A quasi-experimental validation of transactional strategies instruction with low-achieving second-grade readers.

Second-grade, low-achieving students experienced a year of either transactional strategies instruction or highly regarded, more conventional second-grade reading instruction. By the end of the academic year, there was clear evidence of greater strategy awareness and strategy use, greater acquisition of information from material read in reading group, and superior performance on standardized reading tests by the transactional strategies instruction students. This is the clearest validation to date of educator-developed transactional strategies instruction.