Presents guidelines for use in examining the comprehensibility of a textbook, questions to ask about the book, and suggestions for using the guide questions. (FL)

Proposing two major shifts in how to involve low readers more effectively in textbook learning, this book suggests that students, even those with low reading skills, can learn to use mainstream textbooks, and that textbooks can be designed to make them more usable for all students. The book presents a series of instructional techniques that…

Readability formulas can be useful tools in accomplishing their primary purpose--to give very general estimates of difficulty. Unfortunately, there has been a great deal of misunderstanding regarding their use, which has resulted in misuse and abuse. The formulas were designed to be applied post hoc to existing materials. They were not intended to…

Differentiating textbooks is modifying or adapting textbooks in ways that make them easier for students to read and comprehend and then to retain what they have read. This book explains how teachers can motivate their students as they are confronted with text which is generally written in a "less-than-engaging" expository style. The strategies…

Designed to present a historical account of instructional approaches to the teaching of comprehension as well as insights into effective approaches for the present and the future, this collection of papers is divided into three parts, concerned respectively with: (1) instructional research in reading comprehension, (2) the reader and the text, and…

A guide for teachers selecting reading textbooks, this report brings together information about basal programs on the market and clarification of important issues in reading instruction. A general analysis of 20 basal programs includes a prose explication and a table comparing contents (skills), reading selections, methodology, assessment tests,…

Intended as a resource of staff-tested activities for two-year college faculty, staff, and administrators, this manual is a compilation of representative materials from training workshops conducted, as a professional development project, to increase instructor skills and knowledge regarding intervention in reading deficiency of postsecondary…

Ways in which social studies teachers can help students in grades 6, 7, and 8 improve their reading comprehension and understanding of social studies ideas and concepts are discussed, and sample reading comprehension activities are provided. First, teachers must choose a textbook with readability and concept levels appropriate for their students.…