAM

* TEACHER'S MANUAL

1984

a C-97
page C-98, blank

..................................... -
OVERVIEW

The nine lessons of this CAI format reading comprehension

program were designed as an aid to the reading instruction

curricula currently in use in Army BSEP classrooms. Research has

demonstrated that readers frequently find it difficult to

construct meaning from what they have read. In addition to the

problems that already face readers in BSEP programs, such as

vocabulary and grammar, these learners frequently have also

failed to incorporate efficient and effective comprehension

strategies in their repertoire. This program attempts to

instruct these learners in a few simple, but potentially

powerful, comprehension strategies that can be used in various

types of reading tasks.

ACTIVE CONSTRUCTION OF MEANING

In recent years, the study of learning has taken educational

psychology beyond the simplistic approaches of behavioristic

psychological answers to effective classroom instruction. In

light of recent findings, the learner has once again emerged as

an active participant in the learning process. In other words,

it is crucial to establish active (rather than passive) learning

and problem-solving strategies and techniques as part of the

learner's repertoire. This is especially true with reading

strategies. Learner's must be encouraged to actively elaborate

and expand on reading content. In so doing, the learner calls

into action higher order thinking and, therefore, is more likely

to understand and remember what he or she has read. Some reading

researchers have stated that it is more important for readers to

be taught to ask the "right" questions, rather than find the

"right" answers. The strategies that are taught in this nine

lesson approach attempt to do just that. We are instructing

learners to ask a series of questions, which they then answer, in

order to construct meaning from what they read. The learners are

encouraged to use the meanings they garner from the relationships

that exist between different words in the text, and also to use

relationships that they identify between the readings and the

knowledge of their own past experience.

SUMMARIES, INFERENCES, AND DECISIONS

The most important facet of the reading strategies

instruction in the nine lessons is the generation of summaries.

Summary construction is taught as a series of component strategies--Who, What Happened, and Why questions. In addition,

the reader is taught to examine the reading for additional

9 characteristics such as identifying the reading as important for

job training or enjoyment reading.

The "Who (or What)" question centers on the identification

of the main idea in a paragraph or story. The reader is taught

C-99
to identify the main idea through the use of topic sentences and,

in the absence of topic sentences, a self-generated "umbrella"

idea--an idea that encompasses the main idea, or ideas, in a

reading.

The "What Happened" strategy acquaints the learner with a

method of identifying the important parts of a reading. The

learner is taught to identify the parts of the reading that

contribute significantly to the main idea. In the case of

technical or job-related readings the learner is taught to pay

attention to correct order and sequence.

The "Why" question asks the learner to make inferences about

the reading. The learner's judgment is important here as the

lessons encourage learners to design answers based on a variety

of possibilities including why the author thought it important

that the reader should know what is included in the reading. The

key here is to encourage the reader to elaborate on the material

in the reading. This additional "processing" on the part of the

reader is likely to increase comprehension and recall.

EXERCISES

Learners are encouraged throughout the nine lessons to

practice the skills with provided readings. In many instances

learners are asked to generate answers on the worksheets to

questions that are designed to test knowledge of the skills.

These worksheet answers will be most helpful to the teacher in

that they will provide 1) an estimate of how well students are

grasping the skills instruction, and 2) they will provide an

important environment in which teachers can provide crucial

feedback to students on their progress.

This teacher's guide is designed to acquaint teachers with

the basic principles that students will be working with in the

lessons. In addition, the teacher's guide affords the teacher

some possible guidelines for eliciting responses from students

concerning the instruction in the lessons and the exercises, many

of which call for responses from students on worksheet forms.

Learner's responses to these exercises will provide teachers with

valuable feedback regarding learners' successes and/or failures

in achieving a command of the skills.

The student worksheets must be collected at the end of

Lesson 9. These worksheets will provide evaluators necessary

information regarding the effectiveness of the lessons. Teachers

are encouraged to go through the lessons themselves on a computer

if time and resources allow. We have tried to provide sufficient

information in the Teacher's Manual to make the conduct of the

follow up sessions fruitful, but those instructors who will

participate in the program will find it much more enlightening to

go through the same lessons that learners will participate in.

