Top-Level Structure: A Significant Relation for What Fifth-Graders Remember from Classroom Reading.

A study assessed whether young readers might be induced to use a memory strategy. Subjects were an intact class of 25 fifth grade students taught to use text structure as an organizational strategy, and 29 students in a second class who received no instructional intervention. On three occasions, the 54 students were required to read a test passage, write a free recall, and respond to a written probe of their awareness of organizational structure in the passage. Posttests were administered the day following the completion of training and three weeks later. The results revealed superior comprehension and memory performances for those students in the treatment group. Additionally, members of this group were able to use the strategy to cope with poorly organized text and when writing their own compositions. (FL)