Writers carefully include critical information in the opening lines of their chapters, but students often gloss over these beginning sentences, missing information that could help them better comprehend the text. To address this concern, the authors created a strategy that prompts students to examine the opening lines of chapters, helping readers…

Outlines an instructional strategy to be used with postsecondary reading students to help them actively engage with text through the use of elaborations. (SR)

Discusses a textbook annotation strategy. Examines the effectiveness and efficiency of the strategy. Finds that training students to annotate text enables them to perform effectively over time. Presents practical teaching suggestions for working with different types of students. (RS)

Develops an Information Text Reading Activity (ITRA), a conceptual framework for presenting reading lessons that will engage students in reading informational text actively. Notes that the framework provides a basis for selecting and evaluating instructional activities and assists the teacher in moving students toward independence in learning. (RS)

Provides a basis for understanding reading comprehension through the interactive components of metacognition (person, goal, task, and strategies). Suggests specific classroom techniques to encourage students to become self directed readers. (RS)

Investigates the effects of structural cueing (color or no color) and decision level (rote or semantic) on students' verbatim retention of technical prose and concludes that the results support the distinctiveness of encoding hypothesis for learning via the microcomputer. (DF)

Explains semantic mapping as a visual representation of knowledge that is useful for understanding underlying textbook concepts. Outlines steps for constructing a conceptual map with ninth grade students to be used as an aid in reading about peoples of the Middle East. Emphasizes student participation for effective semantic mapping. Provides…

Outlines five variations of the Directed Reading Thinking Activity that can help students become independent readers of narrative text. (NKA)