We would appreciate any and all feedback that you can afford us

after participating in the program. THANKS!

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.........................................................................

... ...... ..... ........-, . .. . . ... . , ] i-.-.]-
LESSON 1

THE READER IS A BUILDER

The introductory lesson attempts to acquaint the learner

with the idea of reading as a "building" process. The learner

is presented with an analogy of building and reading as an

activity of putting things together to form a whole (or meaning,

as in reading). In order to show the reader how he or she

"builds" an idea, four words are presented and the learner must

construct an idea around the four words (WARM RADIO BEACH

BIKINI). With this exercise the learner is introduced to the

idea of INFERENCE. The learner's mind must INFER the rest of the

idea in order to pull the four words together in a unified

thought. The most important part of inference is that the

learner must come to understand that his or her own past

experience is crucial in constructing meaning for what is read.

Learners are instructed to mention something from their own past

experience when they are presented with the exercise question--

"Give an example!" The mental elaboration that the learner

performs when required to search his or her own past experience

for something similar helps the comprehension process.

Frequently, the learner can figure out more of what a reading

means when they take the time to relate as much of the reading as

possible to their own past experience.

Exercise I

Students are asked to put 7 words together in one idea on

the worksheet. The words are--AIRLINER STEWARDESS STORM COFFEE

PILOT NIGHT HONOLULU. If students seem puzzled about the concept

of INFER it might be wise to review the answers that they have

recorded on the answer sheets. Emphasize the idea that the mind

builds meaning and that good readers must be able to build

meaning from what they read.

Teachers may want to expand on the meaning building by

giving students a word, or words, and having them build a

sentence or series of sentences from those words. Another

possible use of this technique would be to select a reading for

students to read or listen to and then reflect on how they built

meaning from their own past experience of key words in the

reading. Research has shown that even a knowledge of the process

of how comprehension is achieved can serve to improve readers

comprehension proficiency.

C-lO1

'o ° -. o, - .O. . O ~ oo- . -
LESSON 2

THE THREE STEPS OF A GOOD SUMMARY

In this lesson learners are introduced to the three basic

questions that they must answer to create a good summary--Who (or

What) is the reading about? What happens in the reading? Why

does it happen?

Learners are presented with the analogy scoring in a

baseball game. Each of the bases represents one of the question

facets of a good summary. When the summary is complete, the

reader "scores!" Learners are also encouraged to generate

answers for the questions in their OWN WORDS. This is important

for many deficient readers to do because it demands a deeper

level of processing on their part than simple copying of answers.

The lesson then proceeds to an explanation of the "Who (or

What)" question. Learners are instructed that they can often

determine the answer to the "Who (or What)" question by looking

at the title of a reading, or, for a paragraph, the topic

sentence. We have told the learners in the program that the

topic sentence is usually the first sentence in a paragraph. We

have further elaborated that the topic sentence will tell the

reader what will be talked about or explained in the paragraph.

Class Work

It would be best if the teacher pursued the concept of topic

sentences in group work. A series of paragraphs could be

selected from class readings that learners could work with in

attempting to identify topic sentences. The teacher could also

explain that sometimes topic sentences are weak and need more

work on the part of the reader to pull the ideas of the paragraph

together. (Lesson 3 will teach learners how to construct an

"umbrella" idea to act as a topic sentence for readings that do

not have good topic sentences.)

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LESSON 3

"MAKING AN UMBRELLA"

Lesson 3 teaches additional processes of identifying or

creating an answer for the "Who (or What)" question. Learners

are instructed in creating an "umbrella" that is explained as " a

way of saying that you have to find a term or phrase that can

answer the Who or What question so that all the topics covered in

the reading 'fit' under your umbrella." Learners are then shown

how a good topic sentence acts as an umbrella to cover the ideas

in a paragraph. Specifically, the topic sentence is shown as a

general idea that is elaborated on by the other ideas in the

paragraph. Where a good topic sentence is not included in a

paragraph or reading, learners are encouraged to create an

"umbrella" idea to provide an answer to the WHO or WHAT question.

