A review of several classroom observation and survey studies of comprehension instruction, content area reading for homework, and aspects of reading assignments raises the question of whether enough is being done in Irish schools to develop critical reading competency. It appears from these studies that many students are being left to their own…

The purpose of this book on reading instruction in the elementary school is twofold: firstly, to share with colleagues some of the significant works of research and theory that suggest answers to important questions about reading instruction, and secondly, to describe specific teaching strategies implied by these answers. The book assumes that…

Research indicates that students need to improve their critical thinking skills, but many students miss the opportunity to do so by not reading and analyzing their textbooks closely enough. Often, students believe that textbooks are objective materials full of "facts" that must be memorized, understood, and given back to the instructor,…

A companion piece to "Improving Students' Abilities To Read and Think: A Source Guide" and to the training manual of the same title, this guide is designed to help middle, junior, and senior high school personnel responsible for reading instruction learn new strategies for improving student comprehension of text and learn new ways to…

A British publisher conducted a readability study of its English language content area texts being used in foreign countries to determine how the texts could be made more readable. A cloze procedure assessment of a secondary school Hong Kong social studies series indicated that the English texts were too difficult for 91% of the pupils tested.…

A program (entitled "Across the Curriculum") that integrated speaking, listening, reading, and writing instruction into content areas across the curriculum, in Central College, Iowa, is described in this paper. The paper first discusses the formation of the program, which was predicated on a desire shared by faculty members in all academic areas…

The advantages of shared silent reading in the home and in the school for the promotion of literacy are numerous. At home the child may read silently in the presence of a parent who is engaged in a household task, or who is reading silently. In schools, shared silent reading may be used at all grade levels with groups of students in structured or…

To determine whether emphasizing on basic skills in subject matter courses is an effective approach to improving junior high students' achievement in reading and language arts, 389 students and 16 teachers were assigned to either an experimental treatment group consisting of a health curriculum restructured to use a reading/language format or a…

Sixteen articles written for publication in newspapers discuss moral issues in contemporary society. The articles form the basis of a college-level course by newspaper which also includes a book of primary source readings, study guide, and source book. The course can be taken independently by individuals or in a structured class setting. The…

Directed to Oregon administrators and language arts teachers at all instructional levels, this publication discusses numerous aspects of a goal-based language arts curriculum. Separate sections deal with goal-based planning for the language arts; assessment; relating language arts instructional programs to minimum standards; language arts program…

An 11 page chapter from a sixth grade social studies text was used in a study assessing the complexities of comprehending social studies materials and the sensitivity of prospective and experienced teachers to these complexities. A sentence-by-sentence analysis of the thinking operations required for mastery of the material showed that numerous…

Forty-eight undergraduate secondary education majors were involved in an investigation of the relationships between participation in a preservice secondary school reading methods course (which included sharing of leisure reading books as well as the traditional format) and changes in attitudes toward teaching reading in the content areas, in…

More than 50 college students participated in an investigation of the extent to which content area study skills programs influenced the attrition rates and grade point averages of health science students whose performance was marginal. Two experimental study skills programs were developed. In the first, 11 students were placed in a "how to study…

Four text passages varying along the dimensions of the number of propositions unifying one or more text paragraphs and text length were constructed. The text content pertained to nine concepts in the area of operant conditioning psychology. Fifty-eight university students were pretested and then blocked on prior text-related knowledge, and read…

Reading and social studies instruction in 39 third- through sixth-grade classrooms in central Illinois was observed in a study designed to determine whether elementary school classrooms provide comprehension instruction. Among the findings were that practically no comprehension instruction was seen but that comprehension assessment, usually…