As teachers and leaders move forward in implementing the Common Core State Standards within classrooms across 46 states, it is essential to consider the question of what knowledge is included in the English Language Arts Standards, and what knowledge is not present. The authors of the Common Core delineate an increasingly complex body of knowledge…

Teachers can engage students in historical thinking by intentionally structuring close reading tasks. This article provides a practical and theoretical examination of the learning and teaching during a 30-minute social studies class in which students studied colonization by reading a primary source text from the Jamestown Colony. Students used…

The United States is a society that is simultaneously consumed and repulsed by the body; a society where obsession over a constructed "obesity" epidemic runs alongside obsession over thinness; a society where advertisers manipulate digital images of bodies to present two-dimensional versions of ideal male and female physiques, and plastic surgeons…

Many teachers want to incorporate critical literacy into their instruction but are unsure of where to start. In this article, the authors pair Jones's (2006) three tenets of critical literacy (deconstruction, reconstruction, and social action) with books that highlight multiple perspectives. By combining this critical literacy framework with…

Describes how the works of Dr. Seuss--particularly "On Beyond Zebra"--provide an ideal medium to engage children in critical reading, discussion, and reflection. (MM)

Suggests strategies and questions which may be used to build readers' sensitivity to the relationship between their own values and the values expressed in what they read. (DD)

Describes a method for teaching reading comprehension that attempts to develop critical reading skills through questioning. (RB)

Suggests seven value clarification exercises based on situations in basal reading series in which characters could have acted, thought, or felt differently. (MKM)

Presents two episodes from the reading experience of children in a Year 3 classroom: (1) a guided reading lesson conducted by the teacher; and (2) a group of reading sessions conducted by the researcher. Suggests that where children are given the power to make meaning for themselves, they are more likely to learn to read critically than those who…

This booklet is designed to provide some starter ideas for teachers to use in developing their own packet of learning materials. The procedures suggested and the examples included are literally starters. "Introduction to Survival Learning Materials" presents some procedures to help teachers get started in developing materials. "Following…

Notes that it is usual in Australia for drama as a learning activity to follow reading of the text. Provides examples of how process drama methodology was used as a teaching and learning activity during the reading of a young adult novel. Provides the students' perspective of why and how drama engaged them in a critical interpretative reading of…

Argues the importance of teaching students to read for meaning and suggests nine ways in which critical reading and thinking skills can be developed. (RB)

Presents several ideas for leading children into deeper levels of meaning through critical reading skills. (TO)

Examples of comprehension activities are presented in the areas of: context clues, literal comprehension, recall of details, main ideas, maps and charts, interpretive comprehension, sequence, and evaluative comprehension. This article is one of four in this issue comprising the Teacher's Reading Seminar 1979. (SJL)