Exercises

In this lesson the learners are given a reading about

Portland, Maine. They are told l)to find the topic sentence and

then 2)create an umbrella idea for the whole reading. The

reading appears below:

READING 3-E

The waves crashing against a rocky beach, wilderness

adventures calling from the distance, seafood dinners that are

out of this world, and New England charm all add up to the

wonderful city of Portland. This area attracts many tourists,

and for good reason. The beautiful Casco Bay has many islands,

and the fishing and sailing boats add to the ocean scenery. It

is an old city, with fine historic sites and well-preserved

homes. It is a place that seems as though it were designed for

walking along the lovely streets and looking in pretty shops and

art galleries. The University of Maine has a campus here.

The first sentence is the topic sentence, but students

should create an umbrella idea that encompasses the whole

reading. This idea should be brief and quite general, e.g.,

"Portland, Maine--a city of many attractions." (Students will be

taught that details--such as "The University of Maine has a

campus here"--will be included in the answers to the "What

happened?" question.

Learners are then given a technical reading--from an Army

publication--and asked to again find a)the topic sentence, and

2)to create an umbrella idea for the reading. The reading is as

follows:

READING 3-F

Visual commcunication is a means available to all units.

Visual signals are transmitted by flags, lights, pyrotechnics

C-I03

'' ,I::'-: L'- -:? -: :.- -:: ;: . "'i':.- .. .--- :'::. ... .. ..- -. :.'. . - ...... ". .'-.... . ...... -. . -. . -- .- ,.
(like flares), panels, arm-and-hand signals, and other methods.

They are ON for transmitting prearranged messages rapidly over

short distances, as well as for recognition and ID of friendly

forces.

After learners record their answers to the topic sentence

and umbrella creation questions, the program presents the learner

with four options for an umbrella idea:

A. Flares and panels are forms of visual communication.

B. Short distances are best for visual communication.

C. Visual communications--types and usage.

D. Visual communications are best for friendly unit

identification.

The correct answer is C because it is broad enough to

include ALL of the ideas in the paragraph. Compare learners'

responses to this answer to see if any misconceptions with the

umbrella idea still exist. If so, try to demonstrate to learners

that they umbrella idea must encompass all of the ideas in the

reading--ESPECIALLY when the TOPIC SENTENCE does NOT!

C-I04
LESSON 4

YOU'RE ON THE WAY TO SECOND BASE!

In this lesson, learners are introduced to the "What

Happened?" question. Learners are told that answering the What

Happened question becomes easy if they have located a good topic

sentence and/or created a good umbrella idea to answer the Who or

What question. Two simple rules are presented--l)You must

already know Who or What the reading is about, and 2)You must

figure out What Happens to them or it. Learners are told that

when they read technical readings--especially job training

materials like Army manuals--they must pay attention to details

for answering the What Happened question. The What Happened

answer is usually the MOST IMPORTANT part of the summary.

Learners are then introduced to a second facet of the What

Happened question--How to decide which things that happened in

the reading are important for the summary, and what can be

excluded from the summary. Reading for enjoyment often includes

a great deal that can be deleted from a summary--it is a judgment

call for the reader to make. On the other hand, technical or

job-related reading is usually parsimonious in style and contains

much that should be referred to in a good summary. Learners are

instructed that reading for enjoyment does not often necessitate

elaborate summaries since the reader is not required to remember

many details. Learners are instructed that technical readings

require much attention to detail (and order and sequence) and

summaries must include ALL important details.

Exercises

The first exercise that learners encounter asks them to

answer the Who or What question, then answer the What Happened

question for the following reading...

READING 4-A

The day was warm and the sun was high in the sky. Jim's

mother had just died and he was lost in his thoughts. He had

never tole her how much he really loved her and now she was gone.

The tobins kept flying around him looking for worms. Jim felt

like getting drunk. He didn't know any other way to deal with

his sadness. The little gountain in the park was broken and the

still water at the bottom wae green. Jim didn't see any of it--

he just kept walking--to nowhere.

Check to see if students accomplished the task correctly. We

gave an example of an answer for the What Happened question and

deleted most of the imagery details that the author had included.

Students should see that these details are not important for

remembering the main idea in the paragraph.

