A common technique to aid in developing critical thinking skills is to suggest pertinent and key questions and recommend that readers engage in an internal dialogue to answer these questions. This approach can be used effectively in reading newspaper articles and will become more useful with practice. Twelve constructive questions that newspaper…

Traditionally, reading educators' alternatives for improving students' reading comprehension have been to (a) modify the text, (b) augment the text with aids, or (c) modify the students' reading behavior. The first involves limiting the average number of words per sentence and substituting short, easy words and structures. Results with this…

This paper uses the conceptual framework of cybernetics to understand why learning information systems such as the "Accelerated Reader" work so successfully, and to examine how this simple yet incisive concept can be used to accelerate learning at every level and in all disciplines. The first section, "Basic Concepts,"…

This publication is a transcription of a forum held at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. on May 19, 2006 on background knowledge and reading proficiency. This topic goes to the heart of the education reform agenda, according to the first speaker, Eugenia Kemble, executive director of the Albert Shanker Institute, the sponsor of this…

Phonological awareness has little, if anything, to do with reading or the acquisition of literacy. Learned opinion has been divided as to the relationship of phonological awareness and reading. Some scholars hold that the ability to analyze speech into discrete phonic segments is a precursor to, even a cause of, successful reading acquisition,…

Libraries serve our nation and its citizens in two primary ways: by preserving our common culture, and by nurturing and sustaining democracy itself. A particular democratic function of libraries is fostering reading. As noted in two reports recently issued by the U.S. Department of Education, "What Works" and "First Lessons," it is imperative to…

Being a reading mentor to students, colleagues, or friends is one key strategy in the development and promotion of a wide variety of reading interests. Readers serve as mentors by passive means, such as indicating how much they read, being able to name the last book recommended to them, displaying their books visibly, and maintaining their…

Containing five sections, this paper deals with motivational processes in reading. The paper first discusses motivation and unmotivated behavior. It then examines contributions from psychology, which include views concerning the nature of variables and processes involved in motivation and behavior; a hypothetical motivational sequence; and…

Presents a set of arguments defending a humanist model of reading as opposed to students responding as individuals to literary works. (CRH)

In a basic-level writing course at the University of Minnesota, students were asked to read and engage in intelligent conservation about Keith Gilyard's "Voices of the Self." The book is about education but alternates autobiographical material with scholarly analysis. Literacy researchers expect students to read a text, understand what…

The reading instructor and clinician may need to come to terms with the need for a changing role in working with college students with severe reading problems. As a growing number of intellectually able children with severe reading problems are identified during elementary and secondary school years, more students with a history of learning…

Classical studies have value for all students and particular benefits for gifted students at all educational levels. A gradual retrenchment of formal, philological classical studies in elementary and secondary schools and universities has taken place in the last four decades. Once traditional Latin and Greek were dropped, however, many colleges…

Research has consistently shown that vocabulary knowledge, including both word recognition skills and understanding of word meaning, is highly predictive of achievement in other aspects of reading--oral and silent reading and comprehension. The importance of instruction in word recognition and decoding has been recently demonstrated by the rise in…

The effects of using newspapers as adjunct materials in education have been documented in recent research. Research results indicate that students are seriously deficient in civic knowledge, and that the newspaper can serve as a bridge between home, school, and community by educating youth about the real world and by influencing their knowledge of…

A great deal can be taught using the newspaper because this medium contains a variety of information in a number of differing formats. Straight news and sports stories can be used to teach or reinforce the skills of attending to detail, comparing and contrasting, categorizing, determining the main idea, understanding vocabulary, sequencing,…