ABSTRACT
Skilled reading involves both efficient word identification and going beyond the identified words to understand the text. It has been found that in regular education surprisingly little time is devoted to explicit instruction of reading comprehension. What about the practice of teaching reading disabled children? Two studies are reported in which the instruction behavior of teachers in special education classrooms is observed. The results indicate that similar to the findings of regular classrooms almost no direct instruction in relevant comprehension strategies is provided for reading disabled children. Another question was as to whether it is possible to improve reading comprehension skills by instructing them to systematically use several reading strategies. In one study we examined the impact of a procedure to train teachers. They received training for instructing poor readers to use comprehension strategies. Posttraining observations of actual teaching behaviors revealed marked increases in relevant instructional categories. Second, in an experimental instruction program poor readers were given instructions and guided practice in using comprehension strategies. The results indicated a significant gain in reading comprehension and metacognitive knowledge for this group. It is concluded that a direct instruction procedure combined with a reciprocal teaching approach seems to be quite successful.
