Educators increasingly recognize the importance of disciplinary literacy for student success, beginning as early as the primary grades. This cutting-edge volume examines ways to help K-12 students develop the literacy skills and inquiry practices needed for high-level work in different academic domains. Chapters interweave research, theory, and…

The purpose of this study was to quantitatively analyze the Latin American content of contemporary world geography textbooks published for United States secondary schools. A preliminary review of the literature indicated that Latin America was generally omitted from world geography texts, Central America was given minimal attention, and…

Intended for elementary school teachers, researchers, and materials developers, this book presents a cluster approach to vocabulary instruction, in which words are taught in semantically related groups. Over 7,000 words from elementary school textbooks have been organized into 61 instructional clusters, each containing two levels of subclusters…

Assuming that the ability to interpret punctuation is basic to reading comprehension, a study was conducted to assess the junior high school reader's ability to interpret internal punctuation in a written passage. From an examination of texts, reference and research materials used at the junior high school level, six uses of three punctuation…

Designed to assess the attitudes toward and perceptions of competency in teaching reading in the content areas held by preservice and inservice teachers of elementary and secondary school content area subjects, this inventory contains specific skill statements on a five-point Likert-type scale. Each statement represents and illustrates the…

Presents a case study of one teacher's method of teaching literature. Discusses the emphasis on a process of critical interpretation of subject matter, transformation of that content, and continuous learning based on the literal and metaphorical aspects of content. Concludes that critical thinking is encouraged by organizing imagery, forms of…

The purpose of this study was to determine if a multidimensional treatment in the study of the content area of social studies would help the average and below average student. The 37 fifth-grade students in this study came from a middle-socioeconomic level of north central New Jersey. The 18 students in the experimental sample received special…

Most secondary science courses in North America are designed to use textbooks as the primary or exclusive source of information about the content or processes of science, and most science teachers focus their instruction on a single text. Although there are many serious issues raised by the overwhelming reliance on text-based teaching/learning in…

To determine how differences in isolating and elaborating on important text information influence learning and attitudes toward learning, two groups of fifth grade students were trained to apply the mechanics of precis writing and outlining to their social studies readings. After a pretest for content knowledge and an evaluation of their attitudes…

To compare both the effect of and the student attitude toward instruction in outlining and graphic organization, 72 grade 10 world history students were divided into three treatment groups. Two groups, one of which had previously received 14 weeks of summarization training, were instructed in a three-step procedure for creating a graphic organizer…

Reports on students' attitudes toward reading science during an experimental study that investigated ways to increase comprehension of technical material. Describes the procedure, results, conclusions, applications, and implication. (RT)

To determine if integrating course content with reading study skills would (1) increase student learning of course content and (2) improve students' general reading achievement, one section of a reading education course for preservice teachers was taught reading study skills along with course content; two sections were given no classroom…

Intended to help classroom teachers, curriculum developers, and researchers, this book provides current information on theoretical and instructional aspects of main idea comprehension. Titles and authors are as follows: "The Confused World of Main Idea" (James W. Cunningham and David W. Moore); "The Comprehension of Important…

Intended for both elementary and secondary school teachers, this book is a reference source for the most recent research in content area reading instruction. The seven sections of the book cover the academic disciplines of English, foreign language, mathematics, music, physical education, science, and social studies. Each section opens with a…

Prepared by members of the Institute for Research on Teaching and the Center for the Study of Reading, the papers in this collection examine reading comprehension as an interactive process and explore how comprehension instruction occurs in the complex workplace of the classroom. Specific topics discussed in 20 papers include the following: (1)…