Improving Comprehension Ability in Silent Reading

A review of the experiments which have already been con ducted in the field of silent reading seems to indicate that while comprehension has been recognized as the most important factor in reading ability, a large majority of the experiments thus far reported have dealt with other phases of reading. This has been due to two causes : first, up to the present we have had no silent reading test which purports to single out and measure compre hension; and second, since it is easier to make improvement in speed rather than in comprehension, most of our earlier experi ments in silent reading emphasized speed with the hope of im proving comprehension ability as a by-product. Before attempting to set up definite exercises for the im provement of comprehension ability, one must first analyze it into its elements. In the present experiment?-one which continued for two years and had for its aim the improvement of compre hension ability in silent reading?two methods of attack seemed plausible. First, the papers of a large number of children who scored high in comprehension ability might be selected and analyzed to determine the factors present. The papers of pupils who scored low in comprehension ability might then be studied in order to find the objectionable factors which kept them from getting a standard score. One does not have to delve deeply into the literature of silent reading to find that up to the present most investigators have been interested in the child who fails to comprehend rather than the one who scores high on comprehension. After searching in vain for a study which analyzed the ability of those children who scored high in comprehension, it was decided to attack the prob lem from a remedial point of view and base the experiment on 11