Many adult students have basic reading skills, but they are inexperienced readers who need to learn skills beyond the basics to equip them for success in college and career. How do educators face such adults with optimism and an eagerness to help improve specific reading skills so that these students can read and understand a variety of materials?…

Describes how the book "Mosaic of Thought: Teaching Comprehension in a Reader's Workshop" by Ellin Oliver Keene and Susan Zimmerman requires teachers to examine their reading strategies. Examines essential strategies for students to become engaged and independent readers. Considers strategies such as: metacognition; activating prior knowledge;…

Inaugurates this column's topic for the year: document strategy procedures and ways to teach them. Argues that knowledge of document structures allows for better knowledge of the cognitive steps and metacognitive strategies in document processing. (SR)

Reviews document strategies called "locate tasks." Discusses "cycle tasks," tasks requiring two or more locate tasks, repeating the known/need-to-know steps, thus cycling to earlier steps in the known/need-to-know procedure. (SR)

Defines metacognition and claims that it is a central aspect of students' steadily improving reading ability. Shows how teachers can teach their students useful metacognitive reading strategies. (HB)

Describes three "generate" strategies for seeking information in text when expected clues are missing. (SR)

Discusses how to create a profile of students' abilities to apply document strategies (locate, cycle, and integrate strategies). (SR)

Argues that on-the-job reading makes special demands upon readers. Presents a technical reading strategy that involves a five-step prereading checklist and four postreading analyses. (FL)

Distinguishes between teacher questioning that characterizes students' textual understanding and questioning that actively engages students in the meaning-making process. Contends that there must be a proper balance between the types of questioning in classrooms that support students in their efforts to learn from text as they actively interact…

Describes a metacognitive strategy that has shown the ability to improve the reading comprehension of poor readers and learning disabled adolescents. (FL)

This article challenges the word-identification view of reading and the resultant assumption that anyone who has difficulty reading words is dyslexic. It describes research demonstrating that word identification is less important in proficient reading than coordinating various language cues and metacognitive strategies to construct meaning. The…

This paper reviews nine principles regarding the reading process, and six scaffolds for teaching students to read, and then suggests a specific developmental reading program for a learning center built upon this knowledge. It is generally accepted that four factors interact to form the reading/learning process: (1) Material; (2) Self; (3)…

The concept of metacognition involves two processes: an awareness of certain skills--strategies and resources that are needed to perform a task effectively--and the ability to use self-regulatory mechanisms to ensure the successful completion of the given task. A review of the literature suggests that (1) metacognitive development differs among…

Describes a reading program for teaching study strategies in depth that integrates reading development with content area teaching. Recommends that course content teachers be responsible for reading development and that these teachers be offered instruction in teaching the strategies appropriate for study reading. (SRT)

Advocates the use of journal writing in reaction to readings to help make reading a more significant part of students' lives. (SRT)