The Common Core State Standards bring the importance of connecting texts to the forefront by sharing that students must be able to "analyze how two or more texts address similar themes or topics in order to build knowledge or to compare the approaches authors take" (National Governors Association Center for Best Practices & Council…

As part of its proposal to the U.S. Department of Education, the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) committed to developing Kindergarten through Grade 2 Model Content Frameworks for English language arts (ELA)/literacy (K-2 Model Content Frameworks) to serve as a bridge between the Common Core State Standards…

The purpose of this work is to present a comprehensive curricular approach that helps childhood educators empower students as developing thinkers who, by connecting with literature, build a deeper and more robust cultural understanding of themselves and others. Based on a formal content analysis, 44 picture books from and about the Middle East and…

Presenting the story of how discussion became the foundation of a teacher's classroom practice, this book examines reading development in a group of second graders, observing classroom discussions and the transformation of a basal-reading curriculum into one which used literature-study groups. The book reports on close-up classroom observation as…

Intended for elementary school reading teachers, this booklet offers insight into the nature of comprehension and suggestions for enhancing children's comprehension skills. The first chapter discusses trends in comprehension research, and several specific points about the nature of comprehension and how it can best be taught. The second chapter…

In the early 1980s, the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) revised its policies on reading instruction. A new transactional definition of reading shifted the emphasis from discrete reading skills to comprehension and set out objectives consistent with that new definition. Policymakers also revised the state?s reading-evaluation instruments,…

After finding that French language learning was declining in Rio de Janeiro schools because of inadequate resources, oversized classes, and irrelevant curricula, several teachers turned to a magazine for adolescents for motivating students to read. Extracts from an article and a series of exercises developing varied competencies illustrate the…

This project report describes the development of a literacy curriculum that introduced the elements of democracy. After reviewing existing print and video materials, a curriculum design team of literacy practitioners and civic activists prepared a draft curriculum and pilot tested it in six adult literacy classes. Based on feedback from teachers…

The developmental approach to high school literature study in this guide involves an instructional model emphasizing fluency (a period of responsiveness and support by the teacher), control (that part of instruction traditionally recognized as a high school literature), and precision (that phase of instruction in which rigor and intensity in…

Noting that comprehension instruction is widely recognized as an essential component of developing students' pleasure and profit from reading, this book presents 25 essays on comprehension instruction that summarize current research and provide best-practice guidelines for teachers and teacher educators. Each chapter in the book presents key…

Developed for workers in the apparel, carpet, and textile industries, this curriculum package presents a curriculum guide, the lesson plan, handouts, transparencies, tests, and evaluation forms for use by instructors in customizing a one-hour course for new employees on understanding the employee handbook. The introduction describes how the…

This paper discusses the difficulties deaf and hard-of-hearing children (d/hh) have in test taking and the test-taking strategies they use, such as visual matching of words in the text to words in the question. These specific strategies are different from those used by children without disabilities. Also examined are the characteristics and…

Intended specifically for tutors who want to use proven teaching techniques but who have limited time and resources, this book offers dozens of teaching ideas as well as useful information on curriculum development, instruction, and appropriate reading materials. The teaching strategies in the book were adapted from articles published in the…

Developed for Boston high school students, the English objectives in this booklet are presented in a two-column format. General objectives are stated in the left-hand column while specific examples of ways to evaluate student mastery of the objectives are presented in the right. Integrating reading, writing, listening, speaking, and critical…

This research review focuses on the effects and implications of text organization, both physical presentation and text structure, and on reading comprehension, with special emphasis on the comprehension of diverse learners. The review includes students in kindergarten through college, who are high and low readers and comprehenders; low…