The second exercise uses a reading from the Soldier's Manual

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that describes the use of the Dragon portable missile. Again,

students are instructed to answer the Who or What and What

Happened questions, though the answer to the Who or What question

is given in the program--The Dragon. The answer to the What

Happened question should include ALL relevant details about the

construction and use of the Dragon.

READING 4-B

The Dragon is a command-to-line-of-sight guided missile

system that is a man-portable, shoulder-fired, medium anti-tank

weapon (MAW). The missile is launched from a smooth bore,

fiberglass tube, recoilless launcher. It is automatically and

continously guided along the runner's line of sight by a sensor

device which tracks the missile's course and transmits correcting

via a wire link. The Dragon has two major components--the

tracker and the round. The round is the expendable part of the

system and has two important parts, the launcher and the missile.

These are packaged together at the factory for handling and

shipping. The launcher serves as the handling and carrying

container and tke tube for firing the missile. The tracker is

the reusable part of the system. It is designed for fast, easy

detachment from the round.

Check students' answers for inclusion of ALL details in the

reading.

The third exercise on the answer sheet asks students to

answer the Who or What and What Happened questions for the

following reading...

READING 4-D

When a person is choking, there are certain things that you

should know how to do. Make sure, whether the person is sitting

or standing, that you are behind them. Wrap your arms around the

person's waist under his arms. Make a fist with one hand and put

it on the person's stomach just below the ribs and above the

navel. Grab your fist with your other hand. Press your fist

into the person's stomach, with a forceful, fast, upward thrust.

Allow the person time to inhale in order to get air in the lungs.

Repeat the process until the person can breathe normally again.

This is a technical reading of a little different nature than the

"Dragon" reading, but complete attention should be paid to every

detail and the CORRECT SEQUENCE in which those details appear.

Make sure, at the end of this lesson, that learners understand

the difference between enjoyment reading and technical or jobrelated reading summaries.

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• . .• ...- .. .. ° . -.;. L 
LESSON 5

HOW TO GET TO THIRD BASE

Lesson 5 deals with INFERENCE. The learner is taught to

answer the third of the three basic questions in a summary--the

WHY question. This is a difficult part of the summary building

because for any given reading there are many possible ways to go

to answer the WHY question. We have given the reader the

latitude to answer the WHY question in just about any way they

want. The important thing is to encourage the learner to think

about questions that may have come to mind while reading, or to

develop questions about the reading once completing it. The

answer can be as simple as developing an answer for "Why did

the author want me to know this?" or as complex as developing

questions that search for underlying assumptions and reasons--

like one would do in reading a mystery story.

By the end of Lesson 5 students have been introduced to the

three basic questions of summary building. They should use all

three of these questions from this point onward to construct

summaries for their reading.

Exercises

The practice readings in Lesson 5 afford the learner more

exposure to various types of readings and provide more practice

for the WHO or WHAT, and WHAT HAPPENED questions. In addition,

learners are encouraged to use the last of the three basic

questions--the WHY question. Several of the practice readings in

this lesson are accompanied by answers to the questions within

the context of the program. Two of the practice readings,

however, are not. We think it will be important for the teachers

to use these two readings in follow-up discussions to see how

proficiently learners are performing using the questions to build

their summaries. We believe it can be helpful to have learners

pool their answers to try to reach some form of concensus on

answers to each of the three questions.

READING 5-A

Here are some ways that you can reduce the effects of jet lag.

On your flight, drink a lot of zater to overcome the chance of

your body drying out because of the dry air from the cabin air

conditioning. Do not drink beer, hard liquor, or wine. Don't

ea- very much, even though you are served a big meal. Wear loose

clcthing and dress comfortably. Even though you are in your

seat, try to exercise your arms and legs as much as possible.

The answer provided told learners that reducing jet lag was the

most appropriate answer to the "WHY" question. Make sure to

emphasize that the topic sentence often provides the most logical

answer to the "WHY" question.

c-107

" "'

.F. -
READING S-C

To cross roads, trails, or small streams, select a point at

or near a bend in the road or stream--if possible, a bend that

has concealment and cover on both sides. Crawl up to the edge of

the open area and observe the other side carefully before

crossing. Cross rapidly but quietly. Get down on the other

side. Check the area around you.

