Today, less than one-third of America's high school students read or write at grade level. Literacy skills are alarmingly low even among those students who plan to go to college. Clearly, vast numbers of middle and high school students need help with their reading and writing skills. The question is: Whose job should it be to teach them? Among…

Based on research findings, informed opinions contained in the professional literature, and examples from school personnel of "what works," this report focuses on strategies that educators can use to improve secondary school students' reading skills and enhance interest in reading. Many of the strategies in the report are applicable…

The Reading Experiences Associated with Partners (REAP) approach to science combines reading process and product. Students work together sharing their ideas, interests, and knowledge. Results are recorded, and every effort is made to arrange the classrom so that it will aid students in meeting the task objectives. Children can be paired with a…

Designed to improve the reading skills of electronic students, these instructional materials include a series of reading passages taken from material actually used in an electronics course and a set of exercises dealing with reading for both main ideas and details. The exercises presented employ a variety of formats including identifying main…

Thirty-six students participated in a study of a program designed to help first-year medical students construct an ideational scaffolding as they attempted to understand their texts. They were divided into two groups: an experimental group that was given an instructional program on how to develop a hierarchical structure while reading, and a…

The focus of this manual is on the step-by-step development of certain study skills related to the mastery of content-area reading materials. An introduction includes discussion of goals, advice for organizing learning stations, guidelines for a general pretest of skills, a teacher checklist for evaluation of study-skill competencies, and…

The 55 entries in this bibliography represent books published between 1960 and 1979. The entries deal with a variety of topics, including the following: reading success and personality characteristics; reading instruction; participating in secondary school reading; helping the nonreading student; classroom strategies; remedial reading; developing…

THE FOLLOWING PRINCIPLES FOR CONDUCTING COLLEGE-ADULT READING PROGRAMS WERE IMPLEMENTED IN THE WESTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY READING PROGRAM--(1) THE TEACHER MUST STIMULATE, INFORM, AND GUIDE, (2) EVERY STUDENT SHOULD KNOW HIS OWN READING ABILITY AND SELECT FOR HIMSELF THE READING SKILLS HE NEEDS, (3) THE STUDENT SHOULD UNDERSTAND THAT HE CAN…

Described in this paper is a technique for reading instruction at the secondary level which emphasizes paragraph-passage examination and is intended to fit into any content teacher's daily work. The technique described provides occasion to establish purpose in reading-study assignments, utilize experience and previous background to develop…

Five points are: (1) don't assume students know how to use their textbooks; (2) don't ignore the problem or take only short term measures for improvement; (3) don't give undirected assignments; (4) don't force students to pronounce every word correctly; (5) don't send students to the dictionary for words they don't know. (Author/JK)

Science activities which help children look at the natural world can also help them gain skills for reading. Examples illustrating this link (verbal expression, vocabulary, finding main points, following directions, and writing laboratory reports) are given along with guidelines for teachers interested in building up and building on reading…

Based on the idea that word knowledge has particular importance in literate societies, this Digest finds that most people feel that there is a common sense relationship between vocabulary and reading comprehension, i.e., messages are composed of ideas, and ideas are expressed in words. The Digest considers several viewpoints on teaching…

Discusses "reading nightmares" of reading educators. Shares what junior high and senior high school content area teachers say about their own reading nightmares, in which they often feel unable or unwilling to teach reading in the content area. Argues that by viewing reading as a lifelong process, teachers can help students become better readers.…

Explores the benefits of using Readers Theatre in the content areas. Discusses how to select and adapt text for Readers Theatre scripts and provides suggestions for rehearsal and performing of the scripts. (MG)