Reader Text Relationship; Reading Research; *Teaching Methods

A study was conducted to explore the ways in which instructional method and text quality influence the young reader's interpretation of inside view and character plans in fiction. Thirtv-six third graders from a no::eastern, suburban, public elementary school served as subjects. Twelve children were selected randomly from students rated as strong, average, and weak. Treatment cona.,tions were randomly assigned to the groups: no instruction/original text (control); no instruction/basal text (control); "Insight into Literature"/original text; "Insight into Literature"/basal text; traditional instruction /original text; and traditional instruction/basal text. The original version of "Freckle Juice " and an adaptation of the story appearing in a basal reading series served as the text for the experimental investigation. Results of the quantitative analysis suggest that both instructional metho