Over the past two decades there has been much written in the literature about the importance of reading and the importance of teaching students reading strategies to improve their reading comprehension. Reading is one of the most important academic tasks encountered by students. In higher education, students are exposed to a number of texts and…

Content-area literacy involves the use of research-based learning strategies that help students effectively and efficiently gain content knowledge. Its use is fundamental to all content areas, not just to those that rely heavily on printed materials. One of the major goals of content-area instruction is to produce critical thinkers and problem…

Describes an activity in which undergraduate students read an international publication to help them have a broader vision of the subject being studied, encourage constructive criticism, promote discussion, and stimulate efforts toward better oral and written communication in the students' native language. (JN)

Describes a way to teach summarization that can be applied to all content areas, and explains the factors that make it effective. Includes written guidelines to follow as the class learns how to write summaries. Notes that a formal test of these classroom procedures showed that repeated references and generalization were both effective in…

Describes using Think-Pair-Share (a three-step cooperative learning activity) to complement the sentence-generation phase of the Possible Sentences Activity, a highly recommended prereading vocabulary strategy. (SR)

Recommends making a trip to a large bookstore with future content area teachers to help them see the value of using trade books in their instruction as well as to renew their own interest in reading. (SR)

Notes that content area teachers who are required to complete a content area reading instruction course may begin with uncertainty regarding the usefulness of reading and language arts strategies. Describes three factors which may be important in developing and maintaining students' interest in a course in content area reading instruction. (RS)

A course for improving Dutch reading proficiency of entering university students was developed by the Linguistic and Literacy Studies department of the University of Tilburg in the Netherlands. Dutch secondary school students receive instruction in text-specific approaches to reading but no instruction in reading methodology. The course focuses on…

A competency test for writing that tests writing competency as an interdisciplinary skill called "academic writing" has been developed at The American University. The test focuses heavily on the subject and lightly on the writer or on the writer's sensibility. It avoids asking the student to write introspective "meditations," to take and defend a…

Describes teaching preservice teachers how to use one specific content-reading strategy (summarization) when teaching high school math. Incorporates written reflections of three preservice teachers to describe how the content-reading strategy was implemented during a course-related field experience in three separate high school math classrooms.…

Shows that students can be made aware of their "illusion of knowing" text material by having them read a three-paragraph factual passage with a carefully inserted phrase near the end which contradicts the main point of the passage. Notes that few students recognized the contradiction and that discussion afterward raised awareness of the…

Describes the rationale, advantages, and teaching procedures of the "talk through," a postreading strategy that helps high school and college students go beyond a simple retelling to transform, reorganize, and elaborate information and monitor their own understanding. (SR)

Describes the techniques of critical reading and how they were taught to college students in an honors writing class. (JT)

Argues that instructors involved in academic assistance must become familiar with the academic demands their students face in different content courses. Discusses four methods to gather such information, and shows how to identify relevant strategies for students to practice with actual course texts. (SR)

Describes how the introduction of cooperative learning principles improved peer interaction during group work among preservice teachers in an undergraduate content area reading course. (SR)