Work with the WHY question after the above reading. Try to mold

the thinking of the readers in such a way as to demonstrate the

importance of the above instructions and WHY they have to know

them.

READING S-D

If you visit Munich, the best way to try the beer is to

visit a beer hall. One of the most famous beer halls is the

Hofbrauhaus (pronounced like "Hoff-brow-house"). Guess what kind

of beer they serve? lofbrau, naturally. Beer halls, like the

Hofbrauhaus, are very different from American bars. They have

several floors, like a department store, to drink on. Usually

the ground floor has the cheapest prices (and the most drunks).

As you go up, the floors get nicer (and more costly) and become

more like a restaurant.

The best way to see the whole place is to start at the top

and work your way down. That way, if you do have too much to

drink, by the time you hit the bottom floor, all you have to do

is stuimble out the door. You won't have to risk falling down the

steps!

Emphasize the use of the three basic questions again with this

reading. It might be fun here to get participants reactions to

the WHY question!

READING 5-E

No matter what position you use (standing, kneeling, prone)

when throwing a hand grenade, you should be as comfortable and

natural as possible. The two most important points in accurate

throwing are body-target alignment and eye-target focus. Line up

your body with the target as though you were going to throw a

football or baseball. Keep watching the target as you throw, and

let your arm swing naturally to it. Follow through with your

throw ing motion and take cover. If possible, you or a buddy

should watch where the grenade lands. Make sure you properly aim

the grenade before you throw it. The safety pin and clip should

be removed while behind cover.

Besides the three basic questions, make sure that learners pay

attention to the correct sequence of how things are supposed to

happen when throwing a hand grenade. The answers that they

developed for the WHAT HAPPENED question should reflect the

correct order for this procedure.

C-108

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LESSON 6

RULES FOR GOOD SUMMARIES

Lesson 6 instructs learners in three additional rules for

generating a good summary...

1. DECISION WHETHER SUMMARY SHOULD BE SHORT or LONG--

learners learn to make judgments based on reading for

enjoyment or job-related readings. The rule of thumb

is that technical types of readings will require

detailed (and, therefore, LONG) summaries. Reading for

enjoyment, on the other hand, usually requires only a

little summarization--sometimes only a collection of

answers for the WHO or WHAT question from each of the

paragraphs in the story.

2. PUTTING SUMMARIES IN OWN WORDS--learner's are told that

the extra thinking they do to put the answers to the

three questions in their own words helps them to both

remember and understand what they have read.

3. PUTTING THINGS IN THE RIGHT ORDER--especially important

for technical types of readings, learners are

instructed in answering the WHAT HAPPENED part of their

summaries for job-related readings in correct sequence.

For some readings of this nature, this procedure is

less important. Where sequence is important--like a

repair or life-saving procedure--learners are

encouraged to include all details in correct order.

Correct application of this procedure is a judgment

call--learners should be made aware of how important it

is to think about their answer before writing it down.

The end of the lesson includes a number of review questions

for learners to consider. It would be wise to sample responses

from the group to see if the concepts are clear. If not,

going over practice readings from this lesson may help clarify

any problems that still exist. (Questions appear at end of this

lesson summary.)

Exercises

The first exercise asks learners to write a short summary

for each main idea in an enjoyment reading. The reading is as

follows...

READING 6-A

When the word "fastbalZ" is mentioned in the American

League, one name immediately comes to mind--Rich "Goose" Gossage.

He has been called the most intimidating player in major league

baseball. At 6 feet 2 inches and 217 pounds, the Goose throws a

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- -.... :~~~~~~~~~... :... ... ... . .. . .,......-... , . . ... . .... . .
fastball that has been clocked at 98 miles per hour. when

Gossage delivers, the ball flies our of a mass of arms and legs

that all seem to be rushing towards the batter.

"He can make that ball look so small that you're not even

sure there's a practical reason for being up there," said John',

Lowenstein of the Baltimore Orioles. "The Goose get8 ready in a'

hurry," says Dom Scala. "He knows what he has to do. If it's

the eighth or ninth inning, and we're up by a run or two, the

"Goose" knows he's going to pitch. We'll throw the ball around

until he's loose. Then he'll get on the practice mound, air out

a few, and he's ready.

