Studied reading comprehension demands in a seventh-grade social studies classroom to reveal existing classroom cultures and complexities surrounding expository text comprehension. Found that in the particular classroom, the textbook determined knowledge exploration and had a damaging pedagogical effect on the students' literacy practices.…

Discusses Pennsylvania's Tests of Essential Learning Skills (TELS) program. Suggests avoiding "teaching the test" by implementing a program to improve reading and math skills across the curriculum. Offers strategies for promoting reading skills in social studies class. Describes structured overview, anticipation guides, level guides,…

Reviews the use of graphic organizers as a means to assist students in the complex act of making sense of content-area text. Explores theoretical and historical foundations of the graphic organizer and reviews current research. Derives implications for the classroom teacher and future research. (RS)

The amount and type of reading instruction going on in middle school science classrooms were studied in middle school classes of four science teachers. About 16% of teacher time was spent in active reading instruction and about 33% in oblique reading instruction. Implications for increasing reading instruction in these classes are discussed. (SLD)

Compares an integrated reading approach called Communicative Reading Strategies (CRS) with a skills-based comprehension approach for college freshmen with reading difficulties. Finds that CRS is the better approach, as it produces earlier reading improvement. Adds that students may be failing their course by the time skill-based intervention is…

Many authors suggest that there is a coming crisis in U.S. middle and secondary schools (Moje, Young, Readence, & Moore, 2000). This crisis comes in the form of reading difficulties. While many primary schools have emphasized word recognition and decoding, decoding does not guarantee comprehension. The result is that many students who can read…

This study, situated in an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context where non-English major college learners are usually required to read content-area textbooks in English, tried to determine what motivates students to engage in English for Academic Purposes (EAP) reading activities. Three student informants were invited to reflect on their own…

This newsletter focuses on the importance of reading and writing skills in all educational and career pathways. It includes a variety of strategies for integrating reading and writing skills across the curriculum--in academic, career/technical and fine arts courses--in ways that improve student achievement in reading and writing and in the content…

In two sections of a world history class, 43 sixth graders, all considered competent readers, participated in two sets of tasks. First, they used a familiar textbook to locate the answers to six questions, all of which contained terms that could be found in the book's index. Second, they participated in a report-writing project in which they were…

This document discusses the advantages of integrating social studies--geography in particular--and reading skills. Time is saved because literature based reading is a high interest means of introducing social studies concepts and vocabulary to children. Skills can be taught using the vocabulary from the social studies unit. This paper presents…

This elementary social studies guide developed by Seminole County Board of Public Instruction, Florida, outlines the social studies program for grades K-5. The course outline for each grade level has been developed around the Florida state minimum performance levels for reading and mathematics and around the state standards of excellence for…

Because analogical reasoning plays a major role in content area reading comprehension, teachers should learn to teach analogy-solving skills and to identify the kinds of difficulties some elementary students will have in solving them. Analogies are statements of relationships wherein one term is similar to another term. Relationships in analogy…

College professors in the various disciplines can improve their students' reading ability by instructing them to use reading to learn the discipline. First, professors can examine the goals of their syllabi (academic, utilitarian, romantic, developmental or emancipatory) in relation to reading, since most courses are predicated upon reading. These…

When readers encounter the dissonance of conflicting ideas and are motivated by the psychological discomfort to resolve the dissonance, the effort to alleviate this discomfort may well result in the activation of those cognitive processes termed critical reading and thinking. With this in mind, one approach to teaching critical reading treats…

A study examined secondary teachers' present knowledge of the reading skills needed by their students. Subjects, 76 teachers of 15 different high school subjects, were asked (1) what specific reading skills they considered most necessary for their students to be able to read subject area materials, (2) what reading skills their students are best…