Argues that instructional activities involving visuals help secondary learners understand and remember what they read. Discusses why and how teachers should use visuals. Presents strategies for using textbook visuals and learner-generated visuals. (SR)

Reviews a number of beginning reading materials that can be used in improving children's reading skills in a variety of content areas. (FL)

Pennsylvania's Content Area Reading Program uses a network of 50 trained instructors to help teachers improve students' content area reading skills. This article covers program content, instructor recruitment and training, variations in program presentation, factors underlying program success, and steps in planning inservice programs in content…

Maintains that second-language readers may have problems with content area text, particularly in the areas of language, background knowledge, and advanced literacy skills. Argues that faculty collaboration is the key, with ESL specialists, reading specialists, and content area teachers supporting second-language students in content area…

Discusses the types and functions of graphic displays found in textbooks, whether they facilitate learning, how well students read graphic displays, and what classroom teachers can do to help students read and interpret graphic displays. (SR)

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.…

Argues that if instruction in study skills begins in the early grades reading curriculum, students will learn to get the most from what they read as they mature. (FL)

Suggests that the principal give impetus for students to practice wide reading in specific fields by scheduling free reading periods and by providing teacher inservice training. (FL)

Reading aloud can help students who have problems comprehending social studies subject matter. Teachers, parents, and volunteers can all serve as effective oral readers. Teachers and principals should list goals for volunteers to achieve when reading aloud. In addition, to vary the oral reading approach, students can take turns reading aloud.…

For reading specialists to play a decisive role in improving reading comprehension of young people, they must get into the classrooms. To gain this entry, they should behave in a way that acknowledges the classroom teacher's attitudes and perceptions about reading and that eliminates those practices that seem to offend teachers. (Author/SJL)

A basic concept in reading content in the social studies is for pupils to experience adequate background information. A pupil cannot read and understand new subject matter unless prerequisites have been met. For early primary grade pupils, the Big Book concept may be used, wherein the teacher discusses the illustration in the book pertaining to…

Notes that expository text, the predominant form of writing in content textbooks, is generally more difficult for students to comprehend than narrative, which predominates in basal readers. Recommends the use of extended anticipation guides as a strategy for helping students build background knowledge for understanding content area texts. (SKC)

In the face of declining student reading abilities, content area instructors at community colleges can no longer ignore the gap that exists between student reading levels and the higher levels at which college texts are written. Indeed, these instructors have a responsibility to include reading improvement in course objectives, because: (1) the…

The primary aim of the reading center at Brigham Young University (Utah) is to teach typical university students critical reading skills, not just to work with students needing remedial or basic help. The reading center also serves as a resource for teachers in all disciplines who want help in recognizing and evaluating good reading, or who want…

In school districts throughout the United States, at-risk students are receiving remedial instruction in learning centers outside the classroom. Because this separation increases the likelihood that students will receive a fragmented education, learning center staff should provide remedial students with "curricular congruence," or content and…