The fans don't totally get to hear the effect the ball makes

as it hits my glove. In spring training down in Florida, the

stands are just a few feet away from the bullpen area. When

Gossage warms up, the fans line the fence, and you should see the

look on their faces when they hear how loudly the ball snaps into

my glove!"

Stress the idea that enjoyment reading is best done with short

summaries that capture the main idea of each paragraph.

Check to see that students are answering questions in their

own words. Tell them again to avoid copying verbatim answers.

Below are the questions that students are given to review at

the end of Lesson 6. Go over each of them with the class to make

sure that they understand what they are to do.

IS THE READING IMPORTANT, OR JUST FOR ENJOYMENT?

DO I KNOW HOW TO FIND AND USE TOPIC SENTENCES?

WHAT ABOUT MAKING AN "UMBRELLA" FOR THE MAIN IDEA?

DO I KNOW WHAT AN INFERENCE IS? HOW DO I USE INFERENCES?

SHOULD MY SUMMARY BE SHORT OR LONG? HOW DO I DECIDE?

WHAT SHOULD I USE WHEN I MAKE UP A SHORT SUMMARY?

WHAT CAN I DO WHEN THE READING IS VERY LONG?

WHY DO I PUT THINGS IN MY OWN WORDS?

WHY DO I HAVE TO BE CAREFUL WITH JOB-RELATED READINGS?

WHY IS CORRECT ORDER SO IMPORTANT IN SOME READINGS?

WHEN I THINK OF QUESTIONS AS I READ, DO THEY HELP?

DO I UNDERSTAND WHAT I READ, AND AM I USING THE SKILLS?

It may be useful to apply examples while having the class discuss

the questions above.

C1I1O
LESSON 7

THIS LESSON SHOULD BRING YOU HOME!

Lesson 7 introduces a fourth question--HOW?--to the

learners. This question is not a part of the summary building,

but rather a skill to help readers relate and construct meanings

between parts of text. This cognitive skill is designed to

increase thinking in the learner.

In order to master the HOW question, the reader learns that

there are inter-connected meanings in readings between THINGS

(nouns), ACTIONS (verbs), QUALITIES (adjectives and adverbs), and

RELATIONSHIPS (prepositions). The learner is told to concentrate

on the parts of the reading that he or she ALREADY KNOWS

something about. Using that knowledge, the learner is then

instructed to generate meaning for those parts of the reading (in

most cases an unfamiliar word) that are unclear. This practice

does not always insure that the reader will create a correct

meaning for the unknown word--and learners are cautioned about

this--but it does provide an exercise that enhances learners'

comprehension.

Learners are given a simple strategy for identifying what

THINGS (nouns) they know and don't know from a reading. Learners

are told to list on one side the words they know something about

already, and then told to list the words they don't know anything

about on the other side. From the list, they are then told to

try and construct meaning for the words they don't know using the

word meanings that they do know.

Exercises

The first exercise asks students to read a passage about

rock music. A nonsense word is included in this passage and

students are told to construct a meaning for the word from the

rest of the meaning in the passage.

READING 7-A

The rock band a me on stage while te roar of the crowd

shook the whole building. The lead singer grabbed the mike off

the stand and started singing the group's biggest hit--"Iot

Lunch." The drummer started his solo part with a driving beat on

the bass drum. The solo ended with a crash of the frip.

Check to see if learners created a meaning for FRIP that would be

logical considering the other cues in the reading. We told them

in the program that a FRIP may be like a cymbal. Emphasize to

students that this same mental activity helps them construct

meaning while they read.

The next exercise asks learners to list the THINGS (nouns)

they know and don't know. They are given a reading about driving

C-111
a race car. The reading has several words that are specific to

competition racing. Some of the students will probably know

these words which can help in the discussion about the readihg.

Those that did not know all of the meanings can see how close

they came to generating a definition that fits the words that',

they did not know.

READING 7-B

I got in, struggling again with the high aide bars on the

roll cage. Several Zaps later I began to pick up the pace.

