Teachers are often expected to assume much of the responsibility for beginning reading instruction and for sharpening the subsequent reading abilities of students, particularly during the elementary school years. Accordingly, there has always been great interest in these students' reading performance, in their reading comprehension scores as measured by both formal and informal test instruments. The majority of these reading tests confine themselves to the traditional reading comprehension skills such as understanding vocabulary in context; grasping the main idea; understanding stated and implied supporting details; and making inferences. Performance on these comprehension skills provides information on the product of the comprehension process, representing what is produced "after" comprehension has been accomplished. However, the information derived from these performance measures on reading tests do not account for the strategies involved in the comprehending task.