Several studies about teaching reading stategies have been
                     performed.  Strategic reading involves the use of cues to decode
                     the message of the written word.  Reading the words of a
                     composition is one thing, but comprehension is the vital point for
                     the reader.  Reading the words is of no benefit if he/she does
                     not comprehend what is being read.

                     Armbruster, Echols, & Brown, 1983; Brown, Campione, & Day,
                     1981; Flavell & Wellman, 1977 in Masters, Mori, and Mori
                    (1993) state that "the metacognitive process involved in gaining
                     meaning from the act of reading requires knowledge from not
                     only of four basic variables but also of the way in which they
                     relate to one another to produce learning."  The four variables
                    (Masters, Mori, & Mori)  important to reading comprehension
                    for the teacher and the student to follow include:

                        1.  Text--the aspects of the material to be read which will
                            determine the memorization, and later retrieval (e.g.
                            vocabulary difficulty, sentence structure, writing style).
                        2. Task--the reason for reading ( for fun, an examination, to
                            answer questions at the end of a chapter)
                        3. Strategies--the activities the learner uses to commit the
                            information to memory and recall it later.  Two strategies
                            include fix-up strategies (strategies employed by the learner
                            to avoid comprehension failure) and study strategies (other
                            approaches to text processing such as note taking, skimming,
                            underlining, outlining, summarization, and self-questioning).
                        4. Characteristics of the learner--background experience,
                            reading skills, interest, motivation, experience of the subject
                            area.

                    All these facts must be taken into consideration in order to
                    effectively train learners to be successful.   Use of strategies
                    and knowledge of when to use them are two vitally important
                    aspects of effective learning.

                    How are reading strategies effectively taught?  According to
                    Janzen (1996), the "transactional" approach to strategy
                    instruction involves paying particular attention to the following:
                    content area (one of interest and a part of the regular reading
                    program), direct explanation, teacher modeling, feedback,
                    understanding that strategies may be used for various subject
                    areas and tasks, and strategy use develops over the long term."
                    With these concepts in mind, a teacher can effectively plan and
                    implement the learning of strategies to ensure the comprehension
                    of reading materials.

                    From here we will move on to the development of the Reading
                    Comprehension Strategy discussed in Masters, Mori, & Mori
                    (p.105-106) using some activities from the "Under the Sea" unit.