Written for the busy practitioner by an experienced professional development consultant, writer, and speaker, "Literacy for Real" is a hands-on guide to meaningful reading across the content areas of math, science, and social studies in grades 6-12. It presents key information that addresses all types of 21st century literacy--visual, digital, and…

Purpose: This final article covering the topic of the interplay between decoding, comprehension, and content versus structure knowledge describes a set of language initiatives that are focused toward content area learning. Inspired by the work of their colleagues from diverse fields and their own work, the authors offer suggestions to clinicians…

Reports on students' attitudes toward reading science during an experimental study that investigated ways to increase comprehension of technical material. Describes the procedure, results, conclusions, applications, and implication. (RT)

Outlines the characteristics of "friendly" science textbooks and demonstrates how these characteristics increase students' overall comprehension of reading materials. (PR)

"Dimensional analysis" (or "factor-label") is the method most frequently used to teach reaction stoichiometry. However, because it is a strictly arithmetical approach, a pictorial framework that facilitates conceptualization of a reaction as a coherent process is advocated and described. (JN)

Based on the idea that reading instruction in science means teaching simultaneously the science content and the reading and reasoning processes by which that content is learned, this booklet offers practical and theoretical suggestions for science teachers to help students improve their content area comprehension. Chapters discuss the following…

Focuses on pseudoscience by: (1) discussing sources of misinformation; (2) presenting results of a survey on students' (N=186) comprehension of scientific topics; (3) discussing implications of these results for science educators; and (4) considering the scientific creationism movement. (JN)

Investigated common belief patterns secondary school students (N=84) have about inheritance, noting the most prevalent misconceptions about genetics which occur at different age levels. Implications based on findings and suggestions for teaching lower secondary courses are included. (ML)

Semantic webbing is suggested as a method to enhance student reading comprehension by creating graphics. Four basic components are: (1) core question; (2) web strands; (3) strand supports; and (4) strand ties. Step-by-step directions are given for teaching students this technique. (DH)

Argues that children develop knowledge in layers, increasing those layers each time the topic is covered. Reviews three sets of materials that provide a background of experience, vocabulary, and text structure for use in science instruction. (FL)

This paper presents three studies of science learning using language-based measures. Studies of a total of 211 disabled and nondisabled students found significant differences in comprehension and reading fluency on science-related material, indicating that students with disabilities will not learn effectively when science education is primarily…

The processes of photosynthesis and respiration are basic to the understanding of many other aspects and functions of biological systems. Because of their curricular significance, these processes served as the focal point in an investigation of student conceptions and instructional effectiveness. In this study, students in a college nonscience…

Presented are two studies examining effects of using expressive writing in the science classroom. The first study, "Writing to Think About High School Chemistry," was conducted by a high school English teacher who enrolled in a high school chemistry course. The course was typical with the exception that students were encouraged to keep a…

This book is intended to give teachers and student teachers a better understanding of the thinking of adolescent students in science lessons and to indicate the difficulties such students have in understanding the more abstract or formal ideas with which they are presented. It is practical in its orientation as the issues discussed are illustrated…

Provides suggestions for note-taking from books, lectures, visual presentations, and laboratory experiments to enhance student knowledge, memory, and length of attention span during instruction. Describes topical and structural outlines, visual mapping, charting, three-column note-taking, and concept mapping. Benefits and application of…