Five social studies programs at the fourth and sixth grade levels were examined to determine how much and what kind of reading comprehension instruction was provided in both the students' and teachers' editions of the texts. Programs studied were those published by Follett; Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich; Laidlaw; Macmillan; and Scott, Foresman.…

Student research projects fail as a reading development technique if students have not mastered the skills necessary to complete the project or if the project's purpose is not clearly defined. When presented effectively, however, these projects provide a highly motivating and meaningful context for using reading skills. Viewed as a method of…

The Collaboration to Improve Reading in the Content Areas (CIRCA) project, a collaborative effort between the Center for the Study of Reading and the Chicago Public Schools, is described in this paper. Noting that the project was designed to translate research about content area reading into practice, the first section briefly discusses the…

Because they have difficulty in processing textual material, learning disabled, limited English speaking students, and reading deficient students create special problems for all teachers. Content area teachers can help these students by using a simple three-step strategy. The first phase, labeled TALK, involves prereading, with the readers…

This book is made up of six reading courses in the sciences, each of which is divided into several exercises. Each exercise has an objective and at least one reading selection. In most of the courses, the first objective is to acquaint the student with names and terms used in the subject being discussed. Exercises following the reading selection…

To determine if integrating course content with reading study skills would (1) increase student learning of course content and (2) improve students' general reading achievement, one section of a reading education course for preservice teachers was taught reading study skills along with course content; two sections were given no classroom…

This document presents diagnostic and prescriptive techniques that will enable teachers to enhance secondary school students' learning through reading in content areas. Three terms used in the document are defined in Section I: "vocabulary skills" include word attack skills, sight word skills, and word meanings; "comprehension skills" are literal,…

Intended as a reference tool rather than as a guide to specific instructional approaches, this manual is designed to assist teachers in planning an effective reading program for kindergarten through grade 6. The first section identifies the program objectives, discusses various approaches used in reading instruction (basal, individualized,…

This curriculum guide suggests activities for teaching basic reading skills to elementary school students. The activities are grouped according to six major skill areas: reading readiness, word recognition, word analysis, word meaning, content reading, and reading comprehension. Within each group, the activities are listed according to the grade…

Increased public concern about students' basic skill levels and about the need for minimum-competency tests has placed part of the responsibility for reading-skills development on content-area teachers. This annotated bibliography is a resource guide for content-area teachers who want to integrate reading-skills instruction with their subject…

Two experiments assessed the effects of text cohesion and schema availability on sixth grade children's comprehension of social studies passages that varied in vocabulary difficulty. The purpose of the experiments was to test the compensation hypothesis within the interactive theory of reading, which assumes that reading involves many…

The reading improvement activities in this handbook are intended for use by middle school science teachers. Focusing on study skills, vocabulary development, and comprehension development, the activities include (1) surveying science texts and science content area reading materials, (2) outlining, (3) spelling, (4) syllabication, (5) word…

This workbook for Adult Basic Education and Adult Literacy Program students uses financial planning and employee benefits as the content area for teaching reading skills. It is written so that students can work with the material with little help from the instructor. Part 1, the instructional phase, focuses on improvement of reading skills. Its…

This booklet contains suggestions for methods of instruction to improve the reading skills of students in developmental reading programs at all grade levels. The first chapter of the booklet provides a statement of philosophy, objectives, and characteristics of a developmental reading program. The second chapter considers reading readiness as a…

Reading instruction is being incorporated as a natural part of the social studies curriculum because of the emphasis which is being placed on basic skills and teacher accountability. In order for long term improvement of reading/social studies skills to occur social studies teachers must develop a systematic and deliberate approach to reading…