This review found that providing reading and study-skill instruction in the social studies curriculum can raise achievement scores in both reading and social studies to higher levels than what pupils would achieve without instruction. In those treatments that were successful, teachers played an important role. (Author/PN)

Many middle school and high school students have difficulty reading and understanding academic texts, which limits their ability to meet today's high learning standards. This guidebook addresses this quiet but growing crisis. Aimed at content area teachers in secondary schools, the guidebook describes a successful approach to helping students…

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)

Examines the effectiveness of combining two cognitive strategies, self-questioning and prediction, for a range of students reading below grade level. Finds that the use of these combined strategies improved reading comprehension of both slightly and severely disabled middle school students. (SR)

Noting that good reading comprehension is aided by the reader's attention to text organization, this paper presents a rationale and method for teaching students to map content materials. The paper begins by noting research demonstrating that good comprehenders attend to text organization. It then briefly reviews research related to the impact on…

The effects of graphic preorganizers (structured overviews) and prereading vocabulary instruction upon literal (lower level) and inferential/evaluative (upper level) comprehension was studied, using six sections of college students enrolled in a developmental reading and study skills course. The class sections were randomly assigned to use either…

This resource guide, based on ideas drawn from Teachers Corps projects, contains suggestions for organizing and conducting inservice programs on reading in the content areas. The first section of the guide provides guidance from the literature concerning decisions to be made in establishing an inservice program, including suggestions from…

Some practical ways to improve reading skills in social studies classes without sacrificing content objectives and goals are presented. It is emphasized that social studies teachers are best suited to teach reading skills in their own subject field. Social studies teachers need to focus on three reading skills: vocabulary development and word…

The focus of this paper is on three questions: (1) What reading skills are important to social studies achievement? (2) How can these skills be operationally defined for research and practice? and (3) How can the application of such research findings be effected? Several sources of research and discussions on reading and its relation to content…

Despite the continued lack of adequate professional preparation of secondary teachers in reading, there are steps which the secondary classroom content-area teacher can take to improve the reading ability of his students. The first thing the teacher must do is determine the specific reading and study skills required by students for content…

The purpose of this study was to determine what effect a teacher in-service program in reading study skills had on teacher achievement, teacher attitude, and the relationship between pupil achievement and the in-service treatment experiences of their respective teachers of reading and social studies. Sixteen teachers and their sixteen classrooms…

A School-Within-A-School program (SWAS) in Keokuk, Iowa, has proved successful in improving reading skills of about 145 seventh-grade pupils who are below the local 50th percentile in reading ability. The Title III/ESEA program utilizes a team teaching system which facilitates the teaching of reading skills in the content areas of mathematics,…

Methods that secondary school social studies teachers could use to help students master skills needed for effective reading and comprehension of social studies materials are presented. Surveys of recent literature on teaching reading skills and results of the author's interviews with 91 selected social studies teachers indicate that secondary…

This report describes a program for increasing student comprehension of nonfiction text by incorporating picture books into the social science curriculum, teaching students to use text elements, to generate questions about the content, and to make connections while reading. The targeted population consisted of fifth grade students in a…

This paper focuses on methods to improve the reading abilities of college students. A list of five elements college instructors (who are not reading specialists) should establish in a content reading agenda is offered; (1) an instructional basis for the reading process which will work for them; (2) content literacy environments; (3) insights into…