Because vocational students need to be able to read, visualize, and follow directions on the job, teaching them how to read and understand a textbook gives them a vital skill they can practice while acquiring technical skills. (SK)

Argues that reading specialists' lack of success in persuading content area teachers to help their students read and study texts in social studies, science, and mathematics is a result of reading specialists' lack of careful thought about text structures. Discusses the text structures of textbooks in these content areas. (RS)

Children's literature and the social studies need to be integrated so that holism is involved in pupil learning. A variety of kinds of reading materials should be available to learners so that each social studies unit might be meaningful and interesting. Individual differences among pupils' abilities and achievements must be adequately provided…

Argues that health educators must learn to predict readability levels of textbooks to be sure that they are challenging and understandable to the student. Concludes that this can be accomplished through the use of readability formulas. (FL)

Looks at affective aspects in different stages of the reading process to find causes and solutions to the problem of students who do not read content area materials effectively. Offers teaching strategies combining affective and cognitive elements of instruction to motivate students to read content area textbooks with awareness. (SR)

Points out problems associated with the language of textbooks and the development of reading-related skills (e.g., reading maps and charts). Discusses specific teaching strategies for coping with textbook language and facilitating text comprehension and memory. (JM)

Describes how the attitudes toward textbooks of students enrolled in a study strategies class underwent change as they worked with a particular psychology textbook. Notes that the students wrote to the author, who in turn wrote back. Argues that students' affective responses to textbook reading may be the most undervalued dimension of content area…

Deals with the text patterns commonly found in social studies books. Explores the expository text pattern and offers a teaching pattern to help guide students through the transition from narrative to content area texts in the upper elementary grades. (MG)

The article discusses three features of content area textbooks that make them relatively easy to read, understand, and learn from--structure, coherence, and audience appropriateness. For each feature, the article describes the research basis for the feature, outlines problems with existing textbooks, and presents suggestions for evaluating…

The comprehension of instructional text can be a cognitively demanding task because component comprehension processes compete for limited space within the readers' working memories. The component comprehension processes that readers must perform include recognizing words and retrieving their meanings, parsing sentences, identifying and organizing…

Reviews eight reading-across-the-curriculum textbooks, showing that four treat academic discourse only in its generic form, while four go beyond that level to look at the audience, purpose, and genre specific to particular disciplines. (RBW)

Discusses the use of content area textbooks and indicates that content textbooks are difficult for students to understand because the books generally are not well written. Offers solutions for how to use content textbooks and illustrates how lessons can be created through the integration of tradebooks and through discussions in which critical…

Community college professors have a responsibility as teachers to help students learn the many new words which must be added to their high school vocabularies if they are to be successful. While some instructors provide students with a list of jargon words relevant to a particular course, most ignore the problem posed by new words encountered in…

Describes how a list of the great books of biology was developed. Discusses the insufficiency of textbooks and traditional classroom instruction. Advocates the uses of outside reading and libraries. Focuses on books designed to be read, not studied for information and enjoyment. (CW)

Provides rationale for using trade books rather than textbooks for instruction in content areas. Describes a specific teaching strategy, which includes readiness, reading, and responses for encouraging the development of thinking skills and independent learning. (DST)