There was serious understeer and a bump in the side of the bucket

seat that hit my arm just wrong. Then, in the twisting back

section of the track, while shifting up to 3rd, I got lst!

I went into a big spin off of the track, but fortunately got

only minor damage to the front spoiler. Good grief, how awful.

"Big Time Professional Race Driver Hits Wrong Gear--Dings Car."

I could hear Paul Miller on the phone already. "Akin, what did

you do to my car?"

The next exercise included a short reading about an

expensive brand of men's suits--the Brioni. We asked the learner

to try and figure out what a Brioni was from the following

reading...

READING 7-C

The peerless Brioni is handmade in the ancient town of

Penne, near Italy's Adriatic Coast, in a factory where artisans

of a dying craft sew over 65,000 stitches into a single garment,

working eighteen hours on each one.

We told them that it may be easy to construct a meaning for the

Brioni that was wrong--a dress! That's OK, though, because they

still used the cues correctly that were available.

We have not included the HOW question as part of summary

building simply because the added question can confound the

simplicity of the design. Students should be aware, however,

that this is an activity that any good reader uses to help

construct meaning for a reading.

C-112

. "-
LESSON 8

READERS HAVE TO PRACTICE!

Lesson 8 is a practice lesson. Learners are given a variety

of readings and told to use specific skills with each of those

readings. It is important to check that learners have acquired

the use of the three basic questions--WHO or WHAT, WHAT HAPPENED,

and WHY. We recommend having learners compare their answers in

group fashion after they have gone through the programmed part of

Lesson 8.

Exercises

In reading 8-A we asked learners to do two specific things,

besides answering the three basic questions--l)create an umbrella

idea for the reading to answer the WHO or WHAT question, and 2)to

identify whether or not the reading was a technical type of

reading.

READING 8-A

Washington--Congressional officials are expected to approve

a plan to allow comercial travel services to operate in military

exchanges. Proposals to allow the exchange services to permit

civilian medical, dental, and legal clinics to operate as

concessions in exchanges are under study. If adopted, the

concession operations could mean more convenience and lower

prices for exchange shoppers.

In reading 8-B--a reading that tells about the "first"

restaurants--we have asked the learner to practice the HOW

question by listing any nouns that they don't know. Most will

understand the entire reading, but some may have difficulty with

the following words--"cookshop", and "eatery". They also may not

understand the older meaning of tavern (like an inn). Learners

are also expected to answer the three basic questions for this

reading.

READING 8-B

The restaurant as we know it today is less than 200 years

old! Unti the 1700sa, people who wanted to eat out went to a

tavern, where only one dish was offered each day--and only men

were allowed. or they went to a cooks hop--where meat was

cooked--and brought home a take-out dinner. The first real

restaurant offering a menu with a choice of dishes opened in

Paris, France, in 1765. A sign outside this eatery said

"Restaurants" which is French for "to restore." They used this

sign because of the healthy soups and broths served there. The

word "restaurant" became, before long, the name of an eating

place in almost every country in Europe.

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*~~~ ~~~~ -- .- ~ ~ - . . .~: . . ....
Reading 8-C is a technical reading from the Soldier's

Manual. Learners should develop answers for all three of the

basic questions, but the WHAT HAPPENED answers that learners

record on the worksheet should include all important details. In

this reading, correct order was not particularly important.,

Lesson 9 will present learners with a technical reading that

necessitates recording the correct order for doing something.

READING 8-C

Cover is any type of shielding from the effects of weapons

fire, especially direct fire. You must take advantage of every

ravine or depression in the ground to protect and cover your

force, especially if you are forward of the forward edge of the

battle area. You must evaluate the land around you, the power of

the enemy's weapons, and the positions of known and suspected

enemy placements. To determine the cover, visualize a crosssection of the terrain and determine where the enemy cannot place

effective direct fire on your proposed route of movement.

In Reading 8-D, learners read another technical type of

reading. Besides the three basic questions, we asked learners to

tell us two things after answering the basic questions--l)What

skills did you use for understanding the reading?, and, 2)Did you

understand the reading? We are trying to make the learners

conscious of using the skills--to begin to ask themselves

questions about using the skills and to understand what helps

them with their reading.

