This paper discusses my experiences taking a semester's worth of undergraduate courses in order to determine the literacy task demands placed on students in the classroom. It has been well documented that students struggle with literacy tasks when they enter college. My experiences indicated that part of this struggle might be because reading…

This guide is intended to make it easier to implement the Reading for Meaning strategy from the ultimate guide to teaching strategies, "The Strategic Teacher". When you and your colleagues want to explore more ways to help students understand what they read, make inferences, and support their thinking with evidence, this book is your ideal tool.…

Using interviews and 10 weeks of consecutive lesson plans with supporting documentation, the author analyzes four first-year teachers' assigned in-class and out-of-class reading assignments and their choices and uses of reading strategies they learned in their preservice program. (Contains 2 tables.)

Teacher educators can use active engagement strategies to help teacher candidates interact meaningfully with assigned readings for literacy methods courses. This approach to active engagement with required readings helps teacher candidates learn the content, concepts, and processes from text, and enables them to experience as learners the…

Three reading comprehension strategies are presented to assist learning-disabled students: an advance organizer technique called "TELLS Fact or Fiction" used before reading a passage, a schema-based technique called "Story Mapping" used while reading, and a postreading method of categorizing questions called…

Conversation is a basis for critical thinking. It is the thread that ties together cognitive strategies and provides students with the practice that becomes the foundation for reading, writing, and thinking. In recent years, proficient reader research has yielded information about what good readers do as they comprehend text. This article provides…

After an informal study of 589 college freshmen enrolled in reading courses at Bishop State Junior College (Alabama) revealed that most students read out-of-class assignments only sometimes because of the degree of difficulty of the reading tasks, a series of directed and structured activities was developed to promote reading comprehension. The…

Most students enjoy reading interesting selections about unusual plants, animals, insects, spiders, and other creatures. This book attempts to capitalize on the natural curiosity of students by introducing them to some of nature's most intriguing forms of life. The document is designed to provide students with background information, including…

A Dutch teacher presents reading, film viewing, and writing activities for "Empire of the Sun," J. G. Ballard's autobiographical account of life as a boy in Shanghai and in a Japanese internment camp during World War II (the subject of Steven Spielberg's film of the same name). Includes objectives, procedures, and several literature,…

By providing definitions of key concepts, outlines of major models, and practical suggestions for classroom implementation, this pamphlet gives teachers access to current research on the interactive model of reading. The topics covered include: Vygotsky's learning theory, metacomprehension, prior knowledge, chapter mapping, cooperative learning,…

Reports findings of a survey, asking 1000 secondary social studies teachers to rate 36 specialist-designed reading practices. Shows teachers value and employ these techniques: (1) provide suitable materials; (2) offer instruction and guidance; (3) develop readiness through prereading; (4) encourage recitation, discussion, and comparative reading.…

Literacy strategies useful in the adult education classroom were presented at a faculty professional development workshop. Literacy was described as a two-part process that included receptive (involving listening and reading) and expressive (involving speaking and writing). Content area was described as the focus of adult education literacy with…