Adolescents in the United States and their teachers face an enormous academic challenge with respect to reading comprehension. College and career readiness standards outlined in the Common Core (2012) place increased emphasis on preparing students to read increasingly complex text across a range of disciplinary content areas. At issue is how to…

This article reports on an action research project conducted with six ninth grade students in a rural public school in Colombia. The purpose of the study was to determine how the implementation of three reading strategies (skimming, scanning, and making predictions), when reading topics selected by learners, helps them to improve their reading…

This action research developed as a response to the researcher's experience with struggling and alliterate readers across all content areas in secondary schools. The researcher witnessed the negative impact of a depressed economy and depressed reading proficiency pervasive among students based on classroom experience and standardized testing. The…

Presents a letter written to a parent (concerned about her poor reading comprehension), which outlines some strategies to do before reading, during reading, and after reading to improve comprehension. Notes that the letter has been useful with parents and with reluctant teenage readers. (SR)

Argues that instructional activities involving visuals help secondary learners understand and remember what they read. Discusses why and how teachers should use visuals. Presents strategies for using textbook visuals and learner-generated visuals. (SR)

Shows how word processors and color printers are promising tools for helping students to think more clearly as they read. Discusses how students can use different colored lettering to identify topic sentences; to separate descriptive from narrative or informational writing; to separate information from emotion in writing; and to make changes if…

Re Quest, a questioning strategy suited to upper primary grades, was found to arouse children's interest, improve their questioning ability, and increase their comprehension scores. (RBW)

Concludes that oral reading should be encouraged as a possible means of improving the comprehension of disabled secondary school students. (FL)

Describes an instructional practice called "SCAN and RUN" (intended to promote greater reading comprehension development and success in a wider range of students) that uses a novel system of seven cues for strategies to increase reading comprehension by guiding students' understanding, learning, and recall of content material. Presents encouraging…

Uses multi-element design to compare effects of reading intervention with a control condition across three secondary students diagnosed with special learning disabilities in reading. Results showed that repeated readings increased factual comprehension levels and factual reading comprehension rates. No differences were found across conditions on…

Describes how idea mapping proved to be a helpful strategy for hearing-impaired and deaf students considered to have reading disabilities. Shows how it proved to be a valuable tool for students to understand text more effectively and become more independent in their learning processes. (SR)

Presents an inventory intended to make junior high through college students think about what they do while reading and help them become aware of metacognitive strategies. Suggests that the inventory may provide teachers with at least some basic ideas of what their students know with respect to achieving higher levels of comprehension. (RS)

Discusses the use of a "reflection guide" designed to help students increase their comprehension and recall of a textbook chapter. Notes that the guide is especially useful if students are asked to read a chapter to obtain background for a class discussion. Includes a sample completed reflection guide. (RS)

Presents some additional thoughts on improving reading comprehension through the use of multiple-choice main idea reading exercises. (RB)

Suggests that using the scientific method's five steps--recognize the problem, collect facts, form hypotheses, test hypotheses, form a conclusion--can help teachers of any subject help their students read with deeper understanding. (FL)