Reading nonfiction requires students to use different techniques to: (1) navigate multiple starting and stopping points; (2) decipher charts, tables, and other graphic elements; and (3) be comfortable skipping about and scanning through text. This article offers simple and effective strategies that can facilitate successful reading in science.

In this Inquiry Study, participants will explore the process of reading expository texts--the strategies participant/teachers use to make sense of them, and how expository texts are similar to and different from narrative and other types of texts. Participants will then examine aspects of expository texts, such as text structures, vocabulary, and…

Describes InSight, a strategy for helping students (particularly grades 4-12) comprehend expository or informational text, focusing on increasing students' ability to answer questions based on their comprehension of text and to formulate their own questions based on their knowledge and text-based knowledge. (SR)

Discusses the Concept Question Chain (CQC), a set of questions used for discussing narrative or expository text that enables students to develop, learn, and apply a text-based concept. Presents an overview for developing and implementing CQC. Presents excerpts from the discussion of a group of seventh graders and their teacher as they used the…

Students must be able to create meaning from career and technical education texts. Reading and comprehension of texts are skills that develop through practice with a variety of texts, including those in career and technical education. A quasi-experimental nonequivalent control group design was used to determine the effect of implementing content…

Identifies the "goal frame" as a method of text analysis which calls upon students to establish a purpose for reading. Provides an example in which students read a passage about Alexander the Great to determine his goals, plans, actions, and results. Concludes that this approach allows students to develop better comprehension and organizational…

Presents strategies designed to encourage the predictive behavior of students attempting to acquire new vocabulary. (FL)

Notes that a text map is an instructional approach designed to help students gain fluency in reading content area materials. Discusses how the goal is to teach students about the important features of the material and how the maps can be used to build new understandings. Presents the procedures for preparing and using a text map. (SG)

Argues that summaries are useful before, during, and after reading to help students become strategic readers. Discusses classroom applications of chronological and problem-solution "frames." (RS)

Investigates the effectiveness of improving the reading comprehension of sixth-grade social studies students through the use of metacognitive strategies. Finds that students who are instructed in the use of metacognitive strategies increase their reading comprehension more than students who do not receive such instruction. (MG)

Explores the nature and use of reading in an inquiry-based high school mathematics classroom. Finds multiple ways of reading in a semester-long course on "mathematical connections," and that these reading practices constituted ways to learn and do mathematics. Suggests that students learn with and through as well as from text in…

Discusses the use of a "reflection guide" designed to help students increase their comprehension and recall of a textbook chapter. Notes that the guide is especially useful if students are asked to read a chapter to obtain background for a class discussion. Includes a sample completed reflection guide. (RS)

Describes a strategy, called "circle of questions" in which students worked together in small groups and in a large group to actively construct their own questions about a topic and then explore the text to find answers. (SR)

Investigates why informational reading causes problems for secondary students. Presents solutions, including how the author has been able to assist pupils in reading for meaning by devising an approach called "Comprehending by Learning to Use Effective Strategies" (C.L.U.E.S.). (MG)

Presents an instrument to observe students' quantitative literacy abilities. Discusses document strategy factors and quantitative factors contributing to task difficulty. (SR)