READING 8-D

There are several weaknesses of threat main battle tanks.

Threat tank fighting compartments are considerably smaller than

those in US tanks. The crew is cramped and freedom to move

around is restricted. Crew fatigue can therefore be a bigger

factor in threat tanks. Smaller turret interior and larger

(115mm) main gun ammiunition means that threat tanks have a slower

rate of fire than US tanks.

Because of its small fighting compartment, the T-62 tank has

23 fewer rounds of amrunition than the M60A1. Therefore, in tank

duels, threat tanks may run out of ammunition before the US

tanks. some main gun ammunition is strapped along the turret

walls, and hits above the turret ring may cause secondary

ammunition explosions.

Make sure that learners have identified the topic sentence in the

first paragraph as the main idea. Second, the WHAT HAPPENED

answers should include all important details.

C-I14

I .° % ° ' ° . " . *°q *''* *'' '' •° " • *% .o• q bi • "*°"" " . * l, " . * . ' " . " . - . . - .•.
LESSON 9

THE 9TH INNING!

The teacher's feedback for Lesson 9 is most important. In

this lesson we have asked learners to develop summaries for the

readings without the aid of any prompting. We have also asked

them a few questions in the program about the use of the skills.

The teacher should attempt to work with students that still seem

to be having problems with the summary building. This set of

readings will enable the teacher to go over all of the important

parts of summary building that have been part of previous

lessons.

The first two readings in Lesson 9 were accompanied by a

series of questions that are designed to help learners assess the

correct use of the skills. Readings 9-C, and 9-D are also

accompanied by questions but require learners to generate answers

to the three basic questions before they match their application

of the skills to what the program tells them. Both Reading 9-C

and 9-D are technical readings, but only 9-D explains a procedure

that should be followed in exact order. Look for this in learner

responses on the worksheet. This is the kind of reading that

they will be doing for most job-related training programs,

whether they are in the Army or not.

READING 9-C

The SQT has three parts: Written, Hands-On, and Performnance

Certification. Sixty to ninety days before the SQT is given, an

SQT notice will be sent to each unit. It will tell which tasks

will be tested in each part of the SQT. It will also tell how

the task will be tested. There are three different ways to test

a task. First, you may be asked to answer a written question

about how a task is performed. You will pick the correct answer

from a list of answers and mark the correct answer on a machinescoreable answer sheet. Second, you may be asked to actually do

the task. For example, you may be given an M72A2 LAW and be

asked to prepare it for firing. This is called a hands-on test

which means you are actually required to do the tark as you would

on the job. Third, the unit commander may observe your

performance of a task and report your ability to perform it as

part of your SQT score. Your performance on all three parts of

the test will be reported to you sometime after you complete the

SQT. You will be told which tasks you did not perform well. you

can use your soldier's manual to improve your performance in

those areas.

Check to make sure that learners have included all important

details in the reading as part of the "What Happened" question

answer.

C-115
READING 9-D

Heat stroke is a dangerous thing. The signs of heat stroke

are a stoppage of sweating (hot, dry skin). The person may

coZZapse and pass out suddenZy, or it may be preceded by

headache, dizziness, fast puzae, nausea, vomiting, and mental

confusion. You ehouZd quickZy imnreree the person in the coldest

water avaiZabZe. If you can find some, add ice to the water. If

you cannot find ice, imeree the person in the water, get him

into the shade, remove his oZothing, keep his entire body wet by

pouring water over him, and fan his wet body continuousZy. Get

the person to the nearest medicaZ faciZity as soon as possible,

cooZing his body on the way. If the person is conscious, ,give

him cooZ saZt wter prepared as per instructions for "heat

cramps."

After reviewing answers to the three basic questions for Reading

9-D, ask students to discuss any problem areas that they still

may not understand. These procedures are designed to assist

learners in comprehending what they read. You can explain to

them at this point that if they continue to practice the

procedures, they will become proficient at using them. Once they

gain proficiency, they will be able to use the skills most of the

time without having to write out answers.

PLEASE COLLECT STUDENT WORKSHEETS AT END OF THIS CLASS.

L%

C

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