Like educators around the country, staff in juvenile justice facilities recognize the serious academic challenges that many of their students face because of low levels of literacy achievement. This "Adolescent Literacy Guide" provides guidance to administrators and teachers who want to increase opportunities for students in juvenile…

A method for taking structured notes from textbooks uses a set of forms applicable to the texts in almost any content area. The two major goals of this method are using all parts of the textbook chapter and placing all parts of a chapter in context. The structured notes both focus on the content and force the students to synthesize and paraphrase.…

A STUDY WAS CONDUCTED TO DETERMINE FROM THE VERBAL RESPONSES OF READERS THE TYPES OF CONTEXTUAL AIDS THAT SERVE AS CLUES TO THE MEANINGS THAT MIGHT BE ATTACHED TO SIMULATED WORDS AND TO CLASSIFY THESE CONTEXTUAL AIDS ON THE BASIS OF THE ELEMENTS OF THE VERBAL CONTEXT THAT WAS UTILIZED BY THE READER. AN INTROSPECTIVE TECHNIQUE WAS USED IN…

Literature can be read for fun but also for interdisciplinary teaching and learning. (Author)

In this brief article, the author discuses how teachers across the curriculum and across grade levels can help students improve their reading skills and become more independent learners. The goal is to help students learn the subject matter while simultaneously helping them improve communication and reasoning skills necessary to learn the…

Discusses how textbooks can influence students' social behavior throughout their lives. (FL)

The Flesch readability scores for six kinds of newspaper content in 21 daily newspapers showed that newspaper content was generally difficult to read, that international news stories were most difficult to read, and that sports/women's news stories were least difficult to read. (RL)

Relates the benefits of a modified version of the SQ3R (survey, question, read, recite, and review) study technique and tells how the modified version emphasizes previewing, reading, reciting, reviewing, and checking notes. Describes a two-phase strategy for training students to use the technique and providing guidance in applying it. (GT)

Describes strategies teachers can use before, during, and after reading to help students read and understand content-area textbooks. For example, before reading discuss structure of the text, during reading use a variety of graphic organizers that match the structure, and after reading help students write about what they have learned. (PKP)

Describes an activity that can help refine and develop the skill of scanning, that is, reading a text to locate a particular piece of information. The activity involves analyzing two texts: the first is the original, and the second is a shortened, slightly inaccurate "battered" version of the first. (GLR)

Defines "content literacy" as the ability to use reading and writing for the acquisition of new content in a given discipline. Identifies three principal cognitive components: general literacy skills; content-specific literacy skills; and prior knowledge of content. Discusses the implications of content literacy for content area reading…

Discusses the importance of reading in science lessons, and offers practical solutions to the problems of structuring shared reading, making reading active, encouraging note-taking, and locating potential sources of reading material. (Author/MM)

The literacy-content dualism, which suggests that teachers must decide whether to provide literacy or content instruction, is a false dualism and adherence to it is detrimental to student participation in content-area reasoning, learning, and communicating. This article describes the experiences that prompted the teacher educators who authored…

The increased demands for access to and accountability for mastery of the general education curriculum by all students, including students with disabilities, is a current reality within schools. A number of factors have been suggested to promote school reform, classroom implementation, and increase the rates of high fidelity implementation of…

Without proficiency in content reading skills, seventh grade students were at risk of not being able to achieve understanding of what they read in non-fiction texts, a skill that is absolutely necessary for college-bound students. The purpose of this action research study was to investigate whether an approach that involved specific and focused…