Comprehension in textbooks, scholarly books, and research journal articles, along with identification of important information can be problematic for college students. Reading is fundamental in all academic disciplines. Many college instructors do not see that teaching students reading skills as part of their job, and that reading required…

Reading literacy of fourth-grade students in Hong Kong showed a remarkable improvement from 2001 to 2006 as shown by international PIRLS studies. This study identified various aspects of the teacher factor contributing to the significant improvement among students. A total of 4,712 students and 144 teachers from 144 schools were randomly selected…

Published in partnership with WestEd, this significantly updated second edition of the bestselling book contains strategies for helping students in middle school through community college gain the reading independence to master subject area textbooks and other material. Features of this book include: (1) Based on the Reading Apprenticeship…

Based on the idea that reading instruction in science means teaching simultaneously the science content and the reading and reasoning processes by which that content is learned, this booklet offers practical and theoretical suggestions for science teachers to help students improve their content area comprehension. Chapters discuss the following…

Problems that students may have because of their unfamiliarity with the passage structures used in many social studies textbooks are discussed. Passage structures are defined as certain rhetorical structures such as compare/constrast, general/specific, and sequence. A teaching strategy for helping students overcome these difficulties is included.…

The Reading Experiences Associated with Partners (REAP) approach to science combines reading process and product. Students work together sharing their ideas, interests, and knowledge. Results are recorded, and every effort is made to arrange the classrom so that it will aid students in meeting the task objectives. Children can be paired with a…

Science activities which help children look at the natural world can also help them gain skills for reading. Examples illustrating this link (verbal expression, vocabulary, finding main points, following directions, and writing laboratory reports) are given along with guidelines for teachers interested in building up and building on reading…

Based on the idea that word knowledge has particular importance in literate societies, this Digest finds that most people feel that there is a common sense relationship between vocabulary and reading comprehension, i.e., messages are composed of ideas, and ideas are expressed in words. The Digest considers several viewpoints on teaching…

Targeted primarily for students in grades 4-8, this document presents a variety of structured overview, mapping, and story frames strategies for integrating writing across the curriculum and to help students gain and retain information from texts. The paper includes a rationale for content area reading lessons, a list of reading lessons to bridge…

Intended to make teachers aware of various tactics that will move students toward strategies for independent learning, this paper describes several work-study skills, which--once mastered--can be integrated into the set of tactics the life-long learner might use in his or her independent mastery of text and lecture. The first part of the paper…

Many middle school and high school students have difficulty reading and understanding academic texts, which limits their ability to meet today's high learning standards. This guidebook addresses this quiet but growing crisis. Aimed at content area teachers in secondary schools, the guidebook describes a successful approach to helping students…

Noting that good reading comprehension is aided by the reader's attention to text organization, this paper presents a rationale and method for teaching students to map content materials. The paper begins by noting research demonstrating that good comprehenders attend to text organization. It then briefly reviews research related to the impact on…

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…

Describes a four-step instructional process that helps middle and secondary students become actively involved in their reading and provides a structure for main idea development in reading and writing. (HOD)

When your school wants to do more to improve the literacy skills of secondary school students, here's a leadership plan that takes your program in a bold, new direction. Instead of focusing on isolated teaching strategies and textbooks, the authors introduce you to a whole-school program that emphasizes: (1) Exposing students